Memory for recent words : a matter of short-term memory storage or long-term distinctiveness?

Resource Information

The work Memory for recent words : a matter of short-term memory storage or long-term distinctiveness? represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, http://bibfra.me/vocab/marc/Manuscript, Books.

Label

Memory for recent words : a matter of short-term memory storage or long-term distinctiveness?

Title remainder

a matter of short-term memory storage or long-term distinctiveness?

Statement of responsibility

by Noelle Wood

Creator

• Wood, Noelle L., (Noelle Lynette), 1968-

Subject

• Electronic books
• Electronic bookss
• Memory -- Testing
• Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Psychology
• Recollection (Psychology)
• Microfilm.

Language

eng

Summary

People tend to remember recent items in a series better than earlier ones, a finding known as the recency effect. We conducted three experiments to examine the basis of this effect in the free recall of word lists. When the final word in a list is followed by a 15-20s period in which subjects perform a distractor task before they recall the list, the recency effect is eliminated (e.g., Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966). The traditional explanation for this result has been that performance of the distractor task displaces the most recent items in a short-term memory store, thereby eliminating any advantage in memory for the final few list items. However, we found that if we blocked cumulative rehearsal of list items during list presentation, by requiring performance of a list-concurrent distractor task, a significant recency effect resulted despite the subsequent distractor-filled retention interval. This finding was consistent across three experiments in which we varied the type of distractor task performed, and occurred regardless of whether the retention-interval distractor task was the same as or different from that performed during list presentation. We proposed a modified short-term store account of this newly discovered recency effect that emphasizes the importance of subjects' rehearsal strategies. The primary alternative account of recency effects, distinctiveness theory (e.g., Glenberg et. al., 1980; Glenberg, 1987), is unable to explain the recency effect in this procedure because it occurred in the absence of either temporal or contextual distinctiveness of the final list item. Our findings suggest that the long-term distinctiveness of items in memory cannot be the sole source of recency effects

Additional physical form

Also available on the Internet.

Cataloging source

MUU

Degree

Ph. D.

Dissertation year

1996.

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Granting institution

University of Missouri-Columbia

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

specialized