Recognition memory for novel stimuli: the structural regularity hypothesis.
Early studies of human memory suggest that adherence to a known structural regularity (e.g., orthographic regularity) benefits memory for an otherwise novel stimulus (e.g., G. A. Miller, 1958). However, a more recent study suggests that structural regularity can lead to an increase in false-positive responses on recognition memory tests (B. W. A. Whittlesea & L. D. Williams, 1998). In the present study the authors attempted to identify the circumstances under which structural regularity benefits old-new discrimination and those under which it leads to an increase in false-positive responses. The highly generalizable tendency shown here is for structural regularity to benefit old-new discrimination. The increase in false-positive responses for structurally regular novel items may be limited to situations in which regularity is confounded with similarity to studied items.
Cleary
Anne M
AM
Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876, USA. anne.cleary@colostate.edu
Morris
Alison L
AL
Langley
Moses M
MM
D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics