PLANNING AND THE SURVIVAL PROCESSING EFFECT: AN EXAMINATION OF THE PROXIMATE MECHANISMS Leisha A. Colyn A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2014 Committee: Richard Anderson, Advisor Cynthia Bertelsen Graduate Faculty Representative Howard Casey Cromwell Harold Rosenberg © 2014 Leisha Colyn All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Richard Anderson, Advisor In two experiments on incidental learning in memory, survival processing of highly related information (i.e., DRM lists) was compared to two contextually rich encoding scenarios that were equated on several important characteristics and to a pleasantness processing task. Free recall and recognition memory were measured. Results from Experiment 1 indicated that the survival processing effect on true recall existed but was driven by congruity effects. However, a planning effect on false recall existed. That is, the three planning processing tasks produced greater false recall than the pleasantness processing task. The recall results of experiment 2 failed to replicate the recall results from Experiment 1. Regarding the recognition tasks, no survival processing effect in hit rate existed independent of congruity effect, but Experiment 2 demonstrated that hit rate was also affected by the relatedness of the information in the recognition environment. Experiment 2 replicated the planning effect on false alarm rate above the effect of congruity effect that was demonstrated in Experiment 1. The survival processing task did not produce a greater false alarm rate than other processing tasks in Experiment , but did in Experiment 2. Experiment 2 also demonstrated that false alarm rate was affected by the relatedness of the information in the recognition environment. A small survival processing effect on proportion of recognition items correctly categorized was found in Experiment 1, but failed to replicate in Experiment 2. Experiment 2 replicated the finding that when controlling for congruity effects, participants in all groups found it similarly difficult to discriminate between target and lure words on the recognition task. Further, iv Experiment 2 demonstrated that all groups found it more difficult to discriminate when lures were highly related versus moderately and unrelated. This was qualified by the congruity effect, as well. Both experiments demonstrated that all processing tasks produced similar criterion values. However, Experiment 2 demonstrated that participants in all groups used a more liberal criterion when information in the recognition environment was highly related to the target information than when information in the recognition environment was moderately-related or unrelated. Notably, the measures of the decision characteristics in recognition memory did not indicate any differences between encoding processing tasks. Keywords: adaptive memory; false memory; recall; recognition; survival processing; evolutionary theory v Dedicated to WF, PJ, JM, and JY. Thank you for your unconditional friendship and support. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Richard Anderson for nudging me to explore cognitive psychology. I am grateful for the knowledge and experience gained in this area. I am grateful for his thoughtful advice and support throughout the years. I also appreciate the insight and expertise of my committee members Cynthia Bertelsen, Casey Cromwell, and Harold Rosenberg. Finally, I am grateful for the variety of research-related support from Alex Earl, Wendy Fogo, Peter Jaworski, Amanda Kelley, Jennifer McInroe, Jacob Sparks, Zach Walworth, and Jennifer Yugo. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 Memory Processes ..................................................................................................... 6 Taxonomy of Memory .............................................................................................. 13 Long-term memory. ...................................................................................... 14 Influences on long-term memory performance. ................................ 15 Competing models of storage. ............................................... 15 Organization of long-term memory. ..................................... 16 Levels of processing. ............................................................. 18 Additional related encoding and retrieval effects on long- term memory. ........................................................................ 21 Survival-processing effect. .................................................... 22 The evolution of cognitive biases: Error management theory. 31 Summary and Overview of Present Research ........................................................... 32 CHAPTER II: EXPERIMENT 1 ........................................................................................... 37 Method ....................................................................................................................... 38 Participants. ................................................................................................... 38 Materials and design. .................................................................................... 40 Stimuli. .............................................................................................. 41 Rating task. ....................................................................................... 41 Grasslands photo. ................................................................. 42 Grasslands survival. ............................................................. 42 Dinner party. ......................................................................... 42 viii Distraction task. ................................................................................ 43 Recall task. ........................................................................................ 43 Attention check. ................................................................................. 43 Recognition task. ............................................................................... 43 Ease of visualization and narrative descriptions. ............................. 45 Procedure. ...................................................................................................... 45 Results ....................................................................................................................... 47 Ease of visualization. .................................................................................... 47 Ratings. ......................................................................................................... 47 Recall. ........................................................................................................... 48 Correct recall. ................................................................................... 49 Intrusions. ......................................................................................... 51 Recognition. .................................................................................................. 53 Hit rate. ............................................................................................. 54 False alarm rate. ............................................................................... 54 Proportion correct. ........................................................................... 54 d'. ....................................................................................................... 55 Criterion. ........................................................................................... 56 Summary and Discussion .......................................................................................... 56 Overview of Experiment 2 ........................................................................................ 59 CHAPTER III: EXPERIMENT 2 .......................................................................................... 61 Method ....................................................................................................................... 62 Participants. ................................................................................................... 62 ix Materials and design. ..................................................................................... 64 Stimuli. .............................................................................................. 64 Control questions. ............................................................................. 64 Procedure. ..................................................................................................... 64 Results ....................................................................................................................... 65 Ease of rating. ............................................................................................... 65 Ease of visualization. .................................................................................... 65 Ratings. ......................................................................................................... 65 Recall. ........................................................................................................... 66 Correct recall. ................................................................................... 67 Intrusions. ........................................................................................