Cross-modality translations improve recognition by reducing false alarms

Conway and Gathercole [(1990). Writing and long-term memory: Evidence for a "translation" hypothesis. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 42, 513-527] proposed a translation account to explain why certain types of encoding produce benefits in memory: Switching modalities from...

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Published in:Memory (Hove) Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 53 - 58
Main Authors: Forrin, Noah D., MacLeod, Colin M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.01.2018
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Auditory discrimination
Auditory stimuli
Between-subjects design
False alarms
Humans
Hypotheses
Long term memory
Memory
Photic Stimulation
Recognition (Psychology)
Sensory integration
Translation
Typing
Visual discrimination
false alarms
distinctiveness
modality translation
Recognition
ISSN:0965-8211, 1464-0686, 1464-0686
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Conway and Gathercole [(1990). Writing and long-term memory: Evidence for a "translation" hypothesis. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 42, 513-527] proposed a translation account to explain why certain types of encoding produce benefits in memory: Switching modalities from what is presented to what is encoded enhances item distinctiveness. We investigated this hypothesis in a recognition experiment in which the presentation modality of a study list (visual vs. auditory) and the encoding activity (speaking vs. typing vs. passive encoding) were manipulated between-subjects. Manipulating encoding activity between-subjects ruled out any potential influence of the relationally distinct processing that can occur in a within-subject manipulation (in which all previous translation effects have been demonstrated). We found no overall difference in memory for words presented auditorily vs. visually nor for visual vs. auditory encoding, but critically presentation modality and encoding activity did interact. Translating from one modality to another - particularly from auditory presentation to visual encoding (typing) - led to the best memory discrimination. This was largely because of reduced false alarms, not increased hits, consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic.
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ISSN:0965-8211
1464-0686
1464-0686
DOI:10.1080/09658211.2017.1321129