Implicit and explicit memory for compound words.
Subjects studied visually presented compound words (e.g., TOOTHPASTE, HEARTACHE) and then received a recognition, perceptual identification, or word-fragment completion test that contained old, recombined (e.g., TOOTHACHE), and partially and completely new words. False recognitions increased with the increasing number of previously studied components; however, priming in perceptual identification occurred only for old words. Priming in word-fragment completion occurred for old and recombined words. Reducing the time available to solve word fragments, from 20 sec to 5 sec, did not affect the pattern of results; it is therefore unlikely that priming for recombined words resulted from the use of a recollection-based strategy. Memory tasks that involve a conceptual component access memories that are constructed from parts; memory tasks that are primarily perceptual do not access such memories.
Reinitz
M T
MT
Department of Psychology, Boston University, MA 02215.
Demb
J B
JB
D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D010465:Perception; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014825:Vocabulary