Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The low-frequency encoding disadvantage: Word frequency affects processing demands.

Rachel A Diana1, Lynne M Reder

  • 1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. rdiana@andrew.cmu.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|July 11, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Replicability of representational similarity and its role in successful memory retrieval.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

Effects of Sedative Doses of Propofol, Dexmedetomidine, and Fentanyl on Memory and Pain in Healthy Young Adults: A Randomized, Controlled, Single-blind Crossover Study Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 7 Tesla.

Anesthesiology·2025
Same author

Variation in encoding context benefits item recognition.

Memory & cognition·2024
Same author

Cognitive tasks affect the relationship between representational pattern similarity and subsequent item memory in the hippocampus.

NeuroImage·2023
Same author

Neutral auditory words immediately followed by painful electric shock may show reduced next-day recollection.

Experimental brain research·2022
Same author

Memory resources recover gradually over time: The effects of word frequency, presentation rate, and list composition on binding errors and mnemonic precision in source memory.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2021
Same journal

Testing the predictions of a distinctiveness model of memory: The production effect in backward recall.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

On the impact of adjacency on transposed-word effects under serial presentation.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

It's time to opt out: Metacognitive analysis of time regulation under uncertainty.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

The role of statistical learning in attentional guidance during search through naturalistic scenes.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

Representing objects and features in long-term memory: A case for direct feature-feature binding.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
Same journal

Crossmodal correspondences influence adaptation during rule-based category learning of objects.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2026
See all related articles

Low-frequency words are harder to encode, leading to poorer memory performance. This study reveals a disadvantage during encoding, not just retrieval, for low-frequency words.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Memory Research

Background:

  • Word frequency effects are well-documented in recognition tasks, with low-frequency words typically yielding more hits and fewer false alarms.
  • Previous explanations for this low-frequency advantage often focused on retrieval processes.
  • Contradictory findings in other memory tasks (recall, cued recall) suggested a more complex explanation was needed.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of encoding processes in the low-frequency word advantage.
  • To determine if low-frequency words incur a disadvantage during the initial encoding stage.
  • To examine how limited processing resources during encoding affect memory for words of varying frequencies.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted manipulating encoding conditions and word frequencies.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Recognition tasks were employed, alongside assessments of processing resource limitations.
  • The impact of studying low-frequency words alongside other stimuli (pictures, high-frequency words) was evaluated.

    • Main Results:

    • Evidence supports a low-frequency disadvantage during encoding, requiring more processing resources.
    • Under limited encoding resources, low-frequency words showed a greater performance decrement than high-frequency words.
    • The presence of low-frequency words impaired the memory performance for concurrently studied items.

    Conclusions:

    • The observed low-frequency advantage in recognition is not solely due to retrieval benefits.
    • Low-frequency words impose a greater burden on encoding resources, leading to a disadvantage.
    • Understanding encoding limitations is crucial for a comprehensive theory of word frequency effects in memory.