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Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society — Volume 12 — November 2007 48th Annual Meeting — November 15–18, 2007 — Long Beach, California Papers 1–7 Friday Morning Implicit Memory is a widely used experimental procedure that has been modeled in Regency ABC, Friday Morning, 8:00–9:20 order to obtain ostensibly separate measures for explicit memory and implicit memory. Existing models are critiqued here and a new con- Chaired by Neil W. Mulligan fidence process-dissociation (CPD) model is developed for a modi- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill fied process-dissociation task that uses confidence ratings in con- junction with the usual old/new recognition response. With the new 8:00–8:15 (1) model there are several direct tests for the key assumptions of the stan- Attention and Auditory Implicit Memory. NEIL W. MULLIGAN, dard models for this task. Experimental results are reported here that University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—Traditional theorizing are contrary to the critical assumptions of the earlier models for the stresses the importance of attentional state during encoding for later process-dissociation task. These results cast doubt on the suitability memory, based primarily on research with explicit memory. Recent re- of the process-dissociation procedure itself for obtaining separate search has investigated the role of attention in implicit memory in the measures for implicit and explicit memory. visual modality. The present experiments examined the effect of divided attention on auditory implicit memory, using auditory perceptual iden- Attentional Selection and Priming tification, word-stem completion, and word-fragment completion. Par- Regency DEFH, Friday Morning, 8:00–10:00 ticipants heard study words under full attention conditions or while si- multaneously carrying out a distractor task. In Experiment 1, a distractor Chaired by Veronica J. Dark, Iowa State University task with low response frequency failed to disrupt later auditory prim- ing (but diminished explicit memory as assessed with auditory recog- 8:00–8:15 (5) nition). In Experiment 2, a distractor task with greater response fre- Semantic Selectivity Reflects Attention and Not “Just” Semantic quency disrupted priming on all three of the auditory priming tasks as Priming. VERONICA J. DARK & CHRISTOPHER M. MASCIOCCHI, well as the explicit test. These results imply that although auditory prim- Iowa State University—Selective attention is shown when some stim- ing is less reliant on attention than on explicit memory, it is still greatly uli undergo processing allowing identification, whereas other stimuli affected by at least some divided-attention manipulations. do not. Spatially precued items are selectively processed, as are items semantically (associatively) related to a prior context. Some have sug- 8:20–8:35 (2) gested that semantic selectivity just reflects benefit from semantic The Hebb Repetition Effect in Auditory Space. FABRICE B. PAR- priming, arguing that if attention (i.e., limited capacity resources) MENTIER, University of Plymouth, MURRAY T. MAYBERY & were involved, there also would be cost. We asked whether semantic MATTHEW HUITSON, University of Western Australia, & DYLAN M. selectivity would interfere with spatial selectivity and vice versa. Sub- JONES, Cardiff University—We examined the Hebb repetition effect jects reported either the spatially precued or the related word in for auditory spatial stimuli. Consistent with the proposition that the masked word pairs. In the spatial precue baseline, no related words ap- spatial scattering of auditory to-be-remembered stimuli hinders the peared. The addition of related words interfered with spatial selectiv- preattentive processing of order information by preventing the per- ity by inhibiting report of cued unrelated words and enhancing report ceptual organization of the stimuli into a coherent stream, two exper- of uncued related words. In the report-related baseline, no precues ap- iments using bursts of white noise showed no repetition learning for peared. The addition of precues interfered with semantic selectivity such stimuli. Further experiments produced a Hebb effect for non- primarily by inhibiting report of uncued related words. Selective at- words scattered across space, and for spatial locations when the stim- tention has both spatial and semantic components. uli were nonwords. This effect could not be explained on the basis of a binding account or a distinctiveness account. Rather, the data sug- 8:20–8:35 (6) gest that the presentation of stimuli spoken in a human voice offers a Spatial Attention and Masked Priming: Biological Relevance Mat- common carrier on the basis of which the locations are perceived as ters. MATTHEW FINKBEINER & ROMINA PALERMO, Macquarie part of a coherent stream, thereby affording the preattentive process- Centre for Cognitive Science—Theories of human cognition have long ing of order information and repetition learning. held that nonconscious processes are “automatic” insofar as they appear to be elicited independently of higher level cognitive mechanisms, such 8:40–8:55 (3) as attention. Recent findings have called this view into question by Implicit Motor Learning Depends on Task Structure: Evidence demonstrating that a masked visual word or number does not produce From the Chord Task. ELIOT HAZELTINE, TANA TRUELOVE, & priming unless it is attended. From these findings, it has been suggested KARL FRIEDRICHSEN, University of Iowa—Implicit learning of re- that nonconscious cognitive processes are not automatic because they are sponse contingencies is a robust phenomenon that has been demon- not elicited autonomously. Here, we show that the autonomy of non- strated even when attentional resources are diverted by a secondary conscious cognitive processes varies as a function of the masked prime’s task. In the present set of studies, we examined the effects of task biological relevance. Masked pictures of animals, tools, and vegetables structure on implicit learning using the chord task. In the chord task, produced priming, but, like words and numbers, only when attended. In individuals make two responses simultaneously, and learning is mea- contrast, masked pictures of faces produced priming both when attended sured as the performance cost associated with production of unprac- and not. Our results demonstrate that nonconscious processes may be ticed combinations compared to the production of practiced combi- elicited autonomously, but only when the to-be-processed information nations. In Experiments 1–4, chord learning occurred only when the has a high degree of biological and/or social relevance. stimuli for both tasks were visual and the responses for both tasks were manual. However, subsequent experiments showed that the over- 8:40–8:55 (7) lap in the stimulus and response modalities was not critical for learn- Feature Detection Requires Spatial Attention. JAN THEEUWES, ing, but the two tasks had to be conceptualized as related for practiced ERIK VAN DER BURG, & ARTEM V. BELOPOLSKY, Vrije Univer- response combinations to be performed better than unpracticed com- siteit—It has been claimed that the detection of a feature singleton can binations. This finding suggests that conceptual task boundaries play be based on activity in a feature map containing a coarse coding that an important role in implicit learning. something unique is present in the visual field. In the present experi- ment, participants detected the presence or absence of a color single- 9:00–9:15 (4) ton. Although it was irrelevant for the task, the color singleton was a Problems With Modeling Processes Underlying the Process- letter that could be repeated on the next trial. We showed that the iden- Dissociation Task. RICHARD A. CHECHILE & JESSICA R. tity of the singleton resulted in repetition priming on the next trial, sug- CHAMBERLAND, Tufts University—The process-dissociation task gesting that even in the simplest present–absent feature detection task, 1 Friday Morning Papers 8–14 focal attention is allocated to the feature singleton. These results are in- versity—A new approach to decision theory based on quantum infor- consistent with theories that claim that it is possible to detect a feature mation processing principles is used to explain some paradoxical phe- singleton without directing attention to the location of the singleton. nomena of human choice behavior. Quantum strategies were origi- nally used to explain the fact that humans prefer to cooperate rather 9:00–9:15 (8) than defect in a Prisoner Dilemma game. Here, we develop a quantum Numerical Format Effects in the Eriksen Task. PHILIP T. QUINLAN, model for the disjunction effect. This refers to a paradox in which (1) a University of York—Although this is not the only study to have ex- player prefers to defect when the player knows that an opponent will amined numerical versions of the Eriksen flanker task, it is (probably) defect, and (2) the player also prefers to defect when the player knows the only study with displays containing both Arabic and Chinese char- that an opponent will cooperate, but (3) the player reverses preference acters. Twenty-eight Chinese/English bilingual undergraduates were and cooperates when the opponent’s action is unknown. New experi- tested in two numerical versions of the task. On every trial, subjects mental findings on the disjunction effect are reported, and a quantum were timed to classify a central target—either four/six or five/seven— explanation for the findings is presented.