Modern Memory Research: Recalling Tasks

• Modern memory research has evolved beyond the multi-store model, post-1970.
• Principles of accurate remembering include elaborateness of encoding and distinctiveness as well as encoding specificity.
• Working memory is a key area, rescuing the idea of a short-term store.
• False memory is another facet which involves remembering things that never occurred.
• Implicit memory concerns unconscious influences on memory.
• Interdisciplinary approaches integrate memory research with other fields like clinical and developmental psychology.

Remembering Tasks

• Recall can be either cued or uncued.
• An example list of words for recall includes: BOAT, FRIDGE, WATER, TRUMPET, SWEATER.
• In uncued recall, the task is to remember the words on the list.
• In cued recall, a prompt is given, such as "Which word is something that you wear?"
• Recognition involves identifying previously studied items.
• An example list of words for recognition includes: GINGER, DESK, NIGHT, PAPER, CHIMP.
• In a recognition task, studied items are mixed with new items, and one has to identify if a word is old or new

Items and Context

• Items are the things participants devote attention to.
• Context includes the other things that occur when a participant attends to the item, such as physical surroundings or how an item was processed.
• The item is the focal point and is more elaborately and distinctively encoded compared to surrounding context.
• Recall requires one to remember the item, given a context.
• Recognition requires one to remember the context given the item.

Dual-Process Model of Recognition

• Accurate recognition occurs due to a feeling of familiarity and memory search/retrieval of the context.
• When given an item, a participant assesses its familiarity.
• If familiarity is high, respond "Old" quickly, if familiarity is low, respond "New" quickly.
• If familiarity is medium, a participant searches for context.
• If they retrieve the context, they respond "Old", if they don’t, they respond "New"

Feeling of Familiarity

• Familiarity is caused by intra-item integration, which refers to the speed or fluency of stimulus perception.
• Items seen before are represented in memory and allow fast perception.
• Context retrieval depends on prior extra-item elaboration.
• Extra-item elaboration involves integrating an item with its context.
• Whether the experience with the item is distinctive also affects the context retrieval.
• A search for context will be successful if extra-item elaboration is high or the event is unique.

Remember/Know Demo

• Recognition judgments rely on experiencing a feeling of familiarity for a stimulus.
• These feelings are measured by the proportion of "Know" judgments, and represents Mandler's Intra-Item Integration.
• Experiencing a feeling of familiarity for a stimulus is not influenced by "Depth of Encoding”.
• Recognition judgements also rely on recollection of details about the previous encounter with a stimulus.
• Recollection is measured by the proportion of "Remember" judgments, and represents Mandler's Extra-Item Elaboration.
• Deeper encoding should increase the likelihood of recollecting extra-item details.
• Words are encoded by generating a synonym which is semantic encoding, or generating a rhyme which is phonemic encoding.
• In the test phase, studied words are mixed with non-studied words.
• You judge whether you Remember due to actual recollection or simply Know due to familiarity that it was presented before.

Recognition vs Recall

• Recognition is easier than recall because people are more likely to recognize an item than recall it.
• High frequency items like apple are better recalled whereas low frequency items like pomegranate are better recognized.
• Maintenance rehearsal is good for recognition but not recall.
• List organization is great for recall but not for recognition.
• The Dual-Process Theory of Recognition states that recognition judgments rely on feelings of familiarity for a stimulus, whereas recall does not.
• The Generate/Recognize Model: recall involves generating possible alternatives and recognizing the alternative was studied, but recognition only involves recognition.
• Based on the Generate/Recognize Model, recall depends on generating candidates; recognition doesn’t.
• For recall, high frequency items are easy to generate based on the Generate/Recognize Model.
• For recognition, an encounter with a low frequency item is more distinctive, so retrieval of context is easier based on the Extra-Item Elaboration Part of Dual-Process Theory.
• Based on the Dual-Process Theory, repeated exposure to stimuli increases intra-item integration which boosts feelings of familiarity.
• Repeated exposure is no help for recall, which does not depend on Feelings of Familiarity.
• Based on the Generate/Recognize Model, list organization facilitates the generation of candidates.
• Providing structure for learning enables organized efforts for generating the right candidates, providing major benefits for recall.
• Recall of a word should never be better than recognition of a word because recall requires an extra step.

Tulving and Thompson (1973)

• Study Phase 1 involves studying word pairs.
• Study Phase 2 involves generating associates given a word.
• Their Task was to judge which words were presented earlier in Study Phase 1.
• Participants typically performed badly at recognizing words they generated in Phase 2, tending to fail to recognize having studied "light" and "chair" before.
• Given associated words from Phase 1, participants are required to recall the word that appeared on the righthand-side of phase 1.
• People were more likely to recall words seen in Phase 1 than they were to recognize those same words in the first memory test.
• It is possible for people to recall a word that they failed to recognize.
• An alternative theory for why recognition is so much easier than recall most of the time is Encoding Specificity.
• Remembering depends on whether retrieval cues are strongly and uniquely associated with the event one is trying to remember.
• The item is the focal point and is more elaborately encoded than the context.
• Also, the Item is more uniquely associated with a specific event in memory.

Recall vs. Recognition Cues

• Recall uses the context as a cue to remember the item, but is not richly encoded or uniquely associated, making it a bad cue.
• Recognition uses the item as a cue to remember the context, with the item being richly encoded and uniquely associated, making it a better cue.