Adaptive memory: Mechanisms of the animacy effect II

在最近的记忆研究中，最令人着迷的效果之一是观察到有生命的单词比无生命的单词更容易记住。在记忆文献中，有生命的人相对于无生命的人的记忆优势被称为有生命效应。诸如编码丰富性解释和注意力解释等理论解释将生命性效应归因于一个单一的潜在过程，但尚未得到令人信服的经验证据。补充编码过程的帐户可能提供一个有吸引力的解释的生命效应。根据这一解释，生命性促进了编码时关系处理和特定项目处理的结合。这种组合提高了自由召回，因为它支持检索的组织和可能的检索候选之间的歧视。由于互补编码过程的解释有着悠久的研究历史，它非常适合于发展假设，这些假设可以指导实证研究，并为生命效应背后的认知过程提供新的见解。该研究项目的总体目标是系统地测试互补编码过程的解释是否可以解释生命效应。为此，我们将测试明确规定的假设，对自由回忆和识别的生命力的影响是如何受到组合的列表组成和任务指令。此外，我们将测试的假设，这意味着更强的生命效应相比，延迟立即回忆。通过使用不同的任务和记忆措施，研究计划还将提供一个重要的测试的鲁棒性和概括性的生命效应对记忆。

Among of the most fascinating effects in recent memory research is the observation that animate words are better remembered than inanimate words. The memory advantage of animates over inanimates has become known as the animacy effect in the memory literature. Theoretical accounts such as the richness-of-encoding account and the attentional account that attribute the animacy effect to a single underlying process have not yet received convincing empirical evidence. The account of complementary encoding processes may provide an attractive explanation of the animacy effect. According to this account, animacy promotes a combination of relational and item-specific processing at encoding. This combination improves free recall because it supports both the organization of retrieval and the discrimination between possible retrieval candidates. Since the account of complementary encoding processes has a long research history, it is ideally suited for developing hypotheses that can guide empirical research and provide new insights into the cognitive processes underlying the animacy effect. The overarching goal of the research project is to systematically test whether the account of complementary encoding processes can explain the animacy effect. To this end, we will test well-specified hypotheses on how the animacy effects on free recall and recognition are affected by combinations of list composition and task instructions. Furthermore, we will test hypotheses that imply stronger animacy effects in delayed in comparison to immediate recall. By using different tasks and memory measures, the research program will also provide a critical test of the robustness and generalizability of the animacy effect on memory.