VanArsdall Joshua E, Nairne James S, Pandeirada Josefa N S, Cogdill Mindi
a Department of Psychological Sciences , Purdue University , West Lafayette , IN, USA.
b CINTESIS, Department of Education and Psychology , University of Aveiro , Aveiro , 3810-193 , Portugal.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2017 Apr;70(4):761-771. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1159707. Epub 2016 Mar 17.
Animate stimuli are better remembered than matched inanimate stimuli in free recall. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that animacy advantages are due to a more efficient use of a categorical retrieval cue. Experiment 1 developed an "embedded list" procedure that was designed to disrupt participants' ability to perceive category structure at encoding; a strong animacy effect remained. Experiments 2 and 3 employed animate and inanimate word lists consisting of tightly constrained categories (four-footed animals and furniture). Experiment 2 failed to find an animacy advantage when the categorical structure was readily apparent, but the advantage returned in Experiment 3 when the embedded list procedure was employed using the same target words. These results provide strong evidence against an organizational account of the animacy effect, indicating that the animacy effect in episodic memory is probably due to item-specific factors related to animacy.
在自由回忆中，有生命的刺激物比匹配的无生命刺激物更容易被记住。三项实验检验了以下假设：有生命优势是由于更有效地利用了分类检索线索。实验1开发了一种“嵌入列表”程序，旨在破坏参与者在编码时感知类别结构的能力；强烈的有生命效应仍然存在。实验2和实验3使用了由紧密受限类别（四足动物和家具）组成的有生命和无生命单词列表。当类别结构很明显时，实验2没有发现有生命优势，但在实验3中，当使用相同的目标单词采用嵌入列表程序时，优势又出现了。这些结果提供了有力证据，反对对有生命效应的组织性解释，表明情景记忆中的有生命效应可能是由于与有生命相关的特定项目因素。
