R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Watkins, Michael J."

Browsing by Author "Watkins, Michael J."

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A demonstration of belief perseverance for hypothetical social theories
(1984) Sechler, Elizabeth S.; Anderson, Craig A.; Howell, William C.; Watkins, Michael J.
Two groups of subjects were induced to form opposing beliefs about the relationship between two social variables, preference for risk and performance in firefighter jobs. Specifically, one group created a causal explanation for a positive relationship (high risk preference related to high performance and low risk preference related to low performance), whereas the other created an explanation for the opposite, negative relationship. Subsequent assessment of subjects' own beliefs revealed a tendency to believe in whichever relationship they had explained. Both groups then examined and evaluated inconclusive "case histories" (half supporting a positive relationship and half supporting a negative relationship). A new assessment of subjects' beliefs showed that this new evidence had little if any effect; subjects' evaluations of the new evidence gave no indication that the groups had evaluated the evidence differently. Why beliefs that are newly formed, and based on no valid evidence survive non-supportive evidence is unclear, but a few ideas are briefly discussed and possible directions for future research are proposed.
An investigation into the decline in priming of word completion: A test of the number-of-completions hypothesis
(1990) Gibson, Janet Marie; Watkins, Michael J.
The prior presentation of a word enhances the probability that the word will be identified from a degraded cue. This enhancement, or priming, may occur without recollection of the prior presentation. In investigations of the effect of delay on nonrecollective memory, priming of word completion may occur at long delays after the initial word presentation (e.g., HORIZON) when the degraded cue contains scattered letters (e.g., R Z) but not when the degraded cue contains the initial letters (e.g., HOR$\underline{\qquad}).$ These particular cues are known as fragments and stems respectively. Priming of fragment completion may occur weeks after the study presentation whereas priming of stem completion may disappear within hours. The present research investigated this apparent discrepancy between the duration of priming effect for the two types of cues by examining completion of both within the same experiment. Particularly, it tested the hypothesis that the decline in priming of completion is greater when cues have many possible completions. Subjects completed fragments that have 1 completion or fragments and stems that have more than 7 completions. Priming was measured over a 48-hour delay interval in each of 4 experiments. Priming of stem completion declined at a greater rate than priming of fragment completion over the 48-hour interval, thus replicating within a single experiment the previous between-experiment findings. The number-of-completions hypothesis was not rejected in Experiments 1 and 3 because the decline in priming of multiple fragment completion did not differ from the decline in priming of stem or unique fragment completion. However, in Experiment 2 the decline in priming of multiple fragment completion differed from the decline in priming of stem completion but not from the decline in priming of unique fragment completion. Thus, the number-of-completions hypothesis may not be a viable explanation of the differential effect of delay on priming of fragment and stem completion. When the same words served in both the unique fragment and stem conditions, the effect of delay on priming of completion was similar for both conditions (Experiment 4).
Characterizing the representations mediating long-term cross-modality priming for words
(2000) Ziemer, Heidi Elizabeth; Watkins, Michael J.
The present studies attempt to characterize the representations that support long-term, cross-modality priming, with the main hypothesis being that auditory-to-visual priming for words is supported by phonological representations. The purpose of Experiments 1 and 2 was to develop and refine an experimental paradigm for manipulating phonological processing. Results indicate that, regardless of study condition, semantic or phonological-articulatory, using homophonic nonwords as foils in a lexical decision task can eliminate phonological priming of both the speed and accuracy of responding. The purpose of Experiment 3 was to apply this paradigm to cross-modality priming. To the extent that it is mediated by phonological representations, cross-modality priming should be reduced in the context of homophonic foils. The findings support the hypothesis: Robust same-modality priming was obtained in both the reaction time and error data, whereas cross-modality priming was not significant. There was, however, a small amount of cross-modality priming in the RT data, prompting further exploration of this issue. Experiment 4 included type of nonword foil, nonhomophonic and homophonic, as a between-participants variable. The study task was changed from tangibility judgments to naming aloud. The pattern of results was similar to that of Experiment 3, with robust cross-modality priming when foils were nonhomophonic nonwords, and very attenuated cross-modality priming when the foils sounded like words. In Experiment 5, visual-to-visual and auditory-to-visual priming for words was compared in the lexical decision task when foils were nonhomophonic nonwords or homophonic nonwords. A recognition memory condition was also included. Cross-modality priming for words was about half as large as repetition priming when nonhomophonic nonwords served as the foils, but was virtually eliminated in the context of homophonic nonwords. Same-modality priming was unaffected by foil manipulation, and there were no modality differences in the recognition condition. Taken together, this pattern of findings suggests that visual-to-visual word priming is mediated largely by orthographic representations, and auditory-to-visual cross-modality word priming is mediated largely by phonological representations.
Choosing among alternatives with uncertain outcomes: effects of prior cuing and estimation requirements
(1982) Kerkar, Shanta P.; Howell, William C.; Watkins, Michael J.; Lane, David M.
The present study sought to clarify the influence of frequency and probability estimation on subsequent predictive choice performance. The experimental design involved a manipulation of quality of prior estimations via combinations of instructional set and response requirement. The results demonstrated that frequency judgments were consistently superior to probability judgments regardless of initial frequency or probability set. However, accuracy of predictive choices did not directly reflect the subjects’ estimation-performance. All experimental groups made better choices than a control group which had no set or estimation requirement; however, the experimental groups did not differ among themselves in choice performance. The latter finding suggests that estimation enhanced choice accuracy by cuing information that was accumulated in a similar fashion by all experimental groups: the record of event frequency. Some possible determinants of predictive choice for future practical and theoretical consideration are discussed.
Control and organization in primary memory: Evidence from suffix effects
(1999) Bloom, Lance C.; Watkins, Michael J.
This investigation is concerned with the control and organization of the "psychological present," or primary memory, and specifically with the implications of such control and organization for the suffix effect. The suffix effect arises when a nominally irrelevant speech item, or "suffix," is appended to a spoken sequence of items, and it consists of an impairment in the recall of the most recent items in the sequence, especially the last item (e.g., Crowder, 1967; Dallett, 1965). The dominant explanation of the suffix effect has been in terms of "bottom-up" masking in general (e.g., Nairne, 1990) and precategorical acoustic masking in particular (e.g., Crowder & Morton, 1969; Crowder, 1978, 1983; Greene & Crowder, 1984). The current version of this explanation is "two-component" theory, wherein the precategorical masking explanation is confined to the terminal component of the suffix effect (i.e., at the last position of the sequence), with the preterminal component being open to influences of top-down or conceptually-based interpretation and strategy (see Greene, 1992 for a review). Reported here are 12 experiments, each of which provides evidence inconsistent with two-component theory. Experiments 1--4 failed to replicate the principal findings proffered in support of the theory; Experiments 5--11 extended some of the findings of the first four experiments by showing additional evidence of postcategorical influences on the terminal suffix effect; and Experiment 12 demonstrated a suffix effect with static visual presentation. These findings, and indeed those in the suffix effect literature in general, are interpreted along the lines of the now largely ignored perceptual grouping account proposed by Kahneman (1973; Kahneman & Henik, 1981).
Discriminating information source: Inference versus observation
(1990) Arnoult, Lynn H.; Watkins, Michael J.
People rely extensively on inference as a source of information, and sometimes they confuse inference with observation. Specifically, inferred information is sometimes mistaken for observed information. Such confusion of inference with observation can be problematic, especially if the inferred information is erroneous. One factor that might affect the probability of mistaking inference for observation is the degree of consistency between inferred information and subsequently encountered information. The present research was designed to test this possibility. In three experiments subjects made inferences on the basis of presented information, and then were given additional information that was varied in consistency with the information they had inferred. Finally, subjects were tested for accuracy in discriminating the source (inference vs. observation) of the inferred information. As expected, accuracy was lower when subsequently presented information was relatively consistent with inferred information than when it was relatively inconsistent with inferred information. This effect did not vary with delay between making an inference and attempting to discriminate information source. It is concluded that consistency of inferred information with subsequently encountered information can affect the probability of mistaking inference for observation, with the probability of error increasing as consistency increases.
Effect of list length predictability on the suffix effect: A reconsideration of two-component theory
(1998) Bloom, Lance Christopher; Watkins, Michael J.
The suffix effect refers to the forgetting of the last few items of a just-spoken list caused by appending a nominally irrelevant item. Several theorists hold that rememberer strategy affects only the preterminal component of the suffix effect and on this basis they have advocated a two-component theory of the effect. This theory has received significant support from the finding that rendering list length unpredictable eliminates the preterminal component while having little if any effect on the terminal component. Contrary evidence is reported here. Specifically, a robust preterminal suffix effect is demonstrated in each of three experiments regardless of list length predictability. The discrepancy with the earlier finding might be due, in part at least, to a confound in the earlier research between knowledge of list length during presentation and knowledge of list length during recall. Other evidence taken as supporting two-component theory is reviewed and similarly found wanting.
Effect of social context on recognition memory
(1996) Schneider, Dana M.; Watkins, Michael J.
Experiments reported here examine the susceptibility of memory to social influence. In Experiments 1 and 2, the subject's recognition memory for a list of words was tested in the presence of another respondent, with the two taking turns to report their responses aloud. The other respondent was another subject in the first experiment and a confederate in the second. In Experiment 2, each response was supplemented by a confidence rating according to a 3-point scale. In Experiment 3, rather than responding aloud, subjects recorded their answers in a booklet which contained the responses of two pseudosubjects. In all experiments responses were biased in the direction of preceding responses of other respondent(s). Conformity was greater when the word had not been studied than when it had. Thus, conformity of (reported) memory can readily be demonstrated in the laboratory. Such findings of conformity illustrate one source of false memory.
Event description by two subtypes of learning disabled children
(1984) Bailey, Vonda; Watkins, Michael J.; Loveland, Katherine A.; Brelsford, John W.; Burnett, Sarah A.
Event description by two subtypes of nine to thirteen year old learning disabled children (math and generally disabled) was examined. Children viewed a narrative or a puppet show, then were asked to either describe of enact what had happened. Generally disabled children enacted the events as accurately as nondisabled children, indicating that generally disabled children understood and remembered events as well as nondisabled children. However, their descriptions contained omissions, circumlocutions, and word substitutions, reflecting a subtle verbal deficit. Math disabled children were less accurate than nondisabled children describing a puppet show, but not in the other conditions, suggesting they have difficulty understanding the emotions and motives of the characters. Math disabled children were proficient in using language. Thus, the two learning disabled subtypes performed differently in event description, validating the subtyping criteria used in this experiment, as well as the concept of heterogeneity among the learning disabled population.
Memory for word presentations: The effects of word commonness and memorization strategy
(1989) Kim, Kyungmi; Watkins, Michael J.
A list of words that occur frequently in everyday language is more recallable than a list of words that occur only rarely. This "word frequency" effect is eliminated, or even reversed slightly, if the common and rare words are mixed together in the same list. This pattern of results is replicated in Experiment 1. The remaining experiments evaluated the hypothesis that the interaction between type of list and word frequency is the result of subjects focusing on the low frequency words during study of the mixed lists. The hypothesis received limited support when a differential-attention strategy was made less likely by requiring that an orienting task be performed during presentation of the list (Experiment 2) and strong support when such a strategy was made even less likely by presenting the words in an incidental memory procedure (Experiments 3 and 4). In the latter case, the high frequency words held no more of a recall advantage over the low frequency words when frequency was varied between lists than when it was varied within lists.
Nonrecollective memory: The effects of context shifts and study tasks
(1989) Brooks, John Oliver, III; Watkins, Michael J.
An experience can influence performance on subsequent tasks whether they require conscious recollection (e.g., the judgment of whether something has been previously encountered) or not (e.g., completing word puzzles). What kind of study activities influence performance on nonrecollective memory tests? A proposed resolution to this issue is the task-demand principle, which states that performance on a task is determined by the degree to which the demands of the task match the demands of the original experience. According to the principle, tasks can be categorized along a continuum ranging from data-driven tasks, which require thought about the physical aspects of an item, through conceptually-driven tasks, which require thought about the meaning of an item. Although findings with several types of test have been cited in support of the task-demand principle, the present focus is on two tests that have figured prominently: Perceptual identification, a data-driven task that involves rapid identification of visually degraded words, and word stem completion, a largely data-driven task that involves completing word stems (e.g., WIN for WINDOW) with the first word that comes to mind. The experiments investigated two effects germane to the task-demand principle: (a) the effect of altering, between study and test, the context in which an item is presented and (b) the effect of conceptually-driven study tasks. Contrary to the task-demand principle, context effects were obtained with perceptual identification and word stem completion after subjects engaged in conceptually-driven tasks: Performance was better when the study context was preserved for both perceptual identification and stem completion. Moreover, such context effects for perceptual identification were sensitive to the difficulty of a conceptually-driven task. Finally, perceptual identification performance benefited from a conceptually-driven study task even in the absence of any context manipulations while remaining virtually unaffected by a concurrent data-driven manipulation of typography. These findings limit the generality of the task-demand principle as an account of nonrecollective memory.
Recognition without recollection
(1985) Easterlin, Patricia Deupont; Watkins, Michael J.; Martin, Randi C.; Brelsford, John W.
Four experiments were conducted to explore the effects of prior exposure to word stimuli on a) identification of the words under perceptually impoverished conditions, and b) recognition of the words as having been previously presented. In Experiment 1, distributing a two-second study duration between two one-second or four-second presentations as opposed to concentrating it into a single two-second presentation was found to enhance perceptual identification but have no reliable effect on recognition. Experiment 2 showed that changing modalities between study and test presentations (i.e. from visual to auditory or auditory to visual) reduces but does not eliminate the effect study presentation has on perceptual identification. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that identification both of word-fragment cues and of tachistoscopic stimuli declines sharply over very brief study-to-test intervals but then stabilizes for intervals of at least 24 hours.
Selective remembering in an orienting-task paradigm
(2004) Campbell, Madeline; Watkins, Michael J.
The levels-of-processing effect is extraordinarily, even puzzlingly, robust. It occurs even when a memory test is expected, ample study time is given, and deep processing is encouraged regardless of orienting task. Thus, processing appears to be "fixed" by the requirements of the orienting task. This enigma is explored in a selective remembering procedure involving the recall of words of arbitrarily varying values. After verifying that selectivity is substantially localized at the encoding rather than the recall stage of the remembering process (Experiment 1), recall was found to be selective despite the imposition of an orienting task and regardless of whether item values were assigned according to the items' semantic category (Experiment 2) or entirely at random (Experiment 3). Indeed, no evidence was found for any effect at all of orienting tasks on selectivity (Experiment 4). Orienting tasks do not, after all, universally dominate the encoding process.
Similarity as an organizing principle in primary memory
(1990) LeCompte, Denny Charles; Watkins, Michael J.
The role of stimulus similarity as an organizing principle in immediate memory was explored in a series of experiments. Each experiment involved the presentation of a short sequence of items. The items were drawn from two distinct physical categories and arranged such that the category changed after each pair of items. Following list presentation, one item was re-presented, and the subjects tried to recall the item that had directly followed it in the list. Recall was more probable if the re-presented item and the item to be recalled had been presented in the same sensory modality (i.e., auditory or visual), the same voice, or in the same spatial location than if they had been presented in a different modality, voice, or location. It is concluded that stimulus similarity plays a broader role in organizing immediate memory than is generally assumed.
Specificity of transfer-appropriate processing in indirect memory
(2004) Huang, Yanliu; Watkins, Michael J.
Studies of hyperspecific transfer of processing in indirect memory tests are reviewed. A procedure for deriving a comprehensive assessment of priming of indirect memory is then proposed. The procedure is illustrated in Experiment 1, in which prior study of randomly selected words presented with no item-specific context and what could be construed as neutral instructions primed their identification more in a perceptual (fragment completion) task than in a conceptual (semantic cuing) task. Experiments 2 and 3 failed to provide evidence for hyperspecific (i.e., sublexical) transfer of processing in an indirect memory task that called for rapid identification of gradually presented words. Experiment 4 also failed to provide evidence of hyperspecific transfer of processing, despite following more closely the procedure of an experiment (Hayman & Tulving, 1989, Experiment 4) that has provided such evidence. It appears that hyperspecific transfer of processing may be more elusive than sometimes assumed.
The effect of specific practice on the capacity demands of detecting a target letter among two types of distractors
(1984) Kleiss, James Alan; Lane, David M.; Howell, William C.; Watkins, Michael J.
Although there is considerable evidence that visual stimuli are processed in a parallel and capacity-free manner, recent data suggest that letter perception is a limited capacity process in at least some situations. Research on practice effects in perception has been interpreted as indicating that perceptual tasks that initially demand attentional capacity can be performed in an automatic and capacity-free manner after much consistent practice. The present research investigated the effect of practice on the attentional demands of processing a multi-stimulus letter display. The results showed that practice did not eliminate capacity limitations although there was evidence of a decline in the capacity demands of the feature integration stage of perception early in practice. The fact that capacity limitations generally persisted throughout the experiment suggests that there is at least one other source of limited capacity processing in letter perception and that this source is much less affected by practice.
The persistence of echoic memory: evidence from the effect of presentation modality in immediate and final recall tasks
(1984) Brems, Douglas J.; Watkins, Michael J.; Lane, David M.; Brelsford, John W.
The effect of presentation modality on recall was studied in two experiments. In the first, lists of alternating auditory and visual words were presented at a 15-second rate, with a visual distractor task interpolated between each word. Recall was asked for immediately after each list, and again after all lists had been presented. A large modality effect (auditory advantage) was obtained in immediate recall but no difference between modalities was found in final recall. In the second experiment, this modality effect was attenuated with the use of phonologically similar words, and the effect was replicated with a fast presentation rate. An echoic memory interpretation of the modality effect is offered, in which it is suggested that echoic memory persists until the time of recall to be used directly and not via a long-term modality independent memory system.
The recall of multiple stimulus attributes in four- to six-item lists
(1999) Chmielewski, Cynthia Elizabeth; Watkins, Michael J.
Three experiments are reported which investigate short-term memory for multidimensional stimuli; in particular, item information, spatial location, and temporal order. The three experiments differ in list length, which was increased to eliminate ceiling effects, which may have skewed the results of previous studies. All three dimensions were varied independently, and, after stimulus presentation, when one was presented as a cue, the other two dimensions were to be recalled. The results suggest that temporal order and item information are highly associated in short-term memory, while spatial location and item information are not highly associated. The relationship between spatial location and temporal order is more complex, with list length and attributes of individual stimuli having an effect.
The role of concentration in recall
(1982) Allender, Laurel Elaine; Watkins, Michael J.; Lane, David M.; Burnett, Sarah A.
Although concentration seems intuitively important for recall, it is a curious fact that the scientific study of this relation has been just about totally neglected. Reported here are four experiments designed as a beginning towards remedying this neglect. Experiment 1 showed that solving arithmetic problems intermittently during the recall interval lowered recall performance, but only to the extent that would be obtained if the time spent solving problems were simply not available for recall. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that two sets of items can be recalled only about half as efficiently as one. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that a card sorting task known to impair recall when performed during study also impairs recall when performed during recall, though not to as great an extent. In addition, Experiment 3 showed recall of words studied under two different orienting tasks to be comparably impaired by the card sorting task.
Willful control and the learning of complex systems
(1992) LeCompte, Denny Charles; Watkins, Michael J.
A series of experiments explores the role of willful control over the learning of complex, rule-governed systems such as language. Willful control is operationalized as the enhancement of learning by the deliberate application of cognitive strategies. Subjects studied strings of symbols generated according to the rules of a system known as an artificial grammar. They were then tested on their knowledge of the grammar's rules. In some conditions, symbols drawn from the vocabulary used in the grammar were inserted into each string, rendering the string somewhat ungrammatical. In the informed condition, the inserted symbols were identified; in the uninformed condition, the inserted symbols were not identified. If subjects were able to exert willful control by ignoring the inserted symbols, performance in the informed condition should exceed performance in the uninformed condition. If they were not able to exert willful control, there should no difference between the informed and uninformed conditions. Evidence that the subjects had at least some degree of willful control was obtained in each of 10 experiments. Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4 included a condition in which the subjects saw strings with no inserted symbols. Performance in this condition was consistently superior to performance in the informed condition, implying that the extent of willful control was less than complete. Experiments 5, 6, 7, and 8 tested the hypothesis that the extent of willful control would depend on the number of symbols inserted. Experiment 9 tested the hypothesis that exposure to strings with no ungrammatical symbols would enhance subjects' ability to ignore such symbols in subsequent strings. Finally, Experiment 10 tested the hypothesis that willful control would be increased if the inserted symbols did not come from the same vocabulary as the grammar. None of these hypotheses was supported. The general conclusion from these experiments is that subjects can exert some degree of willful control over the learning of complex systems, but the extent of that control is substantially limited.

Browsing by Author "Watkins, Michael J."

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