Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the role of context in word identification and episodic recognition. Each experiment involved a study phase and a test phase. During the study phase, subjects were presented with a mixture of scrambled, semantically anomalous, and semantically integrated sentences. During the test phase, subjects were presented with individual printed words and were required to answer either an episodic-recognition test (Experiment 1) or a word-identification test (Experiment 2). The results of the word-identification experiment showed that repetition printing, although present under each condition, was insensitive to the contextual manipulation. Performance under episodic-recognition conditions, however, was sensitive to contextual variation; the actual scores ranged from 43% correct for words presented in scrambled sentences to 60% correct for words presented in semantically integrated sentences. The results constitute a single dissociation, and they are consistent with the proposition that performance in episodic recognition is sensitive to a form of information that (1) does not influence word identification, and (2) is influenced by variation in contextual factors during encoding.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Craik, F. I. M., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 269–294.
Fisher, R. P., & Craik, F. I. M. (1980). The effects of elaboration on recognition memory. Memory & Cognition, 8, 400–404.
Forster, K. I. (1976). Accessing the mental lexicon. In R. J. Wales & E. Walker (Eds.), New approaches to language mechanisms. Amsterdam: North Holland.
Jacoby, L. L. (1983). Perceptual enhancement: Persistent effects of an experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 21–38.
Jacoby, L. L., & Brooks, L. R. (1984). Nonanalytic cognition: Memory, perception and concept learning. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 18). New York: Academic Press.
Jacoby, L. L., & Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 110, 306–340.
Jacoby, L. L., & Witherspoon, D. (1982). Remembering without awareness. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 36, 300–324.
Kirsner, K. (1974). Modality differences in recognition memory for words and their attributes. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 102, 579–584.
Kirsner, K., Milech, D., & Standen, P. (1983). Common and modality-specific units in the mental lexicon. Memory & Cognition, 11, 621–630.
Kučera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Mandler, G. (1980). Recognizing: The judgment of occurrence. Psychological Review, 87, 252–271.
Morton, J. (1969). Interaction of information in word recognition. Psychological Review, 76, 165–178.
Morton, J. (1979). Facilitation in word recognition: Experiments causing change in the logogen model. In P. A. Kolers, M. E. Wrolstad, & H. Bouma (Eds.), Processing of visible language. New York: Plenum Press.
Siple, P., Fischer, S. D., & Bellugi, U. (1977). Memory for nonsemantic attributes of American sign language signs and English words. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 16, 561–574.
Stumpfel, V. (1983). Modality and sentence comprehensibility effects in perceptual identificaton and memory. Unpublished honors thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth.
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stumpfel, V., Kirsner, K. Context effects in word identification and episodic recognition: A single dissociation. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 24, 175–178 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330541
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330541