The word-frequency paradox for recall/recognition occurs for pictures.
A yes-no recognition task and two recall tasks were conducted using pictures of high and low familiarity ratings. Picture familiarity had analogous effects to word frequency, and replicated the word-frequency paradox in recall and recognition. Low-familiarity pictures were more recognizable than high-familiarity pictures, pure lists of high-familiarity pictures were more recallable than pure lists of low-familiarity pictures, and there was no effect of familiarity for mixed lists. These results are consistent with the predictions of the Search of Associative Memory (SAM) model.
Karlsen
Paul Johan
PJ
Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Box 1094, 0317 Oslo, Norway. p_j_karlsen@yahoo.com
Snodgrass
Joan Gay
JG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning