title: Low reliability of perceptual priming: consequences for the interpretation of functional dissociations between explicit and implicit memory.
abstract: In this study, three experiments are presented that investigate the reliability of memory measures. In Experiment 1, the well-known dissociation between explicit (recall, recognition) and implicit memory (picture clarification) as a function of age in a sample of 335 persons aged between 65 and 95 was replicated. Test-retest reliability was significantly lower in implicit than in explicit measures. In Experiment 2, parallel-test reliabilities in a student sample confirmed the finding of Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, the reliability of cued recall and word stem completion was investigated. There were significant priming effects and a dissociation between explicit and implicit memory as a function of levels of processing. However, the reliability of implicit memory measures was again substantially lower than in explicit tests in all test conditions. As a consequence, differential reliabilities of direct and indirect memory tests should be considered as a possible determinant of dissociations between explicit and implicit memory as a function of experimental or quasi-experimental manipulations.
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland. beat@cortex.psych.ubc.ca
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Perrig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012660:Semantics; D014796:Visual Perception