The memorability of names and the divergent effects of prior experience
Stenberg, Georg LU ; Hellman, Johan LU and Johansson, Mikael LU
(2008)
In European Journal of Cognitive Psychology
20(2).
p.312-345
- Abstract
- Pre-experimental familiarity can have paradoxical effects on episodic memory. Knowledge of the stimulus domain usually enhances memory, but word frequency - a presumed correlate of prior experience - is negatively related to recognition accuracy. The present study examined episodic recognition of names and its relation to two measures of pre-experimental knowledge, name frequency, and fame. Frequency was operationalised as the number of hits in a national telephone directory, and fame as hits on national mass media websites. Recognition accuracy was increased by fame, but diminished by frequency. Four experiments confirmed the findings, using yes/no recognition, ROC curves, and remember-know paradigms. Hit rates were consistently more... (More)
- Pre-experimental familiarity can have paradoxical effects on episodic memory. Knowledge of the stimulus domain usually enhances memory, but word frequency - a presumed correlate of prior experience - is negatively related to recognition accuracy. The present study examined episodic recognition of names and its relation to two measures of pre-experimental knowledge, name frequency, and fame. Frequency was operationalised as the number of hits in a national telephone directory, and fame as hits on national mass media websites. Recognition accuracy was increased by fame, but diminished by frequency. Four experiments confirmed the findings, using yes/no recognition, ROC curves, and remember-know paradigms. Hit rates were consistently more strongly influenced by fame than by frequency, whereas the reverse was true for false alarm rates. These dissociations suggest that two different forms of semantic memory, specific and nonspecific knowledge, interact with episodic memory in separate ways. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/939982
- author
- Stenberg, Georg
LU
; Hellman, Johan
LU
and Johansson, Mikael
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2008
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- European Journal of Cognitive Psychology
- volume
- 20
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 312 - 345
- publisher
- Psychology Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000254049000007
- scopus:38949186406
- ISSN
- 1464-0635
- DOI
- 10.1080/09541440701398724
- project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b74c628a-8855-436d-8826-de845e74a27a (old id 939982)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 09:56:32
- date last changed
- 2022-01-29 19:32:01
@article{b74c628a-8855-436d-8826-de845e74a27a,
abstract = {{Pre-experimental familiarity can have paradoxical effects on episodic memory. Knowledge of the stimulus domain usually enhances memory, but word frequency - a presumed correlate of prior experience - is negatively related to recognition accuracy. The present study examined episodic recognition of names and its relation to two measures of pre-experimental knowledge, name frequency, and fame. Frequency was operationalised as the number of hits in a national telephone directory, and fame as hits on national mass media websites. Recognition accuracy was increased by fame, but diminished by frequency. Four experiments confirmed the findings, using yes/no recognition, ROC curves, and remember-know paradigms. Hit rates were consistently more strongly influenced by fame than by frequency, whereas the reverse was true for false alarm rates. These dissociations suggest that two different forms of semantic memory, specific and nonspecific knowledge, interact with episodic memory in separate ways.}},
author = {{Stenberg, Georg and Hellman, Johan and Johansson, Mikael}},
issn = {{1464-0635}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{312--345}},
publisher = {{Psychology Press}},
series = {{European Journal of Cognitive Psychology}},
title = {{The memorability of names and the divergent effects of prior experience}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09541440701398724}},
doi = {{10.1080/09541440701398724}},
volume = {{20}},
year = {{2008}},
}