A context maintenance and retrieval model of organizational processes in free recall.

Recent events are easy to recall, but they also interfere with recall of more distant, non-recent events. Many computational models recall non-recent memories by using the context associated with those events as a cue. But some models do little to explain how people initially activate non-recent contexts in the service of accurate recall. We addressed this limitation by evaluating two candidate mechanisms within the Context-Maintenance and Retrieval model. The first is a Backward-Walk mechanism that iteratively applies a generate/recognize process to covertly retrieve progressively less recent items. The second is a Post-Encoding Pre-Production Reinstatement (PEPPR) mechanism that formally implements a metacognitive control process that reinstates non-recent contexts prior to retrieval. Models including these mechanisms make divergent predictions about the dynamics of response production and monitoring when recalling non-recent items. Before producing non-recent items, Backward-Walk cues covert retrievals of several recent items, whereas PEPPR cues few, if any, covert retrievals of that sort. We tested these predictions using archival data from a dual-list externalized free recall paradigm that required subjects to report all items that came to mind while recalling from the non-recent list. Simulations showed that only the model including PEPPR accurately predicted covert recall patterns. That same model fit the behavioral data well. These findings suggest that self-initiated context reinstatement plays an important role in recall of non-recent memories and provides a formal model that uses a parsimonious non-hierarchical context representation of how such reinstatement might occur.

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Die Entwicklung des strategischen Gedächtnisses im Laufe der Grundschulzeit

Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie ◽

10.1026/0049-8637.41.1.1 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michael Hünnerkopf ◽

Veronika Kron-Sperl ◽

Wolfgang Schneider

Keyword(s):

Free Recall ◽

Serial Learning

Zusammenfassung. Es werden Ergebnisse der Würzburger Längsschnittstudie dargestellt, in der der Entwicklungsverlauf des strategischen Gedächtnisses vom letzten Kindergartenjahr bis zum Ende der vierten Klasse in halbjährigem Abstand untersucht wurde. Für eine Stichprobe von ca. 100 Kindern konnte das in der Münchner LOGIK-Studie gefundene Muster des sprunghaften Strategieerwerbs für die Sortierstrategie bestätigt werden, während sich bei der Wiederholungsstrategie kein bedeutsamer Unterschied in der Art des Strategieerwerbs zeigte. Der kombinierte Gebrauch von Sortier- und Wiederholungsstrategie brachte Vorteile bei der Abrufleistung der Sort-Recall-Aufgabe, nicht aber der Serial Learning-Free-Recall-Aufgabe. Für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten wird der Einsatz einer Aufgabe zur Untersuchung der Strategieentwicklung empfohlen.

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Limitations to the Spacing Effect

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.52.4.257 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 257-263 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen ◽

Remy M. J. P. Rikers ◽

Henk G. Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Free Recall ◽

Phase Retrieval ◽

Incidental Learning ◽

Factor Model ◽

Recall Performance ◽

Spacing Effect ◽

Word List ◽

Intentional Learning ◽

Study Phase ◽

Learning Condition

Abstract. The spacing effect refers to the finding that memory for repeated items improves when the interrepetition interval increases. To explain the spacing effect in free-recall tasks, a two-factor model has been put forward that combines mechanisms of contextual variability and study-phase retrieval (e.g., Raaijmakers, 2003 ; Verkoeijen, Rikers, & Schmidt, 2004 ). An important, yet untested, implication of this model is that free recall of repetitions should follow an inverted u-shaped relationship with interrepetition spacing. To demonstrate the suggested relationship an experiment was conducted. Participants studied a word list, consisting of items repeated at different interrepetition intervals, either under incidental or under intentional learning instructions. Subsequently, participants received a free-recall test. The results revealed an inverted u-shaped relationship between free recall and interrepetition spacing in both the incidental-learning condition and the intentional-learning condition. Moreover, for intentionally learned repetitions, the maximum free-recall performance was located at a longer interrepetition interval than for incidentally learned repetitions. These findings are interpreted in terms of the two-factor model of spacing effects in free-recall tasks.

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Articulatory Rehearsal Is More Than Refreshing Memory Traces

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000179 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 60 (2) ◽

pp. 131-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ryoji Nishiyama ◽

Jun Ukita

Keyword(s):

Free Recall ◽

Recall Performance ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Verbal Information ◽

Free Recall Task ◽

Study Item ◽

Phonological Representations ◽

Memory Traces ◽

Short Period ◽

Serial Position Curves

This study examined whether additional articulatory rehearsal induced temporary durability of phonological representations, using a 10-s delayed nonword free recall task. Three experiments demonstrated that cumulative rehearsal between the offset of the last study item and the start of the filled delay (Experiments 1 and 3) and a fixed rehearsal of the immediate item during the subsequent interstimulus interval (Experiments 2 and 3) improved free recall performance. These results suggest that an additional rehearsal helps to stabilize phonological representations for a short period. Furthermore, the analyses of serial position curves suggested that the frequency of the articulation affected the durability of the phonological representation. The significance of these findings as clues of the mechanism maintaining verbal information (i.e., verbal working memory) is discussed.

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