title: The word-frequency paradox for recall/recognition occurs for pictures.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Box 1094, 0317 Oslo, Norway. p_j_karlsen@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Paul Johan
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Karlsen
authors.forename: Joan Gay
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Snodgrass
mesh_terms: 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