Examining the semantic relatedness effect on working memory with ad hoc categories

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Memory Research

Background:

• The semantic relatedness effect shows memory benefits for semantically linked items in working memory (WM).
• The underlying mechanisms, particularly the role of cue-dependent retrieval, remain incompletely understood.
• Previous research faced challenges in controlling cue generation and usage by participants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To directly test the influence of retrieval cues on working memory performance.
• To investigate the role of ad hoc categories and their labels in the semantic relatedness effect.
• To examine whether cueing influences item memory in working memory.

Main Methods:

• Utilized ad hoc categories with novel item sets (e.g., "bone, fly, car").
• Presented items with or without corresponding ad hoc category labels (e.g., "things that dogs chase").
• Conducted four experiments to assess the impact of these labels on working memory and long-term memory.

Main Results:

• Providing ad hoc category labels influenced working memory performance.
• Item memory in working memory showed improvement when labels were provided (Experiments 2 and 3), supporting retrieval-cue accounts.
• The working memory effect was small, and not consistently found across all experiments.
• A substantial and systematic effect was observed on long-term memory, indicating successful label manipulation.

Conclusions:

• The findings provide support for the retrieval-cue account of the semantic relatedness effect in working memory.
• Ad hoc categories and their labels can influence memory, though the effect on working memory may be modest.
• The study highlights the importance of controlled cueing in understanding memory mechanisms and has implications for research on working memory and ad hoc categories.