Abstract
Although much is known about the factors that influence the acquisition and retention of individual paired associates, the existence of temporally defined associations spanning multiple pairs has not been demonstrated. We report two experiments in which subjects studied randomly paired nouns for a subsequent cued recall test. When subjects recalled nontarget items, their intrusions tended to come from nearby pairs. This across-pair contiguity effect was graded, spanning noncontiguously studied word pairs. The existence of such long-range temporally defined associations lends further support to contextual-retrieval models of episodic association.
Article PDF
References
Asch, S. E., & Ebenholtz, S. M. (1962). The principle of associative symmetry. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, 135–163.
Brown, G. D. A., & McCormack, T. (2006). The role of time in human memory and binding: A review of the evidence. In H. D. Zimmer, A. Mecklinger, & U. Lindenberger (Eds.), Binding in human memory: A neurocognitive approach (pp. 251–290). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brown, G. D. A., Preece, T., & Hulme, C. (2000). Oscillator-based memory for serial order. Psychological Review, 107, 127–181.
Burgess, N., & Hitch, G. J. (1999). Memory for serial order: A network model of the phonological loop and its timing. Psychological Review, 106, 551–581.
Buzsáki, G. (2005). Theta rhythm of navigation: Link between path integration and landmark navigation, episodic and semantic memory. Hippocampus, 15, 827–840.
Caplan, J. B. (2005). Associative isolation: Unifying associative and list memory. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 49, 383–402.
Caplan, J. B., Glaholt, M. G., & McIntosh, A. R. (2006). Linking associative and serial list memory: Pairs versus triples. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 1244–1265.
Davelaar, E. J., Goshen-Gottstein, Y., Ashkenazi, A., Haarmann, H. J., & Usher, M. (2005). The demise of short-term memory revisited: Empirical and computational investigations of recency effects. Psychological Review, 112, 3–42.
Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). On memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. (Original work published 1885)
Ekstrand, B. R. (1966). Backward associations. Psychological Bulletin, 65, 50–64.
Friendly, M., Franklin, P. E., Hoffman, D., & Rubin, D. C. (1982). The Toronto Word Pool: Norms for imagery, concreteness, orthographic variables, and grammatical usage for 1,080 words. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation, 14, 375–399.
Henson, R. N. A. (1999). Positional information in short-term memory: Relative or absolute? Memory & Cognition, 27, 915–927.
Howard, M. W. (2004). Scaling behavior in the temporal context model. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 48, 230–238.
Howard, M. W., & Kahana, M. J. (1999). Contextual variability and serial position effects in free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 25, 923–941.
Howard, M. W., & Kahana, M. J. (2002). A distributed representation of temporal context. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 46, 269–299.
Kahana, M. J. (1996). Associative retrieval processes in free recall. Memory & Cognition, 24, 103–109.
Kahana, M. J. (2002). Associative symmetry and memory theory. Memory & Cognition, 30, 823–840.
Kahana, M. J., Dolan, E. D., Sauder, C. L., & Wingfield, A. (2005). Intrusions in episodic recall: Age differences in editing of overt responses. Journals of Gerontology, 60B, P92-P97.
Kahana, M. J., & Howard, M. W. (2005). Spacing and lag effects in free recall of pure lists. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 159–164.
Kahana, M. J., Howard, M. W., & Polyn, S. M. (in press). Associative processes in episodic memory. In J. Byrne (Series Ed.) & H. L.
Roediger III (Vol. Ed.), Learning and memory—A comprehensive reference: Vol. 2. Cognitive psychology of learning. San Diego: Elsevier, Academic Press.
Kahana, M. J., Howard, M. W., Zaromb, F., & Wingfield, A. (2002). Age dissociates recency and lag recency effects in free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 530–540.
Kimball, D. R., & Bjork, R. A. (2002). Influences of intentional and unintentional forgetting on false memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 116–130.
Kimball, D. R., Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2001, July). Retrieval inhibition can increase or decrease false memories. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Memory, Valencia, Spain.
Klein, K. A., Addis, K. M., & Kahana, M. J. (2005). A comparative analysis of serial and free recall. Memory & Cognition, 33, 833–839.
Köhler, W. (1947). Gestalt psychology. New York: Liveright.
Lee, C. L., & Estes, W. K. (1977). Order and position in primary memory for letter strings. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 16, 395–418.
Lewandowsky, S., & Murdock, B. B., Jr. (1989). Memory for serial order. Psychological Review, 96, 25–57.
Lisman, J., Jensen, O., & Kahana, M. J. (2001). Toward a physiologic explanation of behavioral data on human memory: The role of thetagamma oscillations and NMDAR-dependent LTP. In C. Hölscher (Ed.), Neuronal mechanisms of memory formation: Concepts of longterm potentiation and beyond (pp. 195–223). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Metcalfe, J., & Murdock, B. B. (1981). An encoding and retrieval model of single-trial free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 20, 161–189.
Murdock, B. B., Jr. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 482–488.
Murdock, B. B., Jr. (1967). Recent developments in short-term memory. British Journal of Psychology, 58, 421–433.
Murdock, B. B., Jr. (1974). Human memory: Theory and data. Potomac, MD: Erlbaum.
Murdock, B. B., & Metcalfe, J. (1978). Controlled rehearsal in single-trial free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 17, 309–324.
Murdock, B. B., Jr., & Okada, R. (1970). Interresponse times in singletrial free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86, 263–267.
Nairne, J. S. (1990). Similarity and long-term memory for order. Journal of Memory & Language, 29, 733–746.
Primoff, E. (1938). Backward and forward association as an organizing act in serial and in paired-associate learning. Journal of Psychology, 5, 375–395.
Raaijmakers, J. G. W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1980). SAM: A theory of probabilistic search of associative memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 14, pp. 207–262). New York: Academic Press.
Rizzuto, D. S., & Kahana, M. J. (2001). An autoassociative neural network model of paired-associate learning. Neural Computation, 13, 2075–2092.
Roberts, W. A. (1972). Free recall of word lists varying in length and rate of presentation: A test of total-time hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 92, 365–372.
Sirotin, Y. B., Kimball, D. R., & Kahana, M. J. (2005). Going beyond a single list: Modeling the effects of prior experience on episodic free recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 787–805.
Sommer, T., Rose, M., & Büchel, C. (2007). Associative symmetry versus independent associations in the memory for object-location associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 33, 90–106.
Underwood, B. J. (1983). Attributes of memory. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Zaromb, F. M., Howard, M. W., Dolan, E. D., Sirotin, Y. B., Tully, M., Wingfield, A., & Kahana, M. J. (2006). Temporal associations and prior-list intrusions in free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 792–804.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The first two authors contributed equally to this article. This research was funded by National Institutes of Health Grants MH55687 and MH61975.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davis, O.C., Geller, A.S., Rizzuto, D.S. et al. Temporal associative processes revealed by intrusions in paired-associate recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15, 64–69 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.1.64
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.1.64