title: The specificity of learned parallelism in dual-memory retrieval.
abstract: Retrieval of two responses from one visually presented cue occurs sequentially at the outset of dual-retrieval practice. Exclusively for subjects who adopt a mode of grouping (i.e., synchronizing) their response execution, however, reaction times after dual-retrieval practice indicate a shift to learned retrieval parallelism (e.g., Nino & Rickard, in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29, 373-388, 2003). In the present study, we investigated how this learned parallelism is achieved and why it appears to occur only for subjects who group their responses. Two main accounts were considered: a task-level versus a cue-level account. The task-level account assumes that learned retrieval parallelism occurs at the level of the task as a whole and is not limited to practiced cues. Grouping response execution may thus promote a general shift to parallel retrieval following practice. The cue-level account states that learned retrieval parallelism is specific to practiced cues. This type of parallelism may result from cue-specific response chunking that occurs uniquely as a consequence of grouped response execution. The results of two experiments favored the second account and were best interpreted in terms of a structural bottleneck model.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, tilo.strobach@hu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Tilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Strobach
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pashler
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rickard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult