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Modeling fan effects on the time course of associative recognition
Darryl W Schneider1, John R Anderson
1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. dws@cmu.edu
Cognitive Psychology
|December 27, 2011
Summary
Associative fan, the number of memory associations, impacts recognition speed and accuracy. High fan slows memory retrieval, affecting performance in response signal tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Computational Modeling
Background:
- Associative recognition involves recalling relationships between items.
- The response signal procedure probes the time course of cognitive processes.
- Associative fan is a key factor influencing memory retrieval efficiency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the time course of associative recognition.
- To examine the impact of associative fan on speed-accuracy tradeoff functions.
- To model the effects of associative fan using the ACT-R framework.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the response signal procedure with variable lags.
- Manipulated associative fan in experiments with briefly studied and well-learned materials.
- Developed and tested an Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) model.
Main Results:
- High associative fan decreased asymptotic accuracy and/or the rate of accuracy increase.
- The ACT-R model successfully explained the observed speed-accuracy tradeoff functions.
- Model fits were comparable to existing descriptive models for response signal data.
Conclusions:
- Associative fan slows memory retrieval by reducing associative activation.
- This retrieval slowing impacts the probability of timely memory access, creating speed-accuracy tradeoffs.
- The ACT-R model provides a robust computational account of associative recognition dynamics.
