{"title":"More than true or false: The effects of prior beliefs on strategic and nonstrategic processing of socioscientific claims.","authors":"Johanna Abendroth, Tobias Richter","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01911-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01911-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Readers are often confronted with one-sided, conflicting, or even false information when engaging with socioscientific issues. Based on the notion that validation of information is a routine part of comprehension, we conducted four experiments to investigate how explicit validity judgments and nonstrategic validation of (mis)information on socioscientific issues are affected by the interaction between belief consistency and factual accuracy. Experiment 1 (n = 73) and Experiment 2 (n = 50) used a validity judgment task and found that participants made more errors in judging false belief-consistent claims and needed more time to correctly respond to true but belief-inconsistent and to false but belief-consistent claims. Experiment 3 (n = 84) used the epistemic Stroop task to investigate whether readers' beliefs and knowledge also influence nonstrategic validation, even when readers' task does not require an explicit judgment of validity or belief consistency. In the epistemic Stroop task, affirmative responses did not differ significantly between true and false belief-consistent claims, whereas they were longer for false belief-inconsistent claims. Experiment 4 (n = 226) replicated the results for both tasks, controlling for readers' prior knowledge. The results suggest that beliefs may bias explicit validity judgments, but also the nonstrategic processing of socioscientific claims.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148882350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Differential adaptation of bilingual language control to cognitive load: Evidence from cued and voluntary switching.","authors":"Hong Liu, Adel Chaouch-Orozco, Darcy Sperlich","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01936-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01936-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bilingual speakers must regulate cross-language competition to communicate effectively, yet this regulation typically unfolds under concurrent cognitive demands. To characterise how cognitive load shapes bilingual control, we used a dual-task picture-naming paradigm in which 78 proficient Chinese-English bilinguals performed single-language, cued-switching, and voluntary-switching blocks with and without a secondary tone-monitoring task. Cognitive load did not simply undermine performance; instead, it constrained control engagement and prompted context-sensitive reconfiguration. In cued switching, where the L2 is externally required and especially vulnerable to L1 interference, load shifted control towards a more proactive state that protected L2 access via global downregulation of the L1. In voluntary switching, where speakers can exploit trial-by-trial fluctuations in relative activation, load strengthened a reactive selection strategy: participants selected the L2 when it was rapidly accessible but fell back to the L1 when L2 activation was insufficient. Overall, bilingual control adapted to cognitive load by shifting both the mode and strategy of control in a context-dependent manner, showing that what adapts is not only the type of control recruited, but also how it is employed as contextual demands fluctuate.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148876303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The contribution of semantic control to elaborative episodic encoding.","authors":"Fiona Lancelotte, Alexa Morcom","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01932-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01932-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding events is fundamental to remembering them later, but it remains unclear how incoming information is linked to prior knowledge. We investigated whether episodic memory encoding depends on semantic control processes that allow people to use their knowledge in a flexible and task-relevant manner. We manipulated semantic control type and demand at encoding to compare the contributions of two key processes: controlled semantic retrieval and semantic selection. In two preregistered experiments, young adults studied object images in two semantic encoding tasks. They matched the object either to the word most related in meaning out of three (controlled retrieval) or the word most similar in size (semantic selection). We then tested participants' memory to see whether these semantic control processes affected concept-level item recognition, specific old-lure discrimination (Experiment 1, N = 78), and source memory (Experiment 2, N = 64). The results revealed that controlled semantic retrieval at encoding improved concept-level recognition compared with semantic selection but did not impact specific memory. Although encoding judgements were slower under greater control demand (image-word semantic similarity indexed by word2vec), demand did not significantly impact later memory on any measure. We then used a hierarchical Bayesian multinomial processing tree model to estimate source memory parameters. This revealed better source memory detection following encoding with controlled retrieval compared to semantic selection. Together, the results show that memory representations are shaped by the semantic control processes engaged at encoding and suggest that controlled semantic retrieval may be a key contributor to elaborative semantic encoding.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148876281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lauren H Williams, Viola S Störmer, Timothy F Brady
{"title":"The working memory advantage for meaningful stimuli persists under high levels of proactive interference.","authors":"Lauren H Williams, Viola S Störmer, Timothy F Brady","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01942-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01942-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous work has shown that visual working memory performance is higher for recognizable and meaningful stimuli relative to meaningless, but physically matched, stimuli (e.g., Asp et al., 2021). Here, we test whether the benefit for meaningful stimuli arises due to active storage in working memory or can, at least in part, be explained by reliance on more durable memories that persist across trials, such as episodic long-term memory that can substitute for active maintenance. We used ambiguous Mooney faces (Exp. 1, Exp. 3) and objects (Exp. 2) as well as scrambled versions of the same stimuli, resulting in some observers recognizing a given stimulus as meaningful and others not. To manipulate proactive interference, some items were repeated throughout the experiments and others were not. We found equivalent objective and subjective effects of meaningfulness on memory performance regardless of item repetition and thus the amount of proactive interference, consistent with items being actively stored in working memory and providing direct evidence against the idea that durable, cross-trial long-term memories play a critical role in eliciting the meaningfulness advantage. The meaningfulness advantage was strong even with significant proactive interference present. Overall, we find that proactive interference in these tasks is graded, governed by whether items are individuated by spatial or temporal context, and recognition of a stimulus as a face or object provides a strong benefit to working memory performance regardless of the level of proactive interference.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148866391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Morgan Robertson, Kaitlin L Lansford, Lotte Eijk, Stephanie A Borrie
{"title":"Intentional encoding does not alter the trade-off between speech-in-noise perception and memory.","authors":"Morgan Robertson, Kaitlin L Lansford, Lotte Eijk, Stephanie A Borrie","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01940-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01940-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Degraded speech increases listening effort at the expense of memory encoding, but the flexibility of this resource trade-off under varying motivational conditions remains poorly understood. The present study investigated how encoding intention influences cognitive resource allocation during a speech-in-noise task. Participants' sentence comprehension was tested using a sentence verification task (SVT) under varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Memory of the sentences was then assessed by a recognition task about which they were either naïve or forewarned. Accuracy in the SVT and memory task represent comprehension and recognition, respectively. Reaction time in the SVT serves as a proxy for listening effort. Increasing noise impaired both comprehension and recognition and required greater listening effort. Forewarning imposed an additional listening effort cost to comprehension, consistent with encoding intention functioning as an upfront cognitive investment. However, noise and forewarning each imposed independent, additive penalties in both comprehension and listening effort rather than a compounding interaction, and gains in recognition were minimal. These findings suggest that intentional encoding does not fundamentally alter the comprehension-memory trade-off during effortful listening. Implications for finite resource models and their assumptions about how motivational and perceptual demands compete for cognitive resources are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between the lines: Role of cultural schemas in remembering and forgetting.","authors":"Nan Peng, Robert H Logie, Sergio Della Sala","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01928-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01928-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bartlett's approach highlights learners' attitudes toward integrating novel information using their preexperimental knowledge. Prior knowledge tied to one's sociocultural experiences, known as cultural schemas, plays a facilitating role in immediate memory performance. However, few studies extend this effect to delayed retention and long-term forgetting using coherent narratives. The current study investigated the effects of cultural schemas on remembering and forgetting in prose memory. Across four experiments, participants were invited to read a narrative passage and then completed cued-recall tests at immediate and delayed retention intervals. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants' interpretation of the cultural properties implied in the narrative served as an index of activated cultural schemas. In Experiments 3 and 4, cultural schema activation was manipulated by presenting culturally familiar versus unfamiliar narratives. Consistently, we observed a facilitating effect of cultural schemas on the remembering of a coherent narrative, with activated schemas enhancing both immediate and delayed retention. The form of forgetting in prose memory followed a negatively accelerating pattern, which was more accurately described by a power function in both group and individual data. Notably, the rates of forgetting are independent of the initial degree of learning manipulated by the activation of cultural schemas.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Amnon Yacoby, Andrea Greve, Erin Schaverien, Limor Shtoots, Richard N Henson, Daniel A Levy
{"title":"Dissociable effects of schema congruency on item recognition and source memory across levels of expectedness and surprise.","authors":"Amnon Yacoby, Andrea Greve, Erin Schaverien, Limor Shtoots, Richard N Henson, Daniel A Levy","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01930-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01930-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prior knowledge can enhance memory for both schema-congruent and schema-incongruent events. According to the SLIMM framework, memory performance generally follows a U-shaped pattern, with both highly expected and highly surprising events being better remembered than neutral ones. We tested this prediction across four experiments in which participants viewed scenes containing congruent or incongruent objects, rating each as expected or surprising on a four-level scale. Memory was assessed using: (1) old/new item recognition categorized by recollection and familiarity, and (2) source memory, in which participants reported whether objects had been rated as expected or surprising at study. Schema effects on memory varied by test type. Item recognition consistently showed an advantage for expected trials only, primarily via recollection, while familiarity (if assumed independent of recollection) increased with surprise level-contrary to SLIMM's predictions. We hypothesize that schema-related retrieval strategies enhance recollection of expected objects. Source memory did produce a reliable U-shaped pattern, even though this particular task should only produce an advantage for surprising trials according to SLIMM. We suggest participants tagged events as \"surprising\" or \"expected\" during study and could later recall the tag. When the tag was 'weak' or unavailable-more likely for moderately categorized events-participants fell back on schema-related retrieval strategy, which benefits retrieval of expected events. Together, these mechanisms produce the observed U-shaped pattern for source memory. Our findings reveal the complex retrieval test dependent manner in which prior knowledge shapes episodic memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miguel Ayala-Cuesta, Pedro Macizo, Patrick Lemaire
{"title":"Magnitude processing in young and older adults: Congruency between quantity and brightness.","authors":"Miguel Ayala-Cuesta, Pedro Macizo, Patrick Lemaire","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01931-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01931-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research suggests that dimensions such as space, time, and quantity are processed through a generalized magnitude system. Past evidence also shows that brightness can interact with numerical quantity. This study examined brightness-number interactions in young and older adults, and their modulations by stimulus-related factors (e.g., numerical ratio, item proportion) and domain-general mechanisms (e.g., executive control). Across four experiments using a numerical Stroop-like task, younger and older adults compared the numerical values of digit pairs varying in numerical magnitude and brightness (i.e., brighter vs. dimmer). Results revealed robust congruency effects (i.e., better performance when both dimensions matched) in both younger and older adults, consistent with the idea of shared magnitude representations across the lifespan. Additionally, congruency effects (a) increased for larger-ratio items, and (b) decreased in blocks with a high proportion of incongruent items. Data also revealed that (a) young and older adults had similar congruency effects, and (b) older adults showed smaller facilitation but larger interference effects in high-conflict conditions. These findings suggest that brightness operates as a magnitude dimension, and highlight the role of domain-general executive mechanisms (e.g., proactive control) in regulating magnitude processing across the lifespan.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148851625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Larry Jacoby: An appreciation of his early research.","authors":"Henry L Roediger","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01927-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01927-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Larry Jacoby was one of the most creative experimental psychologists of his generation. I describe four papers from early in his career that were influential to debates at the time and that are still well worth reading today. These are Jacoby and Bartz (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11[4], 561-565, 1972), Jacoby ((Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17[6], 649-667, 1978), Jacoby and Dallas (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110[3], 306-340, 1981), and Jacoby (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22[5], 485-508, 1983). The last two papers showed that dissociations among memory measures, analogous to those observed in amnesic patients (relative to controls), could be obtained in college students. These are just a selection of his famous findings, which include how people can become famous overnight (Jacoby et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56[3], 326-338, 1989), how to deceive the elderly (Jacoby, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16(3/5), 417-436, 1999), and, of course, the process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, Journal of Memory and Language, 30[5], 513-541, 1991). Jacoby's influence on cognitive psychology and related fields will endure.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148833264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tian Ye, Runze Li, Huiyun Xu, Kunle Hu, Xiaoman Lu, Mingyue Du, Shouxin Li
{"title":"Better close than far away: Physical distance modulates multiple retro-cues effect in working memory.","authors":"Tian Ye, Runze Li, Huiyun Xu, Kunle Hu, Xiaoman Lu, Mingyue Du, Shouxin Li","doi":"10.3758/s13421-026-01934-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01934-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The retro-cue paradigm is frequently used to study how attention interacts with visual working memory (WM). In this paradigm, a single cue presented during the retention interval directs attention to a memorized item, thereby improving subsequent memory performance for that item. Recent studies have extended this approach to investigate the multiple retro-cues effect, i.e., simultaneously presenting two or more retro-cues to enhance memory performance for multiple cued items. However, the capacity limit and neural basis of this effect remain unclear. Through four experiments, we revealed that the physical distance between cued items can modulate the capacity of multiple retro-cues. Experiment 1 compared one, two neighboring (cued items presented at two contiguous locations), three neighboring, and neutral cues, revealing performance benefits only for one and two neighboring retro-cues. Experiment 2 directly compared the effect of two neighboring versus two separated cues (with one or two intervening items) and found a significant benefit only for two neighboring cues. Experiment 3 directly manipulated the spatial scope of the memory array (wide vs. narrow display) and showed that separated cues became effective when the array was presented in a narrow scope, where the absolute physical distance between cued items was reduced. Experiment 4 provided neural evidence by showing larger contralateral delay activity (CDA) with multiple cues and a complex pattern of N2pc which suggested strategic adjustment. Together, these findings delineate the quantitative boundary and spatial constraints of the multiple retro-cues effect and support the \"attentional zoom-lens\" mechanism of attention modulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148819964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}