scholarly journals Different Impact of Perceptual Fluency and Schema Congruency on Sustainable Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7040
Author(s):  
Beat Meier ◽  
Michèle C. Muhmenthaler

Perceptual fluency, that is, the ease with which people perceive information, has diverse effects on cognition and learning. For example, when judging the truth of plausible but incorrect information, easy-to-read statements are incorrectly judged as true while difficult to read statements are not. As we better remember information that is consistent with pre-existing schemata (i.e., schema congruency), statements judged as true should be remembered better, which would suggest that fluency boosts memory. Another line of research suggests that learning information from hard-to-read statements enhances subsequent memory compared to easy-to-read statements (i.e., desirable difficulties). In the present study, we tested these possibilities in two experiments with student participants. In the study phase, they read plausible statements that were either easy or difficult to read and judged their truth. To assess the sustainability of learning, the test phase in which we tested recognition memory for these statements was delayed for 24 h. In Experiment 1, we manipulated fluency by presenting the statements in colors that made them easy or difficult to read. In Experiment 2, we manipulated fluency by presenting the statements in font types that made them easy or difficult to read. Moreover, in Experiment 2, memory was tested either immediately or after a 24 h delay. In both experiments, the results showed a consistent effect of schema congruency, but perceptual fluency did not affect sustainable learning. However, in the immediate test of Experiment 2, perceptual fluency enhanced memory for schema-incongruent materials. Thus, perceptual fluency can boost initial memory for schema-incongruent memory most likely due to short-lived perceptual traces, which are cropped during consolidation, but does not boost sustainable learning. We discuss these results in relation to research on the role of desirable difficulties for student learning, to effects of cognitive conflict on subsequent memory, and more generally in how to design learning methods and environments in a sustainable way.

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanne L Westerman ◽  
Marianne E Lloyd ◽  
Jeremy K Miller

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara M Rosner ◽  
Raúl López-Benítez ◽  
Maria C. D'Angelo ◽  
David R. Thomson ◽  
Bruce Milliken

The present study examines the effect of immediate repetition on recognition memory. In a series of 4 experiments, the study phase task was to name aloud a word that was immediately preceded by either the same word (repeated trials) or a different word (not-repeated trials). Across experiments, performance in the study phase demonstrated the anticipated benefit in naming times for repeated trials. More important, performance in the test phase revealed greater sensitivity for not-repeated than repeated trials. This effect was observed even when repetitions at study were separated by an unrelated word (Experiment 3), and was eliminated only when participants named both words in succession at study (Experiment 4). These findings fit nicely with the desirable difficulty principle (R. A. Bjork, 1994), as they demonstrate that items more easily processed at study (i.e., repeated items) are not as well-encoded as items that are more difficult to process at study (i.e., not-repeated items). Furthermore, the current study points to the possibility that attentional orienting in response to processing difficulty may constitute a broadly important cognitive control adaptation that impacts memory encoding.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert N. Collins ◽  
Tamara M Rosner ◽  
Bruce Milliken

Rosner, Lopez-Benitez, D’Angelo, Thomson, and Milliken (2017) reported a novel recognition memory effect using an immediate repetition method during the study phase. During each trial of an incidental study phase, participants named a target word that followed a prime word that had the same identity (repeated trials) or a different identity (not-repeated trials). Recognition in the following test phase was better for the not-repeated trials. In the present study, we examined the influence of prime encoding demands on this counter-intuitive effect. In Experiment 1, we instructed one group to simply ignore the prime, as in the original study. A second group completed a divided attention task on prime presentation. Recognition memory was better for not-repeated than repeated words in both groups. In Experiment 2, encoding of the prime varied across three groups: one group named each prime, a second group counted the vowels in each prime, and a third group made a semantic discrimination for each prime. Recognition was better for repeated than for not-repeated words in the semantic group and did not differ across conditions for the other two groups. Finally, in Experiment 3, we assessed memory for not-repeated primes in addition to memory for targets (as in Experiments 1 and 2). The results confirmed that poor memory for the primes plays a significant role in producing the previously described effects. The results are discussed in relation to transient processing adaptations that affect memory encoding.


Author(s):  
Chrisanthi Nega

Abstract. Four experiments were conducted investigating the effect of size congruency on facial recognition memory, measured by remember, know and guess responses. Different study times were employed, that is extremely short (300 and 700 ms), short (1,000 ms), and long times (5,000 ms). With the short study time (1,000 ms) size congruency occurred in knowing. With the long study time the effect of size congruency occurred in remembering. These results support the distinctiveness/fluency account of remembering and knowing as well as the memory systems account, since the size congruency effect that occurred in knowing under conditions that facilitated perceptual fluency also occurred independently in remembering under conditions that facilitated elaborative encoding. They do not support the idea that remember and know responses reflect differences in trace strength.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Buttliere

Over the last decade, there have been many suggestions to improve how scientists answer their questions, but far fewer attempt to improve the questions scientists are asking in the first place. The goal of the paper is then to examine and summarize synthesize the evidence on how to ask the best questions possible. First is a brief review of the philosophical and empirical literature on how the best science is done, which implicitly but not explicitly mentions the role of psychology and especially cognitive conflict. Then we more closely focus on the psychology of the scientist, finding that they are humans, engaged in a meaning making process, and that cognitive conflict is a necessary input for any learning or change in the system. The scientific method is, of course, a specialized meaning making process. We present evidence for this central role of cognitive conflict in science by examining the most discussed scientific papers between 2013 and 2017, which are, in general, controversial and about big problems (e.g., whether vaccines cause autism, how often doctors kill us with their mistakes). Toward the end we discuss the role of science in society, suggesting science itself is an uncertainty reducing and problem solving enterprise. From this basis we encourage scientists to take riskier stances on bigger topics, for the good of themselves and society generally.


Author(s):  
Hanna Maria Sievinen ◽  
Tuuli Ikäheimonen ◽  
Timo Pihkala

AbstractThe objective of this case-based study is to understand how the dyadic interaction between the key governance actors can influence the decision-making aimed at directing and controlling a family firm. The study provides evidence that dyadic interaction at the back stage of the formal governance process can offer a privileged position for the family firm owners who serve on the board, and the non-family member Chair of the Board, to influence decision-making before, after and between board meetings. The cases studied suggest that dyadic interactions can serve as preparation for formal board processes and complement and clarify them, yet they also have the potential to conflict with them. Dyadic interaction is also shown to offer important relational and emotional benefits that may not necessarily be achieved through larger group interaction. The findings suggest that although the actors can self-regulate their behaviour through informal rules, the rules may imperfectly address one risk of dyadic interaction—the reduced cognitive conflict among the board.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 719
Author(s):  
Monika Toth ◽  
Anke Sambeth ◽  
Arjan Blokland

The processing of pre-experimentally unfamiliar stimuli such as abstract figures and non-words is poorly understood. Here, we considered the role of memory strength in the discrimination process of such stimuli using a three-phase old/new recognition memory paradigm. Memory strength was manipulated as a function of the levels of processing (deep vs. shallow) and repetition. Behavioral results were matched to brain responses using EEG. We found that correct identification of the new abstract figures and non-words was superior to old item recognition when they were merely studied without repetition, but not when they were semantically processed or drawn. EEG results indicated that successful new item identification was marked by a combination of the absence of familiarity (N400) and recollection (P600) for the studied figures. For both the abstract figures and the non-words, the parietal P600 was found to differentiate between the old and new items (late old/new effects). The present study extends current knowledge on the processing of pre-experimentally unfamiliar figurative and verbal stimuli by showing that their discrimination depends on experimentally induced memory strength and that the underlying brain processes differ. Nevertheless, the P600, similar to pre-experimentally familiar figures and words, likely reflects improved recognition memory of meaningless pictorial and verbal items.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. eaat3702 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Johnson ◽  
L. Tang ◽  
Q. Yin ◽  
E. Asano ◽  
N. Ofen

Prevailing theories link prefrontal cortex (PFC) maturation to the development of declarative memory. However, the precise spatiotemporal correlates of memory formation in the developing brain are not known. We provide rare intracranial evidence that the spatiotemporal propagation of frontal activity supports memory formation in children. Seventeen subjects (6.2 to 19.4 years) studied visual scenes in preparation for a recognition memory test while undergoing direct cortical monitoring. Earlier PFC activity predicted greater accuracy, and subsecond deviations in activity flow between subregions predicted memory formation. Activity flow between inferior and precentral sites was refined during adolescence, partially explaining gains in memory. In contrast, middle frontal activity predicted memory independent of age. These findings show with subsecond temporal precision that the developing PFC links scene perception and memory formation and underscore the role of the PFC in supporting memory development.


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