一致性、相关性对记忆生存优势效应的影响

Effects of Relevance and Congruity on Survival Advantage of Memory

对词语进行生存加工能提高记忆成绩,这种记忆的生存优势效应已得到不少研究的验证,且大多数研究表明生存优势是一种独特的编码方式(Nairne&Pandeirada,2011)。但是,Butler等人(2009)的研究结果表明实验中生存加工带来的记忆优势可能是一致性效应(即编码任务与编码的材料之间具有一致性)的作用。本文在2个实验中选用与生存和抢劫加工条件相关程度不同的词(高中低)为实验材料,采用生存加工、抢劫加工、愉悦度和有意学习为实验条件,研究一致性和相关性在记忆生存优势中的作用。结果发现:(1)生存条件下的记忆效果显著优于愉悦度条件和有意学习条件,这说明的确存在记忆的生存优势效应;(2)高生存相关词在生存加工条件下产生了记忆优势,而中、低生存相关词在2种加工条件下记忆成绩差异不显著,这说明加工条件的一致性只在一定程度上影响着记忆的生存优势效应;(3)词语自身的生存相关性没有表现出较强的记忆优势,当然这也可能与实验材料的词频有关。研究结果支持了Nairne和Pandeirada(2011)的观点。

Lots of research found that survival processing led to superior retention of the words relative to other semantic encoding tasks, which was termed survival advantage of memory. Nairne and Pandeirada （2011） claimed that survival processing may be a special and powerful memory encoding procedure; but Butler, Kang, ＆ Roediger （2009） argued that Congruity effects between materials and processing tasks in the survival processing paradigm are critical cause of survival advantage of memory. In the present study, 2 experiments were conducted to investigate： 1） whether congruity will contribute to survival advantage of memory, namely whether people remember items better if those items are congruent with a survival scenario; 2） whether relevance of words to survival was the other cause of survival advantage of memory, namely whether higher relevance of words to survival will result in more superior memory performance. We preselected 45 words related to survival （15 high-related, 15 mid- related and 15 low-related words to survival scenario） and 24 words related to robbery （8 high-related, 8 mid-related, 8 low-related words to robbery scenario） by asking 80 participants to rate the words according to their relevance to survival scenario or to robbery scenario respectively. In experiment 1, 96 participants were asked to study 45 words in survival processing, pleasantness rating, and intentional memory procedures respectively, the results showed a significant survival advantage exists. In experiment 2a, we manipulated congruence between words and processing condition. 60 participants were asked to study 24 words related to robbery （preselected according to their relevance to robbery scenario） and 24 words related to survival （selected from experiment 1） in survival processing and robbery processing respectively; in experiment 2b, the other 60 participants were asked to study the same words as in experiment 2a under 2 unrelated processing conditions, such as pleasantness rating and intentional memory procedures respectively. The results of 2 experiments showed that： 1） congruence between words and processing condition enhanced memory performance, but not explained the whole survival advantage of memory; 2） high relevance to survival scenario of words per se did not result in survival advantage of memory, which may be affected by words frequency of study items preselected according to their relevance to survival, it deserves more further investigation. In a word, our results suggest survival advantage of memory is caused by survival processing, namely survival processing may be a special and powerful memory encoding procedure, which is consistent with the explanation of Nairne and Pandeirada （2011）.