Douglas L Hintzman

University of Oregon | UO · Department of Psychology

This article presents an evaluation of research strategy in the psychology of memory. To the extent that a strategy can be discerned, it appears less than optimal in several respects. It relates only weakly to subjective experience, it does not clearly differentiate between structure and strategy, and it is oriented more toward remembering which wo...

In 2 experiments, the author explored the relations of remember versus familiar ratings to judgments of frequency (JOFs) and to judgments of recency (JORs). In both cases, remembered items were associated with more accurate memory judgments. In general, familiar items were judged to have occurred less frequently and less recently than remembered it...

In 1682 the scientist and inventor Robert Hooke read a lecture to the Royal Society of London, in which he described a mechanistic model of human memory. Yet few psychologists today seem to have heard of Hooke's memory model. The lecture addressed questions of encoding, memory capacity, repetition, retrieval, and forgetting--some of these in a surp...

Judgments of presentation frequency (JOFs) were compared with recognition confidence ratings (RCRs) in a single memory experiment. Two differences were found: (1) Relative to the effect of exposure duration, frequency had a larger effect on JOF than it had on RCR. (2) Replicating a finding by Proctor (1977), normalized memory operating characterist...

In the numerical judgment of recency (JOR) task, subjects judge how many items have intervened since the test item was previously presented. Two experiments were conducted to determine whether the basis of JOR is the age of the memory (time) or the number of intervening items. Subjects went through a long list that was made up of alternating fast b...

The hypotheses that memories are ordered according to time and that contiguity is central to learning have recently reemerged in the human memory literature. This article reviews some of the key empirical findings behind this revival and some of the evidence against it, and finds the evidence for temporal organization unconvincing. A central proble...

List-discrimination performance was tested under six conditions, varying the ILI, or interlist interval (immediate vs 15 min), and the TI, or test interval (immediate vs 15 min or 1 day). Performance increased with the length of the ILI and decreased with the length of the TI. This outcome lends support to the notion that one factor underlying forg...

In two experiments on memory for pictures, a frequency-discrimination task was used to determine whether recognition decisions display slower forgetting than do discriminations among frequencies greater than 0. Experiment 1 compared frequency discriminations of 1-0 (recognition), 2-1, 4-1, and 4-2 and tested retention over an interval of 1 week. Ex...

Two experiments investigated the retention of word pairs as a joint function of synonymity and of Word 1/Word 2 spacings. Word 1 and Word 2 were adjectives or adverbs, presented in identical sentence contexts, for either intentional (Experiment 1) or incidental (Experiment 2) learning. In both experiments, it was found that as the spacing between t...

Two tables of computer-generated random letters are presented. One consists of 2,000 random letters sampled “with replacement”; all 26 letters are equally likely at any given entry. The other consists of 100 random permutations of the 26 letters of the alphabet; sampling was “without replacement.”

In a mental comparison task, subjects discriminated the frequencies of words that had been presented from zero to five times each. Reaction times were recorded. Half the subjects indicated which member of a pair had occurred more often and half indicated which had occurred less often in the list. Reaction times displayed both a distance effect and...

Four experiments were done to investigate the effects of repetition on judgment of recency (JOR). Experiment 1 showed that repetition can make an item seem either more recent or less recent than a nonrepeated item, depending on presentation spacing. Experiments 2-4 showed that subjects are able to judge the recency of a repeated item's first presen...

According to the recursive reminding hypothesis, repetition interacts with episodic memory to produce memory representations that encode - and recursively embed - experiences of reminding. These representations provide the rememberer with a basis for differentiating among the first time something happens, the second time it happens, and so on. I ar...

Two experiments were done to examine the effect of memory strength on numerical judgment of recency (JOR). In one experiment, the strong versus weak manipulation was defined by stimulus type (pictures vs. names); and in the other, it was defined by long versus short study durations of pictures. Two hypotheses were contrasted: (1) that strong items...

Subjects went through a list of 550 high- and low-frequency words (Experiment 1) or concrete and abstract words (Experiment 2) in which individual items were repeated at lags of 5 to 30 other items. They made old versus new recognition decisions on each word and followed each "old" response with a numerical judgment of recency (JOR). Recognition ju...

An experiment was done to test a context-matching explanation of memory for recency under steady-state conditions. Subjects went through a list of 550 names, in which individual names were repeated at lags of 5-30 other items. The names were shown in two different styles or contexts. An old versus new recognition decision was made on each name, and...

In the test-pair similarity effect, forced-choice recognition is more accurate for similar test pairs, such as leopard-cheetah, than it is for unrelated test pairs, such as leopard-turnip. According to global matching models, this occurs because the retrieved familiarities of similar items are correlated. In the Minerva 2 model, global matching und...

Experiments on memory-retrieval dynamics support the hypothesis that different mechanisms mediate processes of familiarity and recall (recollection). The minimal retrieval time for accurate recognition and frequency judgments is about 100 msec earlier than the minimal time to judge details such as modality or location. The difference is consis...

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the time course of retrieval from memory is different for familiarity and recall. The response-signal method was used to compare memory retrieval dynamics in yes-no recognition memory, as a measure of familiarity, with those of list discrimination, as a measure of contextual recall. Responses were always m...

The response-signal method was used to study memory retrieval in the lexical-decision (LD) and recognition-memory (RM) tasks. In Experiment 1 subjects studied mixed lists of words and nonwords and then were tested on old and new words and nonwords, under either RM or LD instructions. The earliest above-chance performance (the intercept) was shorter...

The response-signal method was used to compare speed-accuracy trade-off retrieval curves in the recognition-memory and modality judgment tasks. In both tasks, words were studied either auditorily or visually, and were tested visually. Recognition accuracy for auditorily and visually studied words rose above chance at about the same point in the ret...

Two experiments demonstrated that the encoding of a repeated object is biased toward the attributes of its first presentation. In Experiment 1, subjects saw objects five times each, but either the first presentation or the fifth presentation was the mirror reverse of the standard orientation seen on the other four trials. When recognition was teste...

In T. Curran and D. L. Hintzman's (see record 1995-42725-001) article, the authors explained how violations of the independence assumption could affect the process-dissociation procedure and presented evidence that was consistent with the hypothesized effects of independence violations. L. L. Jacoby, I. M. Begg, and J. R Toth (see record 84-21424)...

T. Curran and D. L. Hintzman's (see record 84-21403) analysis of nonindependence in process dissociation did not confound aggregation bias with process dependence, as L. L. Jacoby and P. E. Shrout (see record 84-21425) claimed. This reply shows that the numerical example presented as undermining Curran and Hintzman's arguments is entirely consisten...

Most current memory theories assume that judgments of past occurrence are based on a unidimensional familiarity signal. In a test of this hypothesis, subjects studied mixed lists of pictures and words that occurred up to three times each. They then were given two tests: a forced-choice frequency discrimination rest including all pairs of conditions...

L. L. Jacoby, J. P. Toth, and A. P. Yonelinas (1993) advocated a process-dissociation procedure for estimating the contributions to task performance of consciously controlled (R) versus automatic (A) memory processes. The procedure relies on the strong assumption that memory-guided performance attributable to R is stochastically independent of that...

Four experiments replicated and extended the registration-without-learning effect, in which there is little improvement in the ability to discriminate an old target (X) from a highly similar test item (Y) after the first few presentations of X, even though judgments of frequency continue to rise in an openended fashion. Forced-choice testing reveal...

Six experiments tested the hypothesis that the mirror effect in recognition memory reflects a deliberate, postretrieval assessment of the test item's memorability. Both word frequency and concreteness were varied, and constraints at retrieval were manipulated in 2 ways: 3 experiments compared recognition tested either alone or while performing a se...

Three experiments pursued questions concerning the relationship between the recognition-memory and frequency-judgment tasks and the roles played in these tasks by separate processes of familiarity and recall. All three experiments used the response-signal technique to study the dynamics of retrieval. Experiment 1 manipulated test instructions withi...

Two points are made in relation to the recent article by K. Kim and M. Glanzer (see record 1993-32210-001). First, the attention-likelihood model is more complex than these authors and others suggest. In particular, 2 kinds of quantities, (1) parameters representing the true state of the S's memory and (2) the S's estimates of those parameters, ha...

Tulving and Flexser's (1992) defense of the Tulving-Wiseman law rests on the partitioning of data points into 2 sets, which they call constrained and unconstrained. This dichotomy depends crucially on the implicit assumption that within-condition variance is 0. Simulations are done to show the effects of variability on the maximum contingency that...

Tulving and Flexser's (1992) defense of the Tulving-Wiseman law rests on the partitioning of data points into 2 sets, which they constrained and unconstrained. This dichotomy depends crucially on the implicit assumption that within-condition variance is 0. Simulations are done to show the effects of variability on the maximum contingency that can b...

We investigated judgments of the frequency of test items (Y) that were highly similar to studied items (X) to test a prediction made by several memory models: that the judged frequency of Y should be proportional to the judged frequency of X. Whether stimuli were pictures or words, judged frequency of Y was bimodally distributed with 1 mode at zero...

When data from successive-testing experiments comparing recognition memory with cued recall are graphed in a certain way, they suggest that the relation between the 2 tasks is largely invariant. This regularity appears with such frequency that it has been called the Tulving-Wiseman law. Using the data that were originally plotted by A. J. Flexser a...

We investigated judgments of the frequency of test items (Y) that were highly similar to studied items (X) to test a prediction made by several memory models: that the judged frequency of Y should be proportional to the judged frequency of X. Whether stimuli were pictures or words, judged frequency of Y was bimodally distributed with 1 mode at zero...

When the data from successive-testing experiments comparing recognition memory with cued recall are graphed in a certain way, they suggest that the relation between the 2 tasks is largely invariant. This regularity appears with such frequency that it has been called the Tulving-Wiseman law. Using the data that were originally plotted by Flexser and...

Neither A. J. Flexser (see record 1991-17514-001) nor J. M. Gardiner (see PA Vol 78:17518) convincingly refutes D. L. Hintzman and A. L. Hartry's (see record 1991-11769-001) demonstration and argument regarding limitations of contingency analyses in successive testing experiments. By describing supposedly analogous thought experiments and conclus...

Item effects were examined in recognition-memory and word-fragment completion tasks, using the 192 words and fragments from E. Tulving et al (see record 1982-31877-001). Independent variables included various subjective ratings taken on the words and various quantitative characteristics of the word fragments. Exp 1 provided "unit analysis" data on...

A fundamental property of the Minerva 2 model of memory for frequency is that frequencies accumulated under two different conditions, A and B, should be commensurable—that is, the frequency signals for all items, regardless of frequency or condition, should fall along a unidimensional scale. An experimental and analytic technique is developed that...

I introduce readers to some current developments in models of memory. The emphasis is on models that invite comparison by being constructed of common components: primitive features, nodes having activation values, and links (possibly having weights or strengths)

The multiple-trace simulation model, {minerva} 2, was applied to a number of phenomena found in experiments on relative and absolute judgments of frequency, and forced-choice and yes–no recognition memory. How the basic model deals with effects of repetition, forgetting, list length, orientation task, selective retrieval, and similarity and how a s...

The multiple-trace simulation model, MINERVA 2, was applied to a number of phenomena found in experiments on relative and absolute judgments of frequency, and forced-choice and yes-no recognition memory. How the basic model deals with effects of repetition, forgetting, list length, orientation task, selective retrieval, and similarity and how a sli...

Applies a simulation model of episodic memory, MINERVA 2, to the learning of concepts, as represented by the schema-abstraction task. The model assumes that each experience produces a separate memory trace and that knowledge of abstract concepts is derived from the pool of episodic traces at the time of retrieval. A retrieval cue contacts all trace...

An overview of a simulation model of human memory is presented. The model assumes: (1) that only episodic traces are stored in memory, (2) that repetition produces multiple traces of an item, (3) that a retrieval cue contacts all memory traces simultaneously, (4) that each trace is activated according to its similarity to the retrieval cue, and (5)...

25 words were assigned to all combinations of the spatial numerosities 1–5 and the presentation frequencies 1–5. Frames displaying the appropriate number of copies of each word were repeated the appropriate number of times, and 77 undergraduates attempted to memorize the words' numerosities. A combination frequency-judgment and numerosity-recall te...

If frequency has a privileged, analog memory representation, as multiple-trace theory assumes, then at retrieval, it should not be confused with other quantitative information. If it shares a common associative or propositional format with other information, then such confusions should occur. In Experiment 1, subjects studied picture—digit pairs. T...

Two multiple-trace accounts of memory for frequency are compared: W. K. Estes's (see record 1979-20298-001) limited-capacity theory and D. L. Hintzman's (1976) unlimited-capacity theory. Two experiments were conducted with 150 undergraduates to differentiate between the theories. Results support 3 conclusions: (a) When the experimental materials w...

In 14 experiments, subjects had to “point to” surrounding environmental locations (targets) while imagining themselves in a particular spot facing in various directions (orientations). The spatial information was either committed to memory (cognitive maps) or directly presented on each trial in the visual or tactile modality. Reaction times (RT) in...

A common finding in studies of classification learning is that ability to classify the prototype of a category declines much less over a retention interval than does the ability to classify the previously seen exemplars themselves. We demonstrate here that this finding does not necessarily indicate the existence, in memory, of a representation of t...

According to Simpson's paradox (E. H. Simpson, 1951), if 2 or more contingency tables are collapsed into one, the resulting table may show a relationship between variables different from those shown by any of the original tables. Thus, a positive or negative relationship or stochastic independence may be shown by every component table, but be maske...

Investigated the effect of contextual variability on memory for frequency in 2 incidental-learning experiments with a total of 169 paid Ss. In Exp I, stimuli were nouns, which Ss rated on semantic scales that either varied from presentation to presentation or remained the same. In Exp II, the stimuli were names of celebrities, appearing in statemen...

Two incidental-learning experiments using 129 paid college students investigated the joint effects of spacing and mirror-image repetition of memory for pictures. In Exp I, the 2nd presentation of a picture (P₂) was always the mirror-image reversal of P₁. The effect of P₁–P₂ spacing on memory was not significant. In Exp II, both "reverse P₂" and "id...

An important piece of evidence favoring an 'attention' explanation of the spacing effect was reported by Elmes, Greener, and Wilkinson (1972). They found that an item following a repeated item in a list was remembered better if it followed a massed repetition than if it followed a spaced repetition. A series of experiments was done to establish the...

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the research on the effects of repetition conducted in the laboratory. Repetition is one of the most powerful variables affecting memory. The chapter discusses experiments called the “method of memory judgments.” In this technique, a list of items is presented, and the subject is then presented with each test...

Three experiments were done to test the hypothesis that the spacing effect results from a voluntary decision by the subject to pay little attention to the second presentation (P2) of an item when it occurs shortly after the first (P(1))- In all three experiments, the spacing of repetitions was varied. In Experiment I, allocation of attention was ma...

Three experiments examined effects of the spacing of repetitions on memory for pictures. In Experiment I, the duration of the first presentation (P(1)) was manipulated, as was P(1)-P(2) spacing. The effect of spacing on judged frequency was independent of P(1) duration. In Experiment II, pictures were given M massed presentations just prior to the...

Investigated the hypothesis that the ability of Ss to judge the distance between 2 presentations of a word in a list reflects study-phase retrieval of the trace of the 1st presentation of the word by its 2nd presentation. 2 experiments were conducted using a total of 153 Ss recruited through a university newspaper. Exp I supported the hypothesis by...

Three experiments were conducted to capitalize on the conclusion of Shaffer and Shiffrin (1972) that complex visual scenes are not rehearsed in testing the hypothesis that the effect of spacing on memory is due to rehearsal. In Experiment I, a list of vacation slides was presented in which both the number of repetitions and the spacing of repetitio...

Investigated memory for the spacing of 2 events in an "incidental learning" situation with 56 university students. When the events were 2 instances of the same word, judged spacing increased monotonically with actual spacing; when the events were single occurrences of 2 different words, judged spacing was not significantly affected by actual spacin...

Measured long-term recognition memory in 52 Ss using test words that were either visually identical with or visually different from the original stimuli. Recognition latencies revealed an interaction consistent with the hypothesis that the visual memory code of a word persists and can play a direct role in the recognition decision for several minut...

Two experiments used a combined frequency- and modality-judgment task to investigate incidental memory for input modalities of repeated words. In both experiments, a series of words was presented in which frequency of occurrence (0, 1, or 2) was orthogonally combined with modality of each presentation in such a way that modalities of repeated words...

Used a combination list-discrimination and position-judgment task to investigate the role of contextual factors in incidental memory for serial position. In Exp. I, 2 temporally defined lists were presented to 34 undergraduates; in Exps. II and III, 4 and 3 lists were presented to 52 and 90 Ss, respectively. Following presentation of the lists, Ss...

Three experiments examined the retention of information about mode of input of familiar words. In Expt. I, input modes were vision vs. audition; in Expt. II, block vs. script letters (all visual); in Expt. III, male vs. female voices (all auditory). Eight 18-word lists were presented. Half the words in each list occurred in one input mode and half...

Presents a reanalysis of confidence rating data from 2 paired-associate experiments by H. Bernbach (see record 1968-01776-001) and H. Bernbach and G. Bower (see record 1971-20262-001). It is argued that Bernbach's claim that Type 2 d' does not increase with practice is false, as evidenced by separate analysis of pairs with different past historie...

Examined 2 explanations of the Stroop color-naming effect: (a) the form of the word and the color of the ink contact memory in parallel, causing covert response competition when they elicit different color names; and (b) color words distract from the ability to input or to encode ink color. In a mixed-list design, latencies of color-naming response...

Presents a reservation to E. Martin's (see record 1971-28140-001) discussion of the DaPolito independent retrieval phenomenon. Failure of chi-square independence tests to demonstrate a significant relationship between retrieval of A-B and A-C associations in modified-modified free recall does not imply that the associations are independent. The ne...

Tested 2 hypotheses concerning the effect of frequency on memory: (a) that repetition increments the cumulative strength of a single memory trace; and (b) that repetition results in multiple traces, each identifiable by its "time tag." Results from 3 experiments with a total of 112 paid volunteers support the multiple-trace hypothesis. When words w...

A review of Learning, Memory, and Conceptual Processes (New York: Wiley, 1970) by Walter Kintsch. (DB)

Subjects saw a long series of words which varied in frequency, or number of repetitions (F = 1, 3, or 5), and in spacing, or number of words intervening between repetitions (S = 0, 1, or 5). Half the Ss were then asked to judge frequency of occurrence of the words, and these judgments were an increasing function of spacing, S = 0 < S = 1 < S = 5. T...

List discrimination (LD) performance was measured in an experimental design in which effects of recency and frequency could be assessed independently. Two groups of Ss were each presented with two word lists and later were asked to identify list membership of the words. Recency and frequency (number of repetitions) of words were manipulated within...

Presented 4 experiments using the same basic design: 117, 116, 108, and 103 undergraduates were presented visually with a series of words which varied both in frequency of repetition (F) and in exposure duration (D). 4 levels of F (1, 2, 3, and 5 repetitions) were combined orthogonally with 5 levels of D (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 sec.) so that a repeated...

contingency analyses of memory retrieval / human memory / episodic and generic memory tasks (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

In 2 experiments, Ss mastered 8-pair paired-associate lists containing 4 highly similar and 4 dissimilar CCC trigram stimuli paired with 8 single-digit responses. The Ss were tested for backward recall after reaching mastery of the list. Backward recall of the similar items was superior to that of the dissimilar items. This outcome was predicted by...

Presented undergraduates with words in a long series in which some words were repeated. Following presentation, Ss were tested on their ability to remember frequencies of occurrence. 2 types of tests were used: (1) a paired-comparison test in which the more frequent of 2 alternatives was chosen, and (2) an absolute judgment test in which Ss gave nu...

In a continuous memory task, 35 undergraduate Ss indentified words as old or new by pressing 1 of 2 buttons. Response latency was recorded. Conditions were such that accuracy was about 96%. Each experimental word occurred 3 times, denoted P1, P2, and P3. The number of items intervening between P1 and P2 was either 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 items; the numbe...

A computer simulation model for paired-associate learning is presented. The model emphasizes stimulus discrimination learning, and is based on an EPAM-type discrimination net which grows according to stochastic processes. Group data are simulated for comparison with human data. Three versions of the model are presented. The simplest, SAL I, was fir...

A paired-associate learning study was done to test predictions derived from a computer simulation model based on the EPAM discrimination net. A 2 × 2 design varying intralist stimulus similarity (high vs. low) and number of response alternatives (2 vs. 14 in a 14-pair list) tested four predictions: (a) low-similarity lists would be learned faster t...

Confusion errors in short-term memory for visually-presented nonsense syllables were analyzed to determine the influence of two articulatory features of consonants: voicing and place of articulation. Both were found to contribute to confusions. Results are interpreted as consistent with a hypothesis of mediation by kinesthetic cues arising from sub...

Analysis of errors in a short-term memory task indicates that Ss adopted 2 possible coding strategies: digit vs. letter categorization and subvocal or aural rehearsal. White noise had no effect on types of errors made or on over-all performance, but did bring out the usually covert rehearsal process. Evidence from errors and effects of noise point...