Is variety the spice of memory? Comparing the effects of two types of encoding variability on correct and false memory

Date
2013-09-23
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Abstract
Whether encoding variability facilitates memory depends on whether item-specific and relational processing are both performed across study blocks, and whether study items are weakly versus strongly related. Variable-processing groups studied a word list once using an item-specific task and once using a relational task. Variable-task groups’ two different study tasks recruited the same type of processing each block. Repeated-task groups performed the same study task each block. Recall and recognition were greatest in the variable-processing group, but only with weakly related lists. A variable-processing benefit also occurred when task-based processing was incongruent with the type of processing sponsored by a given list type (e.g., item-specific task with a related list), rather than redundant (e.g., relational task with a related list). Item-specific processing also reduced associative false recognition. Thus, performing both item-specific and relational processing, either within a block or across blocks, may be critical to producing an encoding-variability advantage.
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Cognitive
Citation
Huff, M. (2013). Is variety the spice of memory? Comparing the effects of two types of encoding variability on correct and false memory (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26685