Spinach and frogs may be more related than you think: how priming can affect recall of weakly related word lists
-
1
Department of Psychological Science, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Australia
Aim: Semantic similarity can have a profound influence on verbal working memory. This refers to the phenomenon in which lists of words with similar meaning (e.g. from the same category) are better recalled than dissimilar words. Research suggests that conscious awareness of the category may play an important role in this effect. This experiment aimed to determine whether weakly related words can be primed using a related category label to induce a stronger semantic similarity effect and in turn increase recall in immediate serial recall tasks. Method: 38 participants engaged in a recall task that consisted of 15 lists of weakly-related words with a related label, 15 lists of weakly-related words with an unrelated label and 15 lists of unrelated words with an unrelated label. The 45 lists were presented in one block in a pseudo-random order. Each list was presented one word at a time on a computer screen. Following each list, participants wrote down the words they recalled in the order they were presented. After all lists were completed, participants rated each list on how strongly related (cohesive) they were, first without a label, then with a label. Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant effect for word condition. While there was a trend for priming to increase recall, there was only a significant difference between related and unrelated word lists. Cohesiveness ratings indicated that including a related label enhanced cohesiveness, while an unrelated label decreased cohesiveness. Conclusion: Semantically similar lists had a significant advantage over lists that were semantically dissimilar, but including a label did not significantly enhance recall. This may be because participants noticed a link between words even without being primed. Future research should investigate whether weakly-related words can be enhanced through other means.
Keywords:
semantic similarity,
priming,
working memory,
associative strength,
serial recall
Conference:
15th Annual Psychology Honours Research Conference , Coffs Harbour, Australia, 4 Oct - 5 Oct, 2018.
Presentation Type:
Research
Topic:
Abstract for 15th Annual Psychology Honours Research Conference
Citation:
Pyeun
J and
Longstaff
MG
(2019). Spinach and frogs may be more related than you think: how priming can affect recall of weakly related word lists.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
15th Annual Psychology Honours Research Conference .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2018.74.00028
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
18 Sep 2018;
Published Online:
27 Sep 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Miss. Jee-hee Vivian Pyeun, Department of Psychological Science, School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia, v.pyeun.10@student.scu.edu.au