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Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott-Read-Solso (DRMRS) procedure in which list items are shown that are semantically related to a central theme that is not presented, undergraduates (N = 61) studied either short or long lists in the form of auditory words alone, pictures alone, or pictures accompanied by auditory words. Correct recall and correct recognition scores were similar in all three conditions. However, false memory (reporting the non-presented central theme) was reduced with pictures alone compared to words alone for the recall task, and for the recognition task with short lists. Confidence was higher for correct recall and correct recognition than for false recall and false recognition, but people who were higher or lower in confidence did not differ on any memory measure. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed., Author(s): Sarah R. Benmergui [sup.1] , Stuart J. McKelvie [sup.1] , Lionel G. Standing [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0004 1936 842Xgrid.253135.3Department of Psychology, Bishop's University, J1M 1Z7, Sherbrooke, QC, [...]

Four experiments (N = 164) on context-dependent memory were performed to explore the effects on verbal memory of incidental cues during the test session which replicated specific features of the learning session. These features involved (1) bystanders, (2) the clothing of the experimenter, (3) background music, and (4) the arousal level of the subject. Social contextual cues (bystanders or experimenter clothing) improved verbal recall or recognition. However, recall decreased when the contextual cue was a different stimulus taken from the same conceptual category (piano music by Chopin) that was heard during learning. Memory was unaffected by congruent internal cues, produced by the same physiological arousal level (low, moderate, or high heart rate) during the learning and test sessions. However, recall increased with the level of arousal across the three congruent conditions. The results emphasize the effectiveness as retrieval cues of stimuli which are socially salient, concrete, and external.

The effect of size changes (8:1 or 1:8) between learning and recognition sessions upon item and size recognition was tested, using either pictures or words as stimuli. Participants (N=34) viewed color photographs of everyday objects or the corresponding printed words and then performed 160 trials of a recognition task, including 50% new stimuli, for which they had to indicate whether each item had been seen before and whether its size had changed. Item recognition, for pictures only, was improved by size congruency between the learning and test sessions. In contrast, size recognition was raised by learning/test-size congruency for both pictures and words. Both word- and picture-learning stimuli produced higher item and size recognition when large in area rather than small. The data are interpreted as showing the stronger role of spatial coding with pictorial than with verbal stimuli.

Based on previous research by Goldstein and Chance in which poor recognition memory for abstract visual patterns was reported, this study compared recognition memory for pictures of everyday concrete objects, regular abstract stimuli as employed by Goldstein and Chance, and diverse abstract stimuli. A (3) x 2 design (stimulus type x test order) analysis of variance design was used. The subjects (N = 31) first viewed 30 target stimuli, followed by an immediate recognition test in which for 30 paired target and distractor stimuli shown they indicated which one they had seen previously. Concrete pictures were recognized with near perfect accuracy, and above the level for diverse abstract pictures; these in turn were better identified than regular abstract items, on which performance resembled that found by Goldstein and Chance. It is concluded that stimulus discriminability, rather than representational meaningfulness, may be crucial in picture recognition.

Business and economics majors (N = 146) were tested on the D'Amore Test of Elementary Arithmetic, which employs third-grade test items from 1932. Only 40% of the subjects passed the test by answering 10 out of 10 items correctly. Self-predicted scores were a good predictor of actual scores, but performance was not associated with demographic variables, grades in calculus courses, liking for science or computers, or mathematics anxiety. Scores decreased over the subjects' initial years on campus. The hardest test item, with an error rate of 23%, required the subject to evaluate (36 x 7) + (33 x 7). The results are similar to those of Standing in 2006, despite methodological changes intended to maximize performance.

Extracts from the eighteenth century writings of Joseph Addison are presented to show his empirical, deductive approach to the study of animal behavior. The topics examined by Addison include the experimental distinction between instinctive and learned behavior, internal and external control of behavior, the survival value of instinct, parental behavior, animal societies, communication, the relationship between behavior patterns and body structures, species-specific releasing mechanisms, the ethogram, and the existence of a comprehensive phylogenetic scale. Addison's conceptual framework, save that it does not recognize evolutionary change, includes many major concepts of mid-twentieth century ethology.

This study examined whether demand characteristics concerning music can change subjects' performance on the Wonderlic Personnel Test of intelligence. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned and informed either that Mozart's music typically enhances cognitive performance or diminishes it. They then completed the Wonderlic Personnel Test while listening to a Mozart piano sonata. The subjects with a positive set answered significantly more items correctly on the test (14%) than those with a negative set (p = .03). This result may hold implications for the study of the 'Mozart effect'.

54 undergraduates' reports indicated that the amount of alcohol consumed per week did not differ among university athletes, intramural athletes, and non-athletes, but it was positively related to male gender and to reported smoking.