Facilitation in Recognizing Pairs of Words: Evidence of a Dependence Between Retrieval Operations - Article Example

Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations Goal of the article The researchers in this article were mainly concerned with the determination of how paired words are recognized when presented to subjects in the form of letter strings. As such, the experiments performed sought to determine the dependence in retrieval models based on the dependence between successive decisions on whether the string letters would form a word. Thus, the dependence between the retrieval operations were considered as essential in this study given that it aided the recognition process for the string of words (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). To be able to achieve this, the study applied the use of lexical decision in the measurement of the reaction time. By studying homographs and non-homographs, the study was concerned with the frequency of the words formed from the strings and their effect to the long term memory. These aspects can be categorized in a question form and provide information as to what nature and invariance would have on the underlying retrieval operations (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). Cognitive psychology terms a. Retrieval model: In cognitive psychology, the term refers to the developing of information retrieval concepts from the long term memory in such a manner that enables the bringing of stored memories into a person’s conscious awareness. In this study, the model is used or applied as a basic structural application of the memory functions towards the string pair of letters used to facilitate the recognition of words. b. Semantic decision: Psychologically, the application of semantic analysis of semantic memory requires the making of decisions. Such decisions, commonly referred to as semantic decisions have a great role or impact on how individuals learn new ideas that can be applied to the knowledge of things in the past. By making such decisions, meaning is given to words and sentences that had no meaning. In the study, semantic decisions are made with regard to whether a particular string of letters that are made into a word belonged to a specific semantic category. The decision entailed searching for the stored words in a semantic category. c. Lexical decision: This task is commonly used in the demonstration of conceptual priming and the effects of the regularity of the use of words in classifying time. This concept has been largely used as an application of tasks in the determination of semantic memory nature. In this experiment, when presented with the string of letters so as to conceptualize and form them into words, the measurement of the reaction time is done based on the lexical decision reached. The lexical decisions did not involve the search as in the case for semantic decisions for all the sets in the memory. Description of the dependent variable The core variable is the retrieval operations in which the evidence differences between the pair of words obtained was measured by finding the associative relationship between and two formed words. The lexical decision is shown to be affected by the meaning of the words formed. Subsequently, the relationships between the variables were varied while the overt response was kept constant. As such, a reasoned response involved successive decisions on the formed words that are entirely different from each other. Description of the independent variables The independent variable used in the determination of the dependent variable was the variation of the degrees of association between the formed words from the string of letters. The test that was conducted as a result of this variation entailed the test of dependence between the components of the two decisions in regard to their memory accessing capabilities. Developed on the basis of yes-no stimuli responses, the variable’s stimuli were presented in the form of practice trial blocks (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). In measuring the reaction times as an independent variable, the means of the times were observed for the mean errors and the result was that the mean errors tended to positively correlate with the mean times thus, suggesting no speed-accuracy tradeoff between the observed mean times differences and the degree of association. This is because the degree of association affected the lexical decisions in the yes-no homograph tasks. Description of the experiment In this study of determining the facilitation of the recognition of paired words, two different experiments were involved in which the participants of the study were simultaneously presented with two strings of letters to convert them into words. In the first experiment, a ‘yes’ response would be achieved when both presented strings were words, otherwise participants response with a ‘no.’ In experiment two, the subjects respond with ‘same’ if the strings were either both words or both non-words, or ‘different’ if otherwise. Experiment one engaged a total of 12 high school students as subjects with 48 pairs of associated and 48 pairs of unassociated words given to them as test stimuli. The subjects were run independently in a 45 minutes session that involved series of discrete random time trials (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). In experiment two, similar number of subjects as experiment one were used although not the same subjects but, those drawn from the same population. Consequently, the same stimuli as in the first experiment, was used. The procedure and design were also similar except that the participants were expected to press the ‘same’ key with the right index finger if the stimulus involved two words or non-words and press the ‘different’ key with the left index finger, if otherwise. Halve of the performed trials required ‘same’ responses (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). Main effects and interactions The determination of the main effects and interactions in this study relates to the processing of the appropriate stimuli based on the successively formed decisions. In experiment one, the error patterns indicate that the tradeoff between speed and accuracy had no significant effect on the observed mean reaction time differences. Thus, this suggested a powerful degree of association factor of the lexical decision on the yes-no task. As such, the association effect was two to three times larger than the average homograph effect, and it consistently occurred across the subjects. In experiment two, the association effect of the ‘same’ responses with F (1, 22) = 10.2 p < 0.01 were not significantly different from the ‘yes’ effects in the first experiment with F (1, 22) = 1.4 p < 0.20. For the pairs of words that entailed both word and non-word, the word’s display position effect on the reaction time, significantly interacted with the task at F (1, 22) = 76.4 p < 0.001 (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). Suggested steps or conclusions There is no direct relationship between the spreading – excitation model and the location – shifting model. In discussing the dependence of the retrieval operations, the retrieving of information from a specific memory location produced passive spread of excitation to other locations for facilitation of later retrieval. Retrieval of information from a long term memory resembled the retrieval of information from a magnetic disk. The association effect appears to be more limited to semantic decisions and same-different judgments hence, providing means for the study of relations temporarily contagious (Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971). Studying Lexical Decision I would apply the same tests as used in this study given that the semantic tests were more or less effective in the determination of the relations between retrieval operations. Subsequently, same-different judgment tests would be much appropriate as the same enabled the facilitation of the recognition of words hence, likely to allow for the comparison of the meaning of words. Application of lexical decision on education Through the determination of the effect of one’s educational background on the retrieval and recognition processes of memory. Stronger/higher educational levels would yield greater responses on the lexical decisions as compared to limited literacy. Particularly, this would entail the determination of the effect of lexical processing on the literacy levels of individuals. Reference Meyer, D. E., & Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words. Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90, 227-234. Read More