We explore the role of contextual versus lexical alternatives in pragmatic strengthening using a novel training-with-feedback paradigm. In two experiments, we investigate whether training with inferences over contextual alternatives affects pragmatic strengthening with lexical alternatives, and the other way around. In both Experiments, we find that training that encouraged (or discouraged) pragmatic strengthening of simple disjunctions carried over to complex disjunctions of an unfamiliar kind to our experimental participants. This shows that our novel methodology is effective in training general mechanisms for activating alternatives. In Experiment 2, we showed that this methodology can be made to work across different kinds of alternatives, if certain salience conditions are met.
{"title":"Shared mechanisms in pragmatic enrichment with contextual and lexical alternatives","authors":"Nadine Bade , WooJin Chung , Léo Picat , Rachel Dudley , Salvador Mascarenhas","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104607","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104607","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We explore the role of contextual versus lexical alternatives in pragmatic strengthening using a novel training-with-feedback paradigm. In two experiments, we investigate whether training with inferences over contextual alternatives affects pragmatic strengthening with lexical alternatives, and the other way around. In both Experiments, we find that training that encouraged (or discouraged) pragmatic strengthening of simple disjunctions carried over to complex disjunctions of an unfamiliar kind to our experimental participants. This shows that our novel methodology is effective in training general mechanisms for activating alternatives. In Experiment 2, we showed that this methodology can be made to work <em>across</em> different kinds of alternatives, if certain salience conditions are met.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104607"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143453124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-02-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104625
John T. West , Rebecca L. Wagner , Ashley Steinkrauss , Nancy A. Dennis
Falsely remembering information can have negative consequences for day-to-day functioning and can be especially problematic for older adults who often experience higher rates of false memory. Because there is considerable variability between older adults in memory and cognition, it is essential that we understand the factors that place older individuals at risk for developing false memories. Whereas lower frontal functioning has previously been related to false memory in general, prior research suggests that there may also be domain-specificity in the factors associated with false memory. To test this possibility, 211 young adults and 152 older adults completed tasks measuring semantic false memory, perceptual false memory, frontal functioning, semantic discrimination, and perceptual discrimination. Factor analyses revealed that – contrary to predictions – individual differences in semantic and perceptual false memory were best represented by a single, overarching false memory factor. Although cognitive abilities were generally not related to false memory when assessed together, semantic discrimination, perceptual discrimination, and frontal functioning were all negatively associated with false memory in isolation, and jointly predicted 37% of the variance in younger adults and 40% in older adults. Importantly, the extent to which these cognitive abilities protected against false memory did not differ between older and younger adults. Results suggest that for both older and younger adults, individual differences in the tendency to falsely remember information are captured by a single overarching construct that has negative (yet redundant) associations with various cognitive abilities.
{"title":"Investigating the cognitive correlates of semantic and perceptual false memory in older and younger adults: A multi-group latent variable approach","authors":"John T. West , Rebecca L. Wagner , Ashley Steinkrauss , Nancy A. Dennis","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104625","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104625","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Falsely remembering information can have negative consequences for day-to-day functioning and can be especially problematic for older adults who often experience higher rates of false memory. Because there is considerable variability between older adults in memory and cognition, it is essential that we understand the factors that place older individuals at risk for developing false memories. Whereas lower frontal functioning has previously been related to false memory in general, prior research suggests that there may also be domain-specificity in the factors associated with false memory. To test this possibility, 211 young adults and 152 older adults completed tasks measuring semantic false memory, perceptual false memory, frontal functioning, semantic discrimination, and perceptual discrimination. Factor analyses revealed that – contrary to predictions – individual differences in semantic and perceptual false memory were best represented by a single, overarching false memory factor. Although cognitive abilities were generally not related to false memory when assessed together, semantic discrimination, perceptual discrimination, and frontal functioning were all negatively associated with false memory in isolation, and jointly predicted 37% of the variance in younger adults and 40% in older adults. Importantly, the extent to which these cognitive abilities protected against false memory did not differ between older and younger adults. Results suggest that for both older and younger adults, individual differences in the tendency to falsely remember information are captured by a single overarching construct that has negative (yet redundant) associations with various cognitive abilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104625"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143419137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-01-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2024.104603
Weijie Xu, Richard Futrell
Language comprehension has been argued to be expectation-based, with more predictable linguistic units being easier to process. However, as a communicative tool, language is often used to deliver messages that are novel and informative, suggesting the necessity of some cognitive mechanisms handling less predictable but more informative content. This paper proposes strategic memory allocation as one such mechanism. Although less predictable linguistic units require greater processing effort for memory encoding, recognizing the inconsistency between top-down predictions and bottom-up perceptual input may signal the working memory system to prioritize these units, enhancing the robustness of their representation against interference. We examine this hypothesis through the lens of the agreement attraction effect in two self-paced reading experiments. In Experiment 1, we find that less predictable but more informative target nouns exhibit weaker agreement attraction in online reading times, especially with more fine-grained measures of predictability such as the surprisal from large language models. This weaker agreement attraction effect for less predictable target nouns confirms our hypothesis that informative linguistic units are prioritized and receive more robust memory representation. In Experiment 2, however, no modulation of agreement attraction emerges when we manipulate the predictability of distractor nouns, suggesting the need for a more nuanced characterization of how information is structured and operated in memory. Our findings highlight an interplay of memory, predictive processing, and implicit learning. We also discuss the implications of our result for memory efficiency and memory compression. More broadly, by demonstrating that the limited memory resources are dynamically optimized for the relevant processing task, the current study highlights a connection to the resource-rational analysis of human cognition in general.
{"title":"Informativity enhances memory robustness against interference in sentence comprehension","authors":"Weijie Xu, Richard Futrell","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104603","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104603","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Language comprehension has been argued to be expectation-based, with more predictable linguistic units being easier to process. However, as a communicative tool, language is often used to deliver messages that are novel and informative, suggesting the necessity of some cognitive mechanisms handling less predictable but more informative content. This paper proposes strategic memory allocation as one such mechanism. Although less predictable linguistic units require greater processing effort for memory encoding, recognizing the inconsistency between top-down predictions and bottom-up perceptual input may signal the working memory system to prioritize these units, enhancing the robustness of their representation against interference. We examine this hypothesis through the lens of the agreement attraction effect in two self-paced reading experiments. In Experiment 1, we find that less predictable but more informative target nouns exhibit weaker agreement attraction in online reading times, especially with more fine-grained measures of predictability such as the surprisal from large language models. This weaker agreement attraction effect for less predictable target nouns confirms our hypothesis that informative linguistic units are prioritized and receive more robust memory representation. In Experiment 2, however, no modulation of agreement attraction emerges when we manipulate the predictability of distractor nouns, suggesting the need for a more nuanced characterization of how information is structured and operated in memory. Our findings highlight an interplay of memory, predictive processing, and implicit learning. We also discuss the implications of our result for memory efficiency and memory compression. More broadly, by demonstrating that the limited memory resources are dynamically optimized for the relevant processing task, the current study highlights a connection to the resource-rational analysis of human cognition in general.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104603"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-02-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104622
Adrian Staub
{"title":"Sample size and its justification in the Journal of Memory and Language","authors":"Adrian Staub","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104622","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104622"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-02-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104619
Cynthia S.Q. Siew , Nichol Castro
Native English speakers are sensitive to the small-world structure and community structure of the phonological similarity network of English words. In this study we investigated whether L2 speakers of English are sensitive to the overall similarity structure of the phonological lexicon, and whether this sensitivity is modulated by the size of their L2 vocabulary. Participants with diverse L1s (with English as their L2) completed a phonological similarity rating task where they listened to pairs of English words and provided similarity judgments for word pairs of varying path lengths and community membership. Path length in the phonological network represented the number of steps needed to traverse from one word to another word in the network. Word pairs were either from the same phonological community or different communities. English vocabulary knowledge was assessed using the LexTALE (Lemhöfer & Broersma, 2012). Results indicated that participants with higher LexTALE scores showed greater sensitivity to both community membership of word pairs as well as phonological distance between words at shorter path lengths. Computational simulations of the task with phonological networks depicting various levels of L2 proficiency qualitatively align with the observed behavioral results. The simulations suggest that larger network sizes provide more degrees of freedom for representing subtle patterns of similarity relations among word-forms. These findings have implications for understanding how expansion of the phonological mental lexicon enables learners to represent fine-grained, internal structure of phonological similarity relations among words.
{"title":"Larger lexicons enable representation of fine-grained phonological similarity structure: Evidence from English L2 speakers’ sound similarity judgments of word pairs","authors":"Cynthia S.Q. Siew , Nichol Castro","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Native English speakers are sensitive to the small-world structure and community structure of the phonological similarity network of English words. In this study we investigated whether L2 speakers of English are sensitive to the overall similarity structure of the phonological lexicon, and whether this sensitivity is modulated by the size of their L2 vocabulary. Participants with diverse L1s (with English as their L2) completed a phonological similarity rating task where they listened to pairs of English words and provided similarity judgments for word pairs of varying path lengths and community membership. Path length in the phonological network represented the number of steps needed to traverse from one word to another word in the network. Word pairs were either from the same phonological community or different communities. English vocabulary knowledge was assessed using the LexTALE (Lemhöfer & Broersma, 2012). Results indicated that participants with higher LexTALE scores showed greater sensitivity to both community membership of word pairs as well as phonological distance between words at shorter path lengths. Computational simulations of the task with phonological networks depicting various levels of L2 proficiency qualitatively align with the observed behavioral results. The simulations suggest that larger network sizes provide more degrees of freedom for representing subtle patterns of similarity relations among word-forms. These findings have implications for understanding how expansion of the phonological mental lexicon enables learners to represent fine-grained, internal structure of phonological similarity relations among words.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104619"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-02-02DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104615
Markus Bader, Yvonne Portele
This paper presents three picture description experiments investigating grammatical encoding and reference production in German. Participants described pictures showing transitive events with an animate agent and an inanimate patient. A preceding context established one of the referents as topic. The results show that animacy outranks topichood with regard to pronoun choice and choice of word order. Animate entities were pronominalized and produced sentence-initially more often than inanimate ones — independent of their topic status. The use of demonstratives, on the other hand, was mainly driven by topichood, with more demonstratives for non-topics. In addition, the choice of word order depended on the choice of referential expressions. Our findings extend existing evidence against a unified accessibility scale that simultaneously accounts for different types of referential expressions and for word order. We show how the consensus model of language production can be refined to account for our findings without invoking the problematic notion of accessibility.
{"title":"Animacy outweighs topichood when choosing pronouns and word order","authors":"Markus Bader, Yvonne Portele","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents three picture description experiments investigating grammatical encoding and reference production in German. Participants described pictures showing transitive events with an animate agent and an inanimate patient. A preceding context established one of the referents as topic. The results show that animacy outranks topichood with regard to pronoun choice and choice of word order. Animate entities were pronominalized and produced sentence-initially more often than inanimate ones — independent of their topic status. The use of demonstratives, on the other hand, was mainly driven by topichood, with more demonstratives for non-topics. In addition, the choice of word order depended on the choice of referential expressions. Our findings extend existing evidence against a unified accessibility scale that simultaneously accounts for different types of referential expressions and for word order. We show how the consensus model of language production can be refined to account for our findings without invoking the problematic notion of accessibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104615"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104616
Danielle Akilov, Karolina M. Lempert
People vary in their temporal discounting, the tendency to prefer smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Higher temporal discounting (i.e., more impatience) is associated with detrimental behaviors, such as substance abuse and physical inactivity. Therefore, understanding the cognitive capacities underlying individual differences in temporal discounting is important. Previous research has suggested that episodic memory supports future-oriented decision making by facilitating prospection, but an association between episodic memory abilities and temporal discounting has not yet been established in a cognitively normal population. One potential reason for this lack of an association is that semantic memory, not episodic memory, underlies reduced temporal discounting. After all, semantic memory provides the conceptual “scaffolding” for imagining the future. Here we tested the hypothesis that semantic memory is negatively associated with temporal discounting in an online study of 203 adults. We assessed semantic memory function in two ways: a semantic fluency task and a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory recognition task. The semantic fluency task measures voluntary semantic memory retrieval, while the false memory paradigm assesses the extent to which semantic information biases episodic retrieval. We found that better semantic fluency was associated with reduced temporal discounting, even after controlling for letter fluency, age, gender, education, and socioeconomic status. However, false memory rate was not a significant predictor of temporal discounting. These findings provide novel evidence that semantic memory retrieval abilities may support future-oriented decisions.
{"title":"Semantic fluency is associated with reduced temporal discounting","authors":"Danielle Akilov, Karolina M. Lempert","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104616","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104616","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>People vary in their <em>temporal discounting,</em> the tendency to prefer smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Higher temporal discounting (i.e., more impatience) is associated with detrimental behaviors, such as substance abuse and physical inactivity. Therefore, understanding the cognitive capacities underlying individual differences in temporal discounting is important. Previous research has suggested that episodic memory supports future-oriented decision making by facilitating prospection, but an association between episodic memory abilities and temporal discounting has not yet been established in a cognitively normal population. One potential reason for this lack of an association is that <em>semantic</em> memory, not episodic memory, underlies reduced temporal discounting. After all, semantic memory provides the conceptual “scaffolding” for imagining the future. Here we tested the hypothesis that semantic memory is negatively associated with temporal discounting in an online study of 203 adults. We assessed semantic memory function in two ways: a semantic fluency task and a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory recognition task. The semantic fluency task measures voluntary semantic memory retrieval, while the false memory paradigm assesses the extent to which semantic information biases episodic retrieval. We found that better semantic fluency was associated with reduced temporal discounting, even after controlling for letter fluency, age, gender, education, and socioeconomic status. However, false memory rate was not a significant predictor of temporal discounting. These findings provide novel evidence that semantic memory retrieval abilities may support future-oriented decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104616"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-01-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104608
Steven C. Pan, Liwen Yu, Marcus J. Wong, Ganeash Selvarajan, Andy Z.J. Teo
The pretesting effect refers to the finding that guessing the answers to test questions before learning the correct answers improves memory relative to studying (or reading) without prior guessing. Although the pretesting effect is robust and has been demonstrated across multiple studies, its magnitude varies across individuals. Two studies investigated whether individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC), episodic memory ability (EM), and/or fluid intelligence (gF) help explain that variation. In Study 1, lower gF scores were associated with a larger pretesting effect among undergraduate students, stemming from lower performance on read items. In Study 2, involving adult online participants, observed patterns were less consistent, but lower WMC scores were associated with larger pretesting effects, again due to lower performance on read items. Together, these patterns suggest that pretesting can homologize memory ability across individuals, although to an extent that may vary across learner populations and cognitive abilities. That conclusion and other findings are interpreted in the context of relevant individual differences research and theories related to pretesting and memory phenomena.
{"title":"Do individual differences in working memory capacity, episodic memory ability, or fluid intelligence moderate the pretesting effect?","authors":"Steven C. Pan, Liwen Yu, Marcus J. Wong, Ganeash Selvarajan, Andy Z.J. Teo","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104608","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104608","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The <em>pretesting effect</em> refers to the finding that guessing the answers to test questions before learning the correct answers improves memory relative to studying (or reading) without prior guessing. Although the pretesting effect is robust and has been demonstrated across multiple studies, its magnitude varies across individuals. Two studies investigated whether individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC), episodic memory ability (EM), and/or fluid intelligence (gF) help explain that variation. In Study 1, lower gF scores were associated with a larger pretesting effect among undergraduate students, stemming from lower performance on read items. In Study 2, involving adult online participants, observed patterns were less consistent, but lower WMC scores were associated with larger pretesting effects, again due to lower performance on read items. Together, these patterns suggest that pretesting can homologize memory ability across individuals, although to an extent that may vary across learner populations and cognitive abilities. That conclusion and other findings are interpreted in the context of relevant individual differences research and theories related to pretesting and memory phenomena.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104608"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-01-23DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2025.104617
Lauren L. Richmond , Lois K. Burnett , Julia Kearley , Sam J. Gilbert , Alexandra B. Morrison , B. Hunter Ball
Prior research focused on the relationship between cognitive offloading and working memory ability in the prospective and retrospective memory domains have produced conflicting results. Specifically, past work in the prospective memory domain has found that individuals with lower working memory capacity (WMC) choose to offload more often and benefit more from offloading than those with higher WMC (Ball, Peper, et al., 2022) while work in the retrospective memory domain has not found a relationship between WMC and the use of or benefit from offloading (Morrison & Richmond, 2020). However, task design across studies differed in several other respects aside from memory domain, making it difficult to discern whether different mechanisms underlie cognitive offloading across domains. The current study aimed to address these discrepancies by introducing similar procedures across offloading tasks. Results revealed that when offloading was required or permitted, participants with varying levels of WMC generally performed more similarly to one another than when the task had to be completed using internal memory alone. In addition, participants with lower WMC generally benefitted more from offloading, particularly under high memory load, compared to those with higher WMC when offloading was required and when participants had free choice about whether and when to engage in offloading. However, neither metacognitive underconfidence in internal memory capability nor lower WMC estimates were associated with increased offloading frequency in either memory domain when participants were permitted to offload. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
{"title":"Individual differences in prospective and retrospective memory offloading","authors":"Lauren L. Richmond , Lois K. Burnett , Julia Kearley , Sam J. Gilbert , Alexandra B. Morrison , B. Hunter Ball","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2025.104617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prior research focused on the relationship between cognitive offloading and working memory ability in the prospective and retrospective memory domains have produced conflicting results. Specifically, past work in the prospective memory domain has found that individuals with lower working memory capacity (WMC) choose to offload more often and benefit more from offloading than those with higher WMC (<span><span>Ball, Peper, et al., 2022</span></span>) while work in the retrospective memory domain has not found a relationship between WMC and the use of or benefit from offloading (<span><span>Morrison & Richmond, 2020</span></span>). However, task design across studies differed in several other respects aside from memory domain, making it difficult to discern whether different mechanisms underlie cognitive offloading across domains. The current study aimed to address these discrepancies by introducing similar procedures across offloading tasks. Results revealed that when offloading was required or permitted, participants with varying levels of WMC generally performed more similarly to one another than when the task had to be completed using internal memory alone. In addition, participants with lower WMC generally benefitted more from offloading, particularly under high memory load, compared to those with higher WMC when offloading was required and when participants had free choice about whether and when to engage in offloading. However, neither metacognitive underconfidence in internal memory capability nor lower WMC estimates were associated with increased offloading frequency in either memory domain when participants were permitted to offload. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104617"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01Epub Date: 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2024.104601
Ashley L. Miller , Nash Unsworth
The present study examined whether conative factors (e.g., self-efficacy, self-set goal difficulty, and task-specific motivation) are reliable predictors of learning and memory abilities and whether any observed relationships could be explained by two related, yet distinct aspects of attention. Specifically, the present study examined whether the relationship between conative factors and overall learning performance is explained by attentional intensity (the amount of attention allocated to a task) and attentional consistency (the consistency with which attention is allocated to said task). In two studies (Ns > 160), participants completed a paired associate’s (PA) cued recall task while pupil diameter was simultaneously recorded to provide an index of the intensity of attention. Measures of working memory, general episodic long-term memory, task-specific motivation, and memory self-efficacy were also included. Study 2 adopted a similar procedure but embedded thought probes into the encoding phase of each list to provide an index of the consistency of attention. Study 2 also added measures of self-set goal difficulty and effective strategy use. Results suggested that all conative factors were related to intensity and consistency in challenging learning contexts. Furthermore, intensity, consistency, and the variance shared between self-efficacy and self-set goal difficulty (r = .86) each explained substantial unique variance in learning when controlling for the influence of other important predictors. Overall, results suggest conative factors are important for understanding individual differences in learning and memory abilities, and part of the reason why these factors are associated with improved learning outcomes is due to intensity and consistency.
{"title":"Variation in the intensity and consistency of attention during learning: The role of conative factors","authors":"Ashley L. Miller , Nash Unsworth","doi":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104601","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jml.2024.104601","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study examined whether conative factors (e.g., self-efficacy, self-set goal difficulty, and task-specific motivation) are reliable predictors of learning and memory abilities and whether any observed relationships could be explained by two related, yet distinct aspects of attention. Specifically, the present study examined whether the relationship between conative factors and overall learning performance is explained by attentional intensity (the amount of attention allocated to a task) and attentional consistency (the consistency with which attention is allocated to said task). In two studies (<em>N</em>s > 160), participants completed a paired associate’s (PA) cued recall task while pupil diameter was simultaneously recorded to provide an index of the intensity of attention. Measures of working memory, general episodic long-term memory, task-specific motivation, and memory self-efficacy were also included. Study 2 adopted a similar procedure but embedded thought probes into the encoding phase of each list to provide an index of the consistency of attention. Study 2 also added measures of self-set goal difficulty and effective strategy use. Results suggested that all conative factors were related to intensity and consistency in challenging learning contexts. Furthermore, intensity, consistency, and the variance shared between self-efficacy and self-set goal difficulty (<em>r</em> = .86) each explained substantial unique variance in learning when controlling for the influence of other important predictors. Overall, results suggest conative factors are important for understanding individual differences in learning and memory abilities, and part of the reason why these factors are associated with improved learning outcomes is due to intensity and consistency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16493,"journal":{"name":"Journal of memory and language","volume":"142 ","pages":"Article 104601"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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