Date of Award

5-8-1990

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

This study employed complex, pictorial stimuli and a time-course format to explore early-process characteristics of recognition memory. A suggestion that time variables should interact under certain conditions is implicit in some recent dual-process models of recognition memory. A goal of the experiment was to assess compatibility of results with specific models of recognition memory.Item exposure time was crosses with response deadline time in a 3 x 4 design. Seventy-two subjects viewed an input set of 48 scenic, color photographs of cityscapes and landscapes. The set was divided into three blocks of 16 photographs. Exposure time of photographs within each block was 200, 500, or 2000 milliseconds.At test, each subject was assigned to a response deadline of 200, 400, 800, or 1800 milliseconds. There were 72 pictures shown at test; half had been viewed previously at input (target photographs) and half were not seen at input (distractor photographs).A project tachistoscope and an Apple IIe computer were interfaced for the data collection. Computer programs were written to control response deadline timing during a deadline practice phase of the experiment and during the memory test. Software programming signed a warning tone for each deadline and compiled reaction time and yes/no recognition data. Responses were made by key press.Robust main effects of item exposure time and response deadline and an interaction of the two variables were found. Simple main effects were observed at all deadlines but the 200 msec deadline, which reduced performance to chance for each level of item exposure.Encoding and retrieval manipulations affected recognition in a highly complex, interactive manner. The interaction of time variables is clearly supportive of two recent dual-process models of recognition which (generally) propose familiarity and search processes. Present results suggest that the recognition memory process that evaluated whether a test item had been viewed previously changed from familiarity to search, but only under specific time conditions.A new model containing dual recognition processes of familiarity and search was presented. The model incorporates features of dual-coding theory with features of dual-process recognition theory.

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