Interplay of the production and picture superiority effects: a signal detection analysis.
Three experiments explored the interaction between the production effect (greater memory for produced compared to non-produced study items) and the picture superiority effect (greater memory for pictures compared to words). Pictures and words were presented in a blocked (E1) or mixed (E2, E3) design, each accompanied by an instruction to silently name (non-produced condition) or quietly mouth (produced condition) the corresponding referent. Memory was then tested for all study items as well as an equal number of foil items using a speeded (E1, E2) or self-paced (E3) yes-no recognition task. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 all revealed a small but reliable production × stimulus interaction. Production was also found to result in a liberal shift in response bias that could result in the overestimation of the production effect when measured using hits instead of sensitivity. Together our findings suggest that the application of multiple distinctive processes at study produces an especially discriminative memory trace at test, more so than the summation of each process individually.
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. jmfawcet@dal.ca
Jonathan M
JM
Fawcett
Chelsea K
CK
Quinlan
Tracy L
TL
Taylor
D003116:Color; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult