Psychology Department, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2012 Sep;19(5):566-91. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2011.639868. Epub 2012 Jan 17.
This study examined the bizarre imagery effect in young and older adults, under incidental and intentional conditions. Intentionality was manipulated across experiments, with participants receiving an incidental free recall test in Experiment 1 and an intentional test in Experiment 2. This study also examined the relation between working memory resources and the bizarreness effect. In Experiment 1 young and older adults were presented with common and bizarre sentences; they later received an incidental recall test. There were no age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect in Experiment 1 when ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. However, when the bizarreness effect was examined in terms of effect size, there was evidence that younger adults produced larger bizarreness effect sizes than younger adults. Experiment 2 further explored age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect by presenting young and older adults with bizarre and common sentences under intentional learning conditions. Experiment 2 failed to yield age differences as a function of item type (bizarre vs. common). In addition, Experiment 2 failed to yield significant evidence that the bizarreness effect is modulated by working memory resources. The results of this study are most consistent with the distinctiveness account of the bizarreness effect.
本研究考察了年轻人和老年人在偶然和有意条件下的奇异意象效应。在实验中，通过对参与者进行实验 1 中的偶然自由回忆测试和实验 2 中的有意测试来操纵意图。本研究还考察了工作记忆资源与奇异效应之间的关系。在实验 1 中，年轻人和老年人被呈现常见和奇异的句子；之后，他们接受了偶然的回忆测试。当使用 ANOVA 分析数据时，实验 1 中年轻人和老年人对奇异效应的敏感性没有年龄差异。然而，当以效应大小来检验奇异效应时，有证据表明，年轻人比老年人产生的奇异效应更大。实验 2 通过在有意学习条件下向年轻人和老年人呈现奇异和常见的句子，进一步探讨了对奇异效应的敏感性的年龄差异。实验 2 未能产生作为项目类型（奇异与常见）函数的年龄差异。此外，实验 2 未能提供显著证据表明工作记忆资源调节奇异效应。本研究的结果与奇异效应的独特性解释最为一致。
