Event models and the fan effect.

The current study explored the persistence of event model organizations and how this influences the experience of interference during retrieval. People in this study memorized lists of sentences about objects in locations, such as "The potted palm is in the hotel." Previous work has shown that such information can either be stored in separate event models, thereby producing retrieval interference, or integrated into common event models, thereby eliminating retrieval interference. Unlike prior studies, the current work explored the impact of forgetting up to 2 weeks later on this pattern of performance. We explored three possible outcomes across the various retention intervals. First, consistent with research showing that longer delays reduce proactive and retroactive interference, any retrieval interference effects of competing event models could be reduced over time. Second, the binding of information into events models may weaken over time, causing interference effects to emerge when they had previously been absent. Third, and finally, the organization of information into event models could remain stable over long periods of time. The results reported here are most consistent with the last outcome. While there were some minor variations across the various retention intervals, the basic pattern of event model organization remained preserved over the two-week retention period.

Phonological similarity in working memory.

That phonologically similar words in a short-term memory test are more difficult to recall than phonologically dissimilar words is a well-known phenomenon. This effect is the phonological similarity decrement. In the present study, we examined whether this phonological similarity decrement is present when additional semantic information is available, as in a reading span test, as compared with a standard presentation, or in the context of an operation span test. The results revealed a phonological similarity facilitation. Phonologically similar words were remembered better than phonologically dissimilar words.

Goal coordination in narrative comprehension.

In this paper, we report two experiments in which the consequence of maintaining multiple, unrelated character goals during comprehension were studied. This is in contrast to previous work that has focused on a single goal, or multiple related goals. The results showed that the presence of active subsequent goals can diminish the availability of earlier mentioned goals, even in the absence of semantic and other relations. In contrast, the status of earlier mentioned goals does not influence the availability of subsequent goals. These results support an explanation-based view of comprehension.

Situation models and aging.

Younger and older adults were tested for their ability to process and retrieve information from texts. The authors focused on the construction and retrieval of situation models relative to other types of text representations. The results showed that during memory retrieval, younger adults showed superior memory for surface form and textbase knowledge (what the text was), whereas older adults had equivalent or superior memory for situation model information (what the text was about). The results also showed that during reading, older and younger adults were similar in their sensitivity to various aspects of the texts. Overall, these findings suggest that although there are age-related declines in the processing and memory for text-based information, for higher level representations, these abilities appear to be preserved. Several possibilities for why this is the case are discussed, including an in-depth consideration of one possibility that involves W. Kintsch's (1988) construction-integration model.

Working memory and situation model updating.

Situation model updating requires managing the availability of information as a function of its relevance to the current situation. This is thought to involve some aspect of working memory. The present study assesses the relation between updating ability and various measures of working memory span or capacity. In addition, a primitive general measure of situation model processing, a situation model identification test, and its relation to updating ability was also assessed. The present experiment used a version of a paradigm developed by Glenberg, Meyer, and Lindem (1987) to assess updating. Although updating was observed in both anaphoric reading time and recognition test accuracy measures, the reading time measure was relatively weak. Importantly, the updating effect on the recognition test was unrelated to working memory capacity. In contrast, updating was related to performance on the situation model identification task. Specifically, people who were good at model processing were better able to keep associated objects available than were people who were less adept. There were no differences in the maintenance of dissociated objects. These results suggest that the relationship between situation model processing and working memory capacity is relatively weak.

Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language.

We examined whether the functionality of spatial relations affects the construction and memory of information in situation models. A functional relationship involves the interaction of entities that is implied by either typical use or contextual demands. Previous research has shown that spatial relations are less likely to be encoded during comprehension unless there is extensive prior knowledge, explicit instructions to attend to spatial information, or a clear emphasis on spatial information. If the construction of a situation model is guided by a need to understand the functional structure of a situation, then functional spatial relations should be more likely to be encoded. The results of our study showed that sentences with functional spatial relations were read faster and remembered better in both recall and recognition tests than sentences with nonfunctional spatial relations.

Source cuing: memory for melodies.

Source cuing is a source-monitoring process in which the retrieval of a memory trace is aided by the use of a memory probe that includes information that is indicative of the original source. This is in contrast to source discrimination, where people need to retrieve the identity of the source of information. Thus, in source cuing, the source information is given, and in source discrimination, the source information is to be retrieved. The operation of source cuing was demonstrated in two experiments in which people had to identify which of two melodies had been heard earlier. Source cuing was present for information that was more indicative of the source (i.e., timbre), but not for information that was less indicative of the source (i.e., pitch). A third experiment demonstrated that the use of source cuing can be influenced by the retrieval context.

The fan effect: a tale of two theories.

This article addresses J. R. Anderson and L. M. Reder's (1999) account of the differential fan effect reported by G. A. Radvansky, D. H. Spieler, and R. T. Zacks (1993). The differential fan effect is the finding of greater interference with an increased number of associations under some conditions, but not others, in a within-subjects mixed-list recognition test. Anderson and Reder concluded that the differential fan effects can be adequately explained by assuming differences in the weights given to concepts in long-term memory. When a broader range of data is considered, this account is less well supported. Instead, it is better to assume that the organization of information into referential representations, such as situation models, has a meaningful influence on long-term memory retrieval.

The comprehension and validation of social information.

The information one acquires in daily life concerns specific people and events about which one has prior knowledge. A theory of social cognition is proposed to account for the comprehension and verification of such information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The theory specifies the conditions in which statements about familiar people and events (e.g., "Jane Fonda does aerobics") are spontaneously recognized as true or false in the process of comprehending them. It further specifies the conditions in which these spontaneous validity judgments of a statement will influence perceptions of its implications when the statement is made in a social context. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information in combination is considered.

Memory retrieval and suppression: the inhibition of situation models.

When people retrieve newly learned facts on a recognition test, they are often increasingly slowed by the number of other newly learned facts that have a concept in common with the probed fact. This is called the fan effect. Assuming that people are using situation models of the learned information, the author considers whether the inhibition of competing representations is one of the processes involved in the fan effect. Evidence was found for negative priming of related but irrelevant situation models, thus supporting the idea that the inhibition of highly related memory traces is used in long-term memory retrieval. As such, this is a form of retrieval-based inhibition.

Retrieval from temporally organized situation models.

Time is an important part of establishing situations in the world. As such, temporal information should be reflected in the organization of information into situation models. This article reports 3 experiments that explore whether people will integrate sets of related facts into situation models in a time-based fashion. People memorized lists of facts and then took a speeded recognition test. A retrieval interference methodology was used to assess whether they had integrated the facts into situation models. The presence of interference indicated a lack of integration. In contrast, a marked reduction or an absence in interference indicated integration. In 2 experiments, time-based integration was observed when common time periods were referred to by either events (e.g., "when the camera flashed") or verb tense (i.e., past, present, and future). A 3rd experiment demonstrated that common time periods alone are not sufficient; the information must be allowed to occur potentially within the same situation.

Situation models in language comprehension and memory.

This article reviews research on the use of situation models in language comprehension and memory retrieval over the past 15 years. Situation models are integrated mental representations of a described state of affairs. Significant progress has been made in the scientific understanding of how situation models are involved in language comprehension and memory retrieval. Much of this research focuses on establishing the existence of situation models, often by using tasks that assess one dimension of a situation model. However, the authors argue that the time has now come for researchers to begin to take the multidimensionality of situation models seriously. The authors offer a theoretical framework and some methodological observations that may help researchers to tackle this issue.

Narrative comprehension and aging: the fate of completed goal information.

Previous research has shown that older adults are able to use situation models in a manner similar to younger adults. However, other areas of cognition have shown that older adults are less able to remove irrelevant information from the current stream of processing. Accordingly, the authors tested whether older and younger adults would differ in reducing the availability of information about a completed goal in a situation model during narrative comprehension. In 2 experiments, memory probes tested for the availability of protagonist goal information during reading when it was either failed goal, completed goal, or neutral information. The results for both age groups showed that goal information was most available in the failed goal condition, less available in the completed goal condition, and least available in the neutral condition. No reliable differences between younger and older adults in the pattern of response times were observed. Reading time data were also examined to explore the possibility that older adults engage in a longer wrap-up period after a goal is completed, but no such difference was found.

Situation models and abstract ownership relations.

Six experiments used a fan-effect paradigm to test whether people can use the abstract relation of ownership to help integrate information into situation models. People studied sentences of the form The [person] owns/is buying the [object] for a later recognition test. The integration of sentences into a situation model (as evidenced by an attenuated or absent fan effect) was observed when the verb phrase referred to a specific event (is buying) and the objects could all be bought in the same place (e.g., a drugstore). This organization did not occur either when the verb phrase referred to general ownership (owns) or when the items were unlikely to be purchased in a single location (e.g., television and car). It was concluded that although abstract relations can be used to segregate information into sets that can be integrated into situation models, this integration is more likely when it can be embedded within a spatial-temporal framework.

Uncertainty in estimating distances from memory.

Magnitude estimations involving spatial characteristics, such as distance, typically show a compressive function when estimates are made from memory. In particular, as the magnitude of a property grows larger and larger, estimates become more and more inaccurate, with increasing underestimates of the actual magnitude. Previous theories have attempted to explain this difference by supposing that magnitude estimation was accomplished through a reperceptual process, in which the errors of perception are magnified, or a transformation process, in which the memory trace undergoes a consistent alteration toward a more schematic form. The present experiments present evidence in support of an uncertainty hypothesis. When subjects are uncertain of the actual value of a distance, they are forced to guess on the basis of the mean distance they encountered, because they are unable to retrieve the information accurately. When they can retrieve the information, they are more certain and their estimates are more accurate. This hypothesis was also extended to integrative conditions in which the subjects were presented with the stimulus display in a piecemeal fashion. In these cases, distance estimates were derived by combining spatial representations. This method of presentation caused distance estimates to become less accurate.

Mental model organization.

Previous research (Radvansky & Zacks, 1991) has shown that the fan effect is mediated not by the number of nominal associations paired with a concept but by the number of mental models into which related concepts are organized. Specifically, newly learned "facts" about different objects in one location are integrated into a single mental model and no fan effect is produced, whereas facts about one object in different locations are not integrated and a fan effect is produced. In 6 experiments we investigated several factors' influence on location-based organization preferences. We found no impact of either article type (definite or indefinite) or object transportability. However, animate sentence subjects (people) reduced preference for location-based organizations. A clear person-based organization emerged by using locations that typically contain only a single person (e.g., phone booth) to make location-based situations less plausible.

Structural alterations of an ambiguous musical figure: the scale illusion revisited.

The scale illusion (Deutsch, 1975) shows the importance of frequency range in the perceptual organization of a sequence of notes. This paper includes three experiments on the scale illusion. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that if the structure of the pattern of notes used in the original scale illusion study is altered slightly, by adding or subtracting a pair of notes from the ends of the sequence, there is a significant decrease in the rate of frequency-based responses, suggesting a weaker illusion. Experiment 3 investigated two features of the note patterns that may have led to this change. Specifically, it asked whether the decrease in the strength of the illusion is due to (1) the nature of the notes at the extremes of the frequency range and/or (2) the nature of the notes at the crossing point of the two scales. While both sources were found to affect the strength of the scale illusion, the former had a greater influence.

Mental models and the fan effect.

Explanations of data from fan effect experiments have been based on propositional network models. This article presents findings not readily predicted by such models. In particular, in three experiments we found that, during a speeded-recognition test, subjects retrieved facts about several objects associated with a single location faster than facts about several locations associated with a single object. Indeed, there was no fan effect in the former case despite the fact that there were an equivalent number of associations among concepts in both conditions. We suggest that such data are consistent with a mental model representational account.

Age deficits in retrieval: the fan effect.

The fan effect paradigm was used to investigate age-related changes in the effects of different levels of interference on retrieval. Younger and older adults learned a list of person-activity "facts" in which each person and each activity occurred in 1, 2, or 3 different facts (fan level). A subsequent speeded recognition test required the participants to distinguish the learned facts from foils constructed by recombining the same concepts. On this recognition test, both groups showed an increase in response time and errors as the fan level of the probe increased. For older adults these effects were larger, however, indicating an age-related increase in interference effects in retrieval. These results are consistent with a theoretical framework (Hasher & Zacks, 1988) which proposes an age-related decline in the ability to screen irrelevant information out of working memory. The findings also have implications for age differences in discourse processing and other cognitive tasks that crucially depend on the timely and accurate retrieval of stored information.