Encoding time and the mirror effect in recognition memory: Evidence from eyetracking

Attention/likelihood theory has been used to explain the mirror effect in recognition memory. The theory also predicts that any manipulation that affects the recognition of old items will also affect recognition of the new items-more specifically, that all the underlying distributions will move and that they will move symmetrically on the decision axis. In five experiments, we tested this prediction. The first two experiments used encoding tasks during study to change recognition performance for high- and low-frequency words. The results show symmetrical dispersion of the underlying distributions. The final three experiments used repetition to increase recognition performance. Repetition produced a symmetrical pattern of movement that was different from that produced by encoding task. This pattern is, however, also covered by attention/likelihood theory. A further extension of the theory was used to predict response times.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 39(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (see record 2013-27860-001). In the article there were omissions in Figure 1. All versions of this article have been corrected.] The word frequency paradox refers to the finding that low frequency words are better recognized than high frequency words yet high frequency words are better recalled than low frequency words. Rather than comparing separate groups of low and high frequency words, we sought to quantify the functional relation between word frequency and memory performance across the broad range of frequencies typically used in episodic memory experiments. Here we report that both low frequency and high frequency words are better recalled than midfrequency words. In contrast, we only observe a low frequency advantage when participants were given a subsequent item recognition test. The U-shaped relation between word frequency and recall probability may help to explain inconsistent results in studies using mixed lists with separate groups of high and low frequency words.

Modulation of the word frequency effect in recognition memory after an unrelated lexical decision task

Rare words are usually better recognized than common words, a finding in recognition memory known as the word-frequency effect. Some theories predict the word-frequency effect because they assume that rare words consist of more distinctive features than do common words (e.g., Shiffrin & Steyvers's, 1997, REM theory). In this study, recognition memory was tested for words that vary in the commonness of their orthographic features, and we found that recognition was best for words made up of primarily rare letters. In addition, a mirror effect was observed: Words with rare letters had a higher hit rate and a lower false-alarm rate than did words with common letters. We also found that normative word frequency affects recognition independently of letter frequency. Therefore, the distinctiveness of a word's orthographic features is one, but not the only, factor necessary to explain the word-frequency effect.

Low-frequency (LF) words produce higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates than high-frequency (HF) words. This word frequency mirror pattern has been interpreted within dual-process models of recognition, which assume the contributions of a slower recollective process and a relatively fast-acting familiarity process. In the present experiments, recollection and familiarity were placed in opposition using Jacoby, L. L., Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513-541 (1991), two-list exclusion paradigm with HF and LF words. Exclusion errors to LF words exceeded those to HF words at fast deadlines, whereas the reverse occurred at slow deadlines. In Experiments 2 and 3, false alarms to HF nonpresented lures were higher than to LF nonpresented lures, indicating the use of baseline familiarity for totally new items. Combined, these results indicate that in addition to baseline familiarity and recollection, a third process involving the assessment of a relative change in familiarity is involved in recognition performance. Both relative changes in familiarity and recollection processes have distinct time courses and are engaged when there is diagnostic list information available, whereas baseline familiarity is used when there is no diagnostic information available (e.g., for nonpresented lure items).

Possible determinants of the word-frequency effect (WFE), that is, the finding that lowfrequency (LF) words are recognized more accurately than high-frequency (HF) words, are evaluated. Three studies examined the view that, since HF words have more meanings than LF words, it is less likely that the word sense tagged at time of presentation will be accessed at time of test and a correct response will be made. To ensure the same word sense was accessed at time of presentation and time of test in the case of both HF and LF words, sentence contexts used during presentation were combined with cuing procedures at time of test. Recognition performance improved, but the WFE was unaltered even when the identical sentence context was used during presentation and test. A fourth study considered GlarLzer and Bowles’ (19761 suggestion that associates of both HF and LF words tend to be HF words that are (1)likely to be activated and derivatively encoded during presentation and (2) likely to include a number of distractors from the recognition test sufficient to impair performance on HF words. Analysis of associative responses of subjects to HF and LF words, and the errors they made, support strongly such an interference-type interpretation of the WFE.

Five experiments were conducted in order to examine subjects' judgments of the memorability of high- (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words in the context of a recognition memory task. In Experiment 1, the subjects were provided study/test experience with a list of HF and LF words prior to making memorability judgments for a new list of HF and LF items. The findings were consistent with previous evidence (Greene & Thapar, 1994; Wixted, 1992) suggesting that subjects are not explicitly aware of the greater recognition memorability of LF words. Experiments 2-5 embedded the memorability judgment task within the recognition test itself. In these experiments, the subjects consistently gave higher memorability ratings to LF items. The contrast between the pattern of results found when the subjects made their judgments at the time of list presentation (Experiment 1) and that when they made their judgments during the recognition test (Experiments 2-5) is consistent with recent evidence that even seemingly highly related metamnemonic judgments (e.g., ease of learning judgments vs. judgments of learning for the same items) may be based on very different factors if they occur at different points in the study/test cycle. The present findings are also consistent with the possibility that very rapid retrieval of memorability information for HF and LF words may affect recognition decisions and may contribute to the recognition memory word frequency effect.

The mirror effect, the finding that a manipulation which increases the hit rate in recognition tests also decreases the false alarm rate, is held to be a regularity of memory. Neath et al. (in press) took advantage of the recent increase in the number of linguistic databases to create sets of stimuli that differed on one dimension but were more fully equated on other dimensions known to affect memory. Using these highly controlled stimulus sets, no mirror effects were observed; in contrast, using stimulus sets that had confounds resulted in mirror effects. In this article, we use their stimulus sets to examine associative recognition. Using confounded stimuli, Experiment 2 found a lower false alarm rate for high- compared to low-frequency words, replicating previous results, and Experiment 4 found a mirror effect when manipulating concreteness, also replicating previous results. Using highly controlled stimuli, Experiment 1 found no evidence that frequency affected associative recognition, and Experiment 3 found concreteness affected only the hit rate, not the false alarm rate. When highly controlled stimuli are used, frequency affects only the false alarm rate in item recognition and has no effect in associative recognition, whereas concreteness affects hit rates in both item and associative recognition. Implications for theoretical accounts are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Six experiments tested the hypothesis that the mirror effect in recognition memory reflects a deliberate, postretrieval assessment of the test item's memorability. Both word frequency and concreteness were varied, and constraints at retrieval were manipulated in 2 ways: Three experiments compared recognition tested either alone or while performing a secondary task, and 3 experiments used the response-signal method to control recognition processing time. Contrary to the hypothesis, the mirror effect was not eliminated or attenuated by either kind of retrieval constraint. Moreover, both retrieval manipulations induced mirror effects of their own. Current recognition-memory theories appear inadequate to explain the results

Word frequency plays a role in reduction processes: high-frequency words undergo more reduction than low-frequency words. Pretonic schwa reduction in Dutch is susceptible to frequency effects in this way, but the well-formedness of the cluster that remains after schwa deletion also plays a role. An experiment shows that cluster well-formedness and frequency effects in fact interact with each other. This suggests that phonological models should incorporate both lexical as well a grammatical information. Key words: Frequency effects, phonotactics, pretonic schwa, reduction. Introduction It has been observed for Dutch, that schwa deletion is more likely to be applied, when the resulting consonant cluster consists of an obstruent and subsequent liquid (Booij 1995). Thus all other things being equal, gelijk >$%–O- $%–QLS@µPHDQ¶, because in Dutch $O is a well-formed cluster but $n is not. However, pretonic vowels in Dutch are also known to be more reduced in high-frequency (HF) words than in low-frequency (LF) words (van Oostendorp 1999). This raises the question of whether frequency effects interact with the well-formedness of the cluster that remains after deletion. Is it the case that frequency effects are only found in potential well-formed onset clusters? Or is it rather the case that schwa reduction in consonant-liquid clusters is dependent on word frequency? How does frequency interact with phonotactics exactly? To investigate the effect of cluster well-formedness (CWF) and frequency, a word reading task was carried out. HF and LF words were extracted from Corpus Gesproken Nederlands (Spoken Dutch Corpus) available on www.tst.inl.nl and from the CELEX database on www.celex.mpi. Each HF word with WKHFRQWH[W&%&- was matched with an LF word following a number of criteria: the consonants preceding the schwa and following the schwa were identical, the number of syllables was identical, the number of phonemes was matched as much as possible and stress placement was identical. The corpus frequency counts may deviate from the frequency of the individual lexicon of the subjects. It is well-known in psycholinguistics that word frequency is related to naming latency, in the sense that HF words have shorter latencies than LF words (Oldfield & Wingfield 1965, Jescheniak &

Rehearsal and the word frequency effect in recognition memory

In the present study, the author examines whether participants can adjust recognition response strategies to account for the effects of linguistic frequency. Experiment 1 used a counterfeit-list technique to replicate findings that indicate that participants exhibit a bias toward choosing high-frequency lures. Experiment 2 demonstrates that when participants are exposed to a training phase that includes an opportunity to recognize high- and low-frequency words, participants no longer demonstrate a significant bias toward choosing high-frequency items on the counterfeit list task. Experiments 3 and 4 examine how participants learn to adjust for linguistic frequency by manipulating the information available during training. The results demonstrate that participants use information from the training phase indicating that high word frequency is a good cue to oldness to guide their memory decisions during the counterfeit list task, but do not use training phase information indicating that low frequency is the best cue to oldness in a similar fashion.

While web proxy caching is a widely deployed technique, the performance of a proxy cache is limited by the local storage. Some studies have addressed this limitation by using the residual resources of clients via a p2p method and have achieved a very high hit rate. However, these approaches treat web objects as homogeneous objects and there is no consideration of various web characteristics. Consequently, the byte hit rate of the system is limited, external bandwidth is wasted, and perceived user latency is increased. The present paper suggests an efficient p2p based web caching technique that manages objects with different policies so as to exploit the characteristics of web objects, such as size and temporal locality. Small objects are stored alone whereas large objects are stored by dividing them into numerous small blocks, which are distributed in clients. On a proxy cache, header blocks of large objects take the place of objects themselves and smaller objects are cached. This technique increases the hit rate. Unlike a web cache, which evicts large objects as soon as possible in the case where clients fulfill the role of backup storage, large objects are given higher priority than small objects in the proposed approach. This maximizes the effect of hits for large objects and thereby increases the byte hit rate. Furthermore, we construct simple latency models for various p2p based web caching systems and analyze the effects of the proposed policies on these systems. We then examine the performances of the efficient policies via a trace driven simulation. The results demonstrate that the proposed techniques effectively enhance web cache performance, including hit rate, byte hit rate, and response time.

Background Episodic memory impairment is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and is already present in its prodromal stage. While recall deficits are well established as predictors of memory performance, the role of recognition memory—particularly the dissociation between familiarity and recollection—remains less explored. Objective This systematic review aims to synthesize current evidence on recognition memory performance in healthy controls (HC), individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and those with AD, with a focus on the distinct contributions of familiarity and recollection processes. Methods We searched PubMed (MEDLINE), Science Direct, PubPsych, and TRIP Medical databases for studies published until November 2025, which investigated recognition memory performance in individuals with MCI and AD including validated memory tools (such as scales, indices, scores, tests, and assessments). Forty-six studies (n = 3996) met the criteria and were included. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022343750. Results Most studies were cross-sectional and conducted in memory clinics or research centers, with considerable heterogeneity in sample size and assessment tools. The majority utilized experimental paradigms to differentiate familiarity and recollection, though traditional memory tests remain prevalent. Across studies, recollection was consistently impaired in MCI and AD, while familiarity showed a more variable pattern—often preserved in early MCI but impaired in advanced stages and AD. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies revealed that hippocampal atrophy is closely linked to recollection deficits, while alterations in entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices are associated with familiarity impairment. Combined deficits in recall and recognition, especially when recognition impairment reflects encoding failure, robustly predict conversion to dementia. Conclusions Recognition memory assessment, particularly the dissociation between familiarity and recollection, provides valuable information for early detection and prognosis in the AD continuum. Incorporating nuanced recognition memory measures into clinical practice may improve diagnostic specificity and facilitate timely interventions. Further longitudinal research is needed to validate recognition memory as a predictor of dementia progression and to standardize its assessment in diverse populations.

While previous research has shown that high syllable frequency can facilitate speech production at the level of phonological/phonetic encoding, little is known about its influence on prephonological processes, specifically lexical selection. The current study used a picture-word interference (PWI) task to (a) shed light on the stages of lexical access where syllable frequency is relevant, and (b) inform as to whether lexical selection is accomplished via competition among activated word options. Participants named pictures whose names had high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) first syllables while ignoring phonologically related (same first syllable) or unrelated distractor words that were presented simultaneously. Word frequency was also manipulated, as half of the targets were HF words, and half were LF words. Results revealed inhibitory syllable frequency effects in all conditions, such that targets with HF first syllables were named more slowly than targets with LF first syllables. However, inhibitory syllable frequency effects were exacerbated in conditions thought to reflect heightened lexical competition, specifically in the presence of phonologically related distractors and for targets with low word frequency. These findings reveal novel evidence for first-syllable frequency effects on lexical selection and offer further support for models proposing delays at lexical selection due to activation of nontarget competitors.