Visual distraction during word-list retrieval does not consistently disrupt memory.

Glenberg et al. (1998) reported that episodic memory is impaired by visual distraction and argued that this effect is consistent with a trade-off between internal and external attentional focus. However, their demonstration that visual distraction impairs memory for lists used 15 consecutive word-lists, with analysis only of mid-list items, and has never been replicated.

Do stimulus--action associations contribute to repetition priming?

Despite evidence that response learning makes a major contribution to repetition priming, the involvement of response representations at the level of motor actions remains uncertain. Levels of response representation were investigated in 4 experiments that used different tasks at priming and test. Priming for stimuli that required congruent responses across 2 tasks was compared with that for stimuli requiring incongruent responses.

How should witnesses regulate the accuracy of their identification decisions: one step forward, two steps back?

Explorations of memory accuracy control normally contrast forced-report with free-report performance across a set of items and show a trade-off between memory quantity and accuracy. However, this memory control framework has not been tested with lineup identifications that may involve rejection of all alternatives. A large-scale (N = 439) lineup study explored regulation of identification decisions either with an initial forced-choice decision followed by free-report decision or with the reverse.

Improving eyewitness identification accuracy by screening out those who say they don't know.

Improving eyewitness identification evidence remains a key priority for research. Basic laboratory research has consistently demonstrated that allowing participants to withhold answers about which they are unsure leads to improved accuracy. Surprisingly, this approach has not been the subject of comprehensive investigation in the eyewitness identification literature.

No evidence of age-related increases in unconscious plagiarism during free recall.

In three experiments younger and older participants took part in a group generation task prior to a delayed recall task. In each, participants were required to recall the items that they had generated, avoiding plagiarism errors. All studies showed the same pattern: older adults did not plagiarise their partners any more than younger adults did.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in recognition is absent under time pressure.

We examined retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in recognition from a dual-process perspective, which suggests that recognition depends on the outputs of a fast familiarity process and a slower recollection process. In order to determine the locus of the RIF effect, we manipulated the availability of recollection at retrieval via response deadlines. The standard RIF effect was observed in a self-paced test but was absent in a speeded test, in which judgments presumably depended on familiarity more than recollection.

Eye closure reduces the cross-modal memory impairment caused by auditory distraction.

Eyewitnesses instructed to close their eyes during retrieval recall more correct and fewer incorrect visual and auditory details. This study tested whether eye closure causes these effects through a reduction in environmental distraction. Sixty participants watched a staged event before verbally answering questions about it in the presence of auditory distraction or in a quiet control condition.

Effects of study list composition on the word frequency effect and metacognitive attributions in recognition memory.

In two experiments, study-list composition was manipulated and its impact was observed on metacognitive judgements associated with recognition hits (Hs) and false alarms (FAs). Both studies involved recognition of high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words, and focused on the FA portion of the word frequency effect. Our hypothesis was that participants can actively reject items that are distinctive from the study list, and that this effect may be strong enough to overcome the FA word frequency effect.

Temporal distance and person memory: thinking about the future changes memory for the past.

Psychological distance has been shown to influence how people construe an event such that greater distance produces high-level construal (characterized by global or holistic processing) and lesser distance produces low-level construal (characterized by detailed or feature-based processing). The present research tested the hypothesis that construal level has carryover effects on how information about an event is retrieved from memory. Two experiments manipulated temporal distance and found that greater distance (high-level construal) improves face recognition and increases retrieval of the abstract features of an event, whereas lesser distance (low-level construal) impairs face recognition and increases retrieval of the concrete details of an event.

Global subjective memorability and the strength-based mirror effect in recognition memory.

Between-list manipulations of memory strength through repetition commonly generate a mirror effect, with more hits and fewer false alarms for strengthened items. However, this pattern is rarely seen with within-list manipulations of strength. In three experiments, we investigated the conditions under which a within-list mirror effect of strength (items presented once or thrice) is observed.

Source credibility and idea improvement have independent effects on unconscious plagiarism errors in recall and generate-new tasks.

Unconscious plagiarism occurs when people try to generate new ideas or when they try to recall their own ideas from among a set generated by a group. In this study, the factors that independently influence these two forms of plagiarism error were examined. Participants initially generated solutions to real-world problems in 2 domains of knowledge in collaboration with a confederate presented as an expert in 1 domain.

Investigating strength and frequency effects in recognition memory using type-2 signal detection theory.

Criterion- versus distribution-shift accounts of frequency and strength effects in recognition memory were investigated with Type-2 signal detection receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, which provides a measure of metacognitive monitoring. Experiment 1 demonstrated a frequency-based mirror effect, with a higher hit rate and lower false alarm rate, for low frequency words compared with high frequency words. In Experiment 2, the authors manipulated item strength with repetition, which showed an increased hit rate but no effect on the false alarm rate.

Sizing up the associative account of repetition priming.

Three studies which test an associative account of repetition priming in a size comparison task are reported. Congruence of decision between priming and test affected performance when the priming task and test tasks were the same but not when they differed. This congruence effect was unaffected by the proportion of trials with congruent responses.

The effects of precedence on Navon-induced processing bias in face recognition.

Macrae and Lewis (2002) showed that repeated reporting of the global dimension of Navon stimuli improved performance in a subsequent face identification task, whilst reporting the features of the Navon stimuli impaired performance. Using a face composite task, which is assumed to require featural processing, Weston and Perfect (2005) showed the complementary pattern: Featural responding to Navon letters speeded performance. However, both studies used Navon stimuli with global precedence, in which the overall configuration is easier to report than the features.

Differential effects of aging on executive and automatic inhibition.

One of the major accounts of cognitive aging states that age effects are related to a deficiency of inhibitory mechanisms (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Given that inhibition has traditionally been associated with the frontal cortex, and that the frontal cortex deteriorates early with age (Raz, 2000), this is consistent with the frontal hypothesis of aging (West, 1996). However, not all inhibitory processes require executive control, and so they are not all equally supported by the frontal cortex.

Why do I always have the best ideas? The role of idea quality in unconscious plagiarism.

Groups of individuals often work together to generate solutions to a problem. Subsequently, one member of the group can plagiarise another either by recalling that person's idea as their own (recall-own plagiarism), or by generating a novel solution that duplicates a previous idea (generate-new plagiarism). The current study examines the extent to which these forms of plagiarism are influenced by the quality of the ideas.

The effects of repeated idea elaboration on unconscious plagiarism.

Unconscious plagiarism occurs in a recall task when someone presents someone else's idea as his or her own. Recent research has shown that the likelihood of such an error is inflated if the idea is improved during the retention interval, but not if it is imagined. Here, we explore the effects of repeating the elaboration phase during the retention interval.

How can we help witnesses to remember more? It's an (eyes) open and shut case.

Five experiments tested the idea that instructing a witness to close their eyes during retrieval might increase retrieval success. In Experiment 1 participants watched a video, before a cued-recall test for which they were either instructed to close their eyes, or received no-instructions. Eye-closure led to an increase in correct cued-recall, with no increase in incorrect responses.

Whose idea was that? Source monitoring for idea ownership following elaboration.

Unconscious plagiarism (UP) occurs when an individual claims a previously experienced idea as their own. Previous studies have explored the cognitive precursors of such errors by manipulating the ways that ideas are thought about between initial idea exposure and later test. While imagining other's ideas does not increase rates of UP relative to control on either a recall-own or generate-new task, improving others' ideas substantially increases such errors in the recall-own task.

The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance.

Recent work has demonstrated that performance on a simultaneous target-present photographic line-up can be enhanced by prior global processing orientation, and hindered by prior local processing orientation induced by processing Navon letter stimuli. A series of studies explore the generality of this processing bias effect using either videotaped scenarios or live interactions. Five experiments demonstrate that these effects are seen across a range of test stimuli, test formats, and test instructions.

Counterintuitive and alternative moves choice in the Water Jug task.

MOVE problems, like the Tower of London (TOL) or the Water Jug (WJ) task, are planning tasks that appear structurally similar and are assumed to involve similar cognitive processes. Carder et al. [Carder, H.

Visual memory for shapes in deaf signers and nonsigners and in hearing signers and nonsigners: atypical lateralization and enhancement.

Deaf and hearing individuals who either used sign language (signers) or not (nonsigners) were tested on visual memory for objects and shapes that were difficult to describe verbally with a same/different matching paradigm. The use of 4 groups was designed to permit a separation of effects related to sign language use (signers vs. nonsigners) and effects related to auditory deprivation (deaf vs.

Effects of processing bias on the recognition of composite face halves.

Research has shown that face recognition accuracy can be improved by prior global processing and impaired by prior local processing (Macrae & Lewis, 2002). The aim of this study was to test the processing bias account of face recognition, using the composite face task (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987), a test of featural recognition. Undergraduate volunteers (N = 75) participated in a between-subjects design that tested their ability to recognize face halves within a composite, following either global or local Navon processing or a control task.

"Deep" language disorders in nonfluent progressive Aphasia: an evaluation of the "summation" account of semantic errors across language production tasks.

This study focuses on the pattern of impairments seen in a new case KT, diagnosed with nonfluent progressive aphasia (NFPA), a degenerative disorder of language production. A systematic examination of KT's performance on a wide range of language production tasks (i.e.