{"title":"Text and picture integration during bridging information processing: A comparison of English and Chinese L1 and L2 speakers.","authors":"Chenyi Zhang, Ianthi Tsimpli, Elaine Schmidt","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01720-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01720-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bridging information facilitates comprehension in both textual and pictorial stories, but its effects when both types of information are present remain unclear. This study examines how bridging information and individual differences influence comprehension across texts and pictures. Participants read four-segment stories under six conditions: 1) picture-original (pictorial stories), 2) picture-to-text-switch (pictorial stories with textual bridging information), 3) picture-missing (pictorial stories without bridging information), 4) text-original (textual stories), (5) text-to-picture-switch (textual stories with pictorial bridging information), and (6) text-missing (textual stories without bridging information). L1 and L2 Chinese and English speakers participated. Missing conditions led to longer comprehension times across all groups, confirming the facilitative role of bridging information. Crucially, the picture-to-text switch caused no disruption, and Chinese L1 speakers were unaffected by the text-to-picture switch, suggesting that bridging information can be processed during text and picture integration without extra cognitive resources. However, English L1 and L2 speakers, as well as Chinese L2 speakers, showed increased comprehension times in the text-to-picture switch condition, indicating greater processing difficulty for alphabetic and L2 texts. Robust effects of individual differences were also revealed.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112041","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":"Similarity is associated with where repeated-event memories fall on the semantic-episodic continuum.","authors":"Oliver R Bontkes, Daniela J Palombo, Eva Rubínová","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01729-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01729-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Memories of repeated events are one form of memory thought to be intermediate on a proposed semantic-episodic continuum. However, it is not yet understood where repeated-event memories fall on this continuum, and which factors may be associated with greater or lesser reliance on episodic and semantic memory during recall. We investigated similarity amongst instances of repeated events as one factor which may be associated with where repeated events fall on the semantic-episodic continuum. In two preregistered studies, we asked participants to recall three repeated-event memories from their own lives (N<sub>1</sub> = 97 participants, 291 memories; N<sub>2</sub> = 419 participants, 1,257 memories) and report on the similarity amongst instances as well as the degree to which they relied on semantic memory, a single episode, and a mix of episodes in their recall of each event. In line with our predictions, similarity was positively correlated with reliance on semantic memory in both studies. In Study 2, similarity was negatively correlated with reliance on a single episode. We also conducted exploratory latent profile analyses using our three memory reliance variables, revealing three types of repeated-event memories. In both studies, similarity of place and emotional arousal were each associated with different memory profiles. Our findings highlight the importance of considering similarity in basic and applied repeated-event memory research, as different conditions of similarity (e.g., low vs. high) can manifest in different patterns of reliance on episodic and semantic memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144112040","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}
LaTasha R Holden, Kerri A Goodwin, Andrew R A Conway
{"title":"Higher trait working memory capacity may benefit standardized test performance under race-related stereotype threat.","authors":"LaTasha R Holden, Kerri A Goodwin, Andrew R A Conway","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01723-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01723-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stereotype threat (ST) occurs when individuals primed with negative stereotypes underperform relative to a control group. Activating ST increases anxiety and worries about being negatively perceived, also introducing mental distraction that negatively impacts performance. We consider racial/ethnic ST effects on standardized test performance (SDTP) on the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Across two experiments, working memory capacity (WMC) is investigated as a mediator and/or moderator of ST for race/ethnicity (Experiment 1, final n = 447, 19% Black, 81% White, 59% female and for Experiment 2, n = 166, 41% Black, 59% White, 73% female). We find a lack of strong evidence for the classic ST effect of a Race × Condition interaction. However, we show evidence that for Black students, higher trait WMC moderates racial/ethnic ST such that higher WMC is associated with higher scores on standardized tests under conditions of race-related ST. Our findings suggest the importance of higher WMC for racial minority students in remaining mentally resilient and maintaining performance during ST. Future work should address diversity and inclusion concerns regarding research on ST effects for racial/ethnic minorities, include more work examining racial/ethnic ST based on replication issues and statistical power, as well as more examination of the importance of WMC for performance under racial/ethnic ST. Future work should also consider the roles of protective factors, such as mindfulness and self-regulation practices in the context of racial/ethnic ST as WMC and SDTP have been shown to generally improve through implementing these practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144102957","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}
Markus Janczyk, Katharina Tucholski, Barbara Kaup, Rolf Ulrich
{"title":"Mental association of time and valence revealed with a novel chronometric approach: The positive-future effect.","authors":"Markus Janczyk, Katharina Tucholski, Barbara Kaup, Rolf Ulrich","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01715-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01715-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Two recent studies utilized indirect response procedures (i.e., a sentence completion task and the Implicit Association Test) and suggest that people evaluate the future more positively than the past (Kaup et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 612,720, 2021; Ulrich et al., Memory & Cognition, 52, 444-458, 2024). This present article reports a novel chronometric approach and a self-report study examining whether this relationship can be observed consistently. In one part of the chronometric study, participants were instructed to respond verbally with the words \"past\" and \"tomorrow\" to negatively and positively connotated words. In the positive-future condition, participants responded with \"tomorrow\" to positive and \"yesterday\" to negative words; in the positive-past condition, they responded with \"yesterday\" to positive and \"tomorrow\" to negative words. In the other part, participants responded verbally with \"good\" and \"bad\" to time-related words. In the positive-future condition, they responded with \"good\" to future-related and \"bad\" to past-related words; in the positive-past condition, they responded with \"good\" to past-related and \"bad\" to future-related words. Response times were shorter in the positive-future than in the positive-past condition, suggesting that participants consistently evaluate the future more positively than the past (i.e., the positive-future effect). This strengthens the view that the positive-future effect is robust and general. Several possible mechanisms of why this effect emerges are discussed. The self-report study, in contrast, indicated no significant difference in individuals' perceptions of the past compared to the future. This may be attributed to a positivity bias in recalling past events, which may mask the differences in how people perceive the past versus the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144081419","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}
Wendy S Francis, Erika L Guedea Morales, Bianca V Gurrola
{"title":"Reading or translating words in story contexts facilitates their production the next day: Evidence from bilingual repetition priming.","authors":"Wendy S Francis, Erika L Guedea Morales, Bianca V Gurrola","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01721-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01721-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Everyday language experience increases the efficiency of word production. The possible link between this type of learning and the memory phenomenon of repetition priming was explored in a bilingual repetition-priming experiment. Spanish-English bilinguals read or translated short stories containing target words that corresponded to pictures to be named at test, with retention intervals of several minutes or at least 24 h. Repetition priming in picture-naming RTs was significant following story translation in either direction or story reading in the language of the picture-naming test. These effects persisted across a retention interval of at least 24 h, indicating that the speeded word production reflects long-term learning. Thus, practice with either comprehension or production of contextualized words elicits long-term benefits for later production. In contrast to previous studies with isolated words or words embedded in short sentences, the priming effects in picture-naming RTs did not differ across encoding conditions. This pattern suggests that in complex language contexts, the comprehension processes of reading and translation are similar and the top-down processes elicited by comprehension and production practice are similarly beneficial in speeding later production. However, it remains a challenge to explain patterns of repetition-priming effects in accuracy, which represent enhanced probability of access to word forms that are not reliably produced.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144064912","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}
Wangjing Yu, Katherine D Duncan, Margaret L Schlichting
{"title":"Using retrieval contingencies to understand memory integration and inference.","authors":"Wangjing Yu, Katherine D Duncan, Margaret L Schlichting","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01727-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01727-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Past work has yielded mixed insights into how people draw upon their memories to make new inferences. While some studies have shown memories can be combined during encoding to store never-experienced, inferential associations, others have emphasized a retrieval-based mechanism in which separate, high-quality memories are recombined as inferences are needed. We hypothesized that there might be important individual differences to consider when reconciling these seemingly disparate findings. We set out to quantify these differences by measuring contingencies in people's memory recall behaviour. In Experiment 1, we first compared the performance of three memory contingency metrics using simulations and data from a task known to induce dependency. In doing so, we developed a correction to remove biases associated with general memory performance to isolate the representational structure of memories, and we selected the highest-fidelity option - corrected dependency - for subsequent analyses. Experiment 2 tested the sensitivity of our chosen metric: We manipulated the similarity across experiences to encourage integration for half of the memories. Consistent with prior work, we found reliable recall dependency in the high similarity condition. Finally, in Experiment 3, we used memory dependencies to reveal individual differences in inference approaches in exploratory analyses: While \"separators\" relied upon high-fidelity individual memories to make speeded inferences, \"integrators\" drew inferences faster than separators, but their judgements were not sped by recalling constituent experience details. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in memory representations when characterizing the mechanisms underlying memory-based inference.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144051305","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":"Working memory updating for free items and for item-to-context bindings: When attention is enough and when gating is needed.","authors":"Yoav Kessler, Sam Verschooren","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01728-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01728-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A well-supported working memory (WM) model holds that a \"gate\" separates the content of WM from information that does not need to be maintained or manipulated. Previous research suggests that switching between opening and closing this gate incurs a response-time cost, reflecting controlled cognitive effort. However, the exact nature of this cost remains debated. Some studies find that closing the gate is more costly than opening it, while in other studies these costs are comparable. Using an intertrial interval manipulation in the reference-back paradigm, we show that the larger cost of gate-closing is not an intrinsic feature of WM control, but is instead influenced by the automatic retention and removal of stimulus- and response-related information in WM. This finding indicates that WM is automatically but transiently updated with information for which attention-consuming processes such as response selection take place, challenging the prevailing view that WM updating is always effortful and controlled. Crucially, our findings reveal that updating individual items occurs rapidly and automatically when a single item is maintained. In contrast, updating bindings between items and their context is a slower, effortful process that requires gating. These results reconcile conflicting views regarding the nature of working memory encoding and updating.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144057088","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":"Upright and inverted unfamiliar face-matching tasks - everything correlates everywhere all at once.","authors":"Jeremy J Tree, Alex L Jones, Robin S S Kramer","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01725-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01725-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In a key study, Megreya and Burton (Memory & Cognition, 34, 865-876, 2006) argued that identity-matching tasks using unfamiliar faces may not effectively measure general 'real-world' face-processing ability - that is they are \"not faces\". They observed a high correlation in performance between upright and inverted unfamiliar face matching, a pattern not seen with familiar faces, which they interpreted as indicating unfamiliar face matching is qualitatively different and largely driven by image-specific factors. However, the authors cautioned that this limitation likely applies only to unfamiliar face-matching tasks for identity rather than other types of face judgements (e.g., emotion). The present study replicates and extends these findings by considering within-subject performance for upright/inverted unfamiliar face matching across various paradigms (sequential/simultaneous presentation or sorting) and face-judgement types (identity or emotion), whilst considering different types of measures (accuracy and reaction time). Our results illustrated high correlations for upright/inverted conditions were universally observed within tasks for both accuracy and reaction times. Subsequent factor analyses indicated that upright and inverted conditions loaded together into task-specific latent variables. These results concur with the conclusions of Megreya and Burton (2006) and extend to both identity and emotion matching tasks - that is such tasks exhibit low construct validity for testing hypotheses about much general 'everyday' face processing. We propose that researchers should carefully consider alignment between their test materials and the theoretical 'constructs' they aim to measure, ensuring more accurate and meaningful interpretations of their results.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144002241","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":"Anticipatory prediction in older readers.","authors":"Roslyn Wong, Aaron Veldre","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01712-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01712-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is well-established that skilled, young-adult readers rely on predictive processing during online language comprehension; however, fewer studies have investigated whether this extends to healthy, older adults (60 + years). The aim of the present research was to assess whether older readers make use of lexical prediction by investigating whether they demonstrate processing costs for incorrect predictions in a controlled experimental design. The eye movements of a sample of older adults (60-86 years) were recorded as they read strongly and weakly constraining sentences containing a predictable word or an unpredictable alternative that was either semantically related or unrelated. To determine whether predictive processing depends on the stimuli presentation format, a second experiment presented the same materials in a self-paced reading task in which each word of a sentence appears one at a time at the readers' own pace. Older adults showed processing benefits for expected input on eye-movement measures of reading. They also showed processing costs for unexpected input across both methodologies, but only when semantically unrelated to the best completion. Taken together, the results suggest that the use of predictive processes remains relatively preserved with age. The implications of these findings for understanding whether prediction is a fundamental component of online language comprehension are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144064911","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}
Andre Sahakian, Surya Gayet, Chris L E Paffen, Stefan Van der Stigchel
{"title":"The rise and fall of memories: Temporal dynamics of visual working memory.","authors":"Andre Sahakian, Surya Gayet, Chris L E Paffen, Stefan Van der Stigchel","doi":"10.3758/s13421-025-01718-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-025-01718-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Visual working memory (VWM) is a cognitive system, which temporarily stores task-relevant visual information to enable interactions with the environment. In everyday VWM use, we typically decide how long we look to encode information, and how long we wait before acting on the memory. In contrast, VWM is typically studied in unnaturally rigid paradigms that keep presentation times and delays fixed. Here, we ask how visual memories build up over self-paced viewing times, and how they decay over self-paced delays, in a task that naturally engages VWM. We employed a copying task in which participants were tasked to recreate an \"example\" arrangement of items in an adjacent empty \"workspace\". We tracked their unconstrained viewing and copying behavior at the level of individual items' viewing times and the time to successful placements (i.e., delay). Our results show that performance monotonically increased for viewing times up to 1 s (per item), and plateaued afterwards. Interestingly, while views exceeding 1 s did not strongly improve performance for short (2-s) delays, views beyond 1-s did improve performance for longer delays. In contrast, this pattern was not observed in Experiments 2A and 2B, where viewing and delay times were experimentally manipulated (i.e., in more typical, rigid paradigms). These findings showcase the importance of considering aspects of naturalistic behavior, like decision-making, when studying VWM. We suggest that in everyday situations, short glances are sufficient for immediate use from VWM, but long views are required for effective delayed use.</p>","PeriodicalId":48398,"journal":{"name":"Memory & Cognition","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144057719","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}