Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

7-9-1979

Abstract

Three retroactive interference experiments investigated issues regarding the nature of memory representations for passage information. One approach to passage memory has been to assume that passage theme or gist is stored separately from lower-order representations of passage elements. Another view portrays passage information as stored in an integrated fashion. In this regard, the concept of a schema has been used to indicate either a separately stored structure for passage information, similar to the theme, or a structure which propositionally connects passage elements into a unified representation. Each general view of passage representations and the role of the schema leads to separate predictions regarding interference effects in memory.

Experiment 1 examined effects of thematically related information on memory for previous reactions to a prose passage. These effects may logically result from modification of schemata for initial reactions or from the use of the subsequent information to fill in gaps in memory during testing. Volunteers from introductory psychology. classes participated in t wo sessions, 3 weeks apart. Subsequent information, designed to bias memory for reactions in one of two directions, was delivered following initial reactions or after the 3-week delay. Similarly, testing occurred in the first or second session. Thus, three conditions of bias/test were employed: immediate bias/immediate test, immediate bias/delayed test, and delayed bias/delayed test. The results indicated that memory for reactions was influenced by the bias, only under conditions of immediate bias/delayed test. Because the effect was not obtained under other conditions, these results were more consistent with the view that the structure for passage reactions was modified than with the view that subsequent information was employed to fill in gaps in memory.

Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the potential effects of thematically unrelated information on memory for passage sentences. From the perspective that all passage information is stored in an integrated fashion, interference due to thematically irrelevant information was not anticipated. However, if multiple representations of passage information are stored, interference for specific meaning and exact wording of passage sentences was predicted. Both experiments employed an incidental interest-rating task for input sentences, followed by a similarity-rating task for phrase pairs. A two-alternative forced choice recognition test, using verbatim or semantic distractors for target sentences immediately followed the interpolated phrase task. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated reliable interference effects regarding memory for the exact wording of thematically unrelated sentences, and marginally reliable effects in memory for sentence meaning. When passage sentences were substituted for unrelated sentences in Experiment 3, the thematically unrelated phrase pairs interfered with memory for sentence meaning. Therefore, moderate support for the multiple-representation view was provided.

In summary, the results from this research suggest that the concept of the schema is best employed to refer to a higher-order structure which may be altered by thematically related information, but which does not necessarily subsume lower-order passage information.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Henry Carleton Ellis

Second Committee Member

Peder Jack Johnson

Third Committee Member

Harold D. Delaney

Fourth Committee Member

William C. Gordon

Fifth Committee Member

Richard Jerome Harris

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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