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Familiarity influences on direct and indirect associative memory for objects in scenes
11 Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|November 2, 2016
Summary
Familiarity can support associative recognition for semantically related items, challenging recollection-based memory models. This suggests different memory processes are used for related versus unrelated associations.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Recollection is typically required for remembering arbitrary associations.
- The role of familiarity in recognizing associations with pre-existing semantic relations is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether familiarity can support associative recognition for congruent object-background pairs.
- To explore the differential roles of familiarity and recollection in associative memory based on semantic relatedness and response time.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted using object-background pairings.
- Participants performed direct and indirect associative recognition tasks under speeded (1000ms) and non-speeded conditions.
- Congruent and incongruent associations were compared.
Main Results:
- Congruent object-background associations were recognized under both speeded and non-speeded conditions, suggesting familiarity's role.
- Non-speeded recognition showed no difference between congruent and incongruent pairs.
- Speeded recognition was impaired for incongruent pairs compared to congruent pairs.
Conclusions:
- Familiarity can support associative recognition for semantically related items, particularly when not requiring effortful recollection.
- Dual-process recognition memory models may need refinement to account for the influence of semantic relatedness.
- The findings highlight the distinct contributions of familiarity and recollection in associative memory.
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