Department of Psychology, Achva Academic College, M.P.O Shikmim, 79800, Beer-Tuvia, Israel.
Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Psychol Res. 2020 Sep;84(6):1545-1554. doi: 10.1007/s00426-019-01167-5. Epub 2019 Mar 15.
Studies designed to explore memory for single items versus paired items (i.e., associative memory) in young adults show inconsistent results. Some studies report a decrease in associative recognition and others report mild-to-moderate or even a null effect. The studies often do not take into account stimuli serial position (SSP) when analyzing the locus of associative accuracy. Studies testing SSP often target memory for items, while studies targeting associative memory decline as a function of SSP are lacking. The objective of the current study is to test the separate and joint effect of SSP (experiments 1 + 2) and presentation duration (experiment 2) on memory recognition for items versus associations. We hypothesized that greater associative decline (compared to the expected decline in memory for items with similar serial location) will be observed for the material located at the end of a learning list than the material located at the beginning of a learning list. The results of the two experiments converged and confirmed our hypotheses; the greatest associative deficit was observed for associative material located at the end of the learning list (experiments 1 + 2) and for material presented for short durations (experiment 2). The interaction between SSP and presentation duration did not reach significance; however, a direct estimation of the cumulative deficit of SSP and presentation duration confirmed our hypothesis regarding greater associative deficit for recently presented items for short durations. These results highlight the importance of the joint and separate, effect of SSP and presentation duration to the study of associative memory decline.
在年轻人中，旨在探索单一项目与配对项目记忆（即联想记忆）的研究结果不一致。一些研究报告称联想识别能力下降，而另一些研究则报告轻度至中度，甚至没有影响。这些研究在分析联想准确性的位置时，往往没有考虑到刺激序列位置（SSP）。测试 SSP 的研究通常针对项目记忆，而针对 SSP 作为功能的联想记忆下降的研究则缺乏。本研究的目的是测试 SSP（实验 1+2）和呈现持续时间（实验 2）对项目和联想记忆识别的单独和联合影响。我们假设，与具有相似序列位置的项目记忆相比，位于学习列表末尾的材料会出现更大的联想下降（与预期下降相比），而位于学习列表开头的材料则不会出现联想下降。两个实验的结果趋同并证实了我们的假设；位于学习列表末尾的联想材料（实验 1+2）和呈现持续时间较短的材料（实验 2）观察到最大的联想缺陷。SSP 和呈现持续时间之间的相互作用没有达到显著水平；然而，SSP 和呈现持续时间的累积缺陷的直接估计证实了我们的假设，即最近呈现的短时间内的项目存在更大的联想缺陷。这些结果强调了 SSP 和呈现持续时间的联合和单独影响对联想记忆下降研究的重要性。
