PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Project Report Sheet Surname or Family name: CUMMING Firstname: Steven Othername/s: ~()nald Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: Ph • 0 School: Psycho 1ogy Faculty: Life Sciences Tide: The familiarity of repeated words: conscious and unconscious contributions to repetition priming Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) Six experiments are described which investigate the role of conscious and unconscious memory mechanisms in repetition effects for high and low frequency words and legal nonwords The definition and role of 'familiarity' in priming is particularly elaborated upon. Experiments 1 and 2 directly investigate recognition memory and familiarity for repeated masked words,. They suggest a paradoxical inhibition of 'familiarity' results from repetition of masked words. Experiments 3 and 4 develop a novel lexical decision task, which isolates the effects of repeated presentation and response components. Repeated presentation and repeated responding are found to interact with word frequency and lexicality, suggesting that repetition priming of words and nonwords may arise through different aspects of the priming experience. In Experiments 5 and 6 this procedure is extended to investigate the transfer of repetition effects to later memory tasks. The retrieval tasks permit estimation of 'recollective' and 'familiarity' components according to Jacoby's (1991) Process Dissociation procedures. It is suggested that an additional aspect of familiarity- termed 'contextual specificity' interacts with any pre-experimental familiarity (baseline frequency) and item may have to produce over-and underadditive relationships between repetition condition, frequency or lexicality and estimated familiarity. The process-dissociation operationalisation of 'familiarity' is also challenged, particularly as is obtains to pre-experimentally novel stimuli Declaration relating to disposition of project report/thesis I am fully aware of the policy of the University relating to the retention and use of higher degree project reports and theses, namely that the University retains the copies submitted for examination and is free to allow them to be consulted or borrowed. Subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, the University may issue a project report or thesis in whole or in part, in photostat or microfilm or other copying medium. I also authorise the publication by University Microfilms of a 350 word abstract in Dissertation Abstracts International (applicable to doctorates only). Signature Witness Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing to the Registrar. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances if accompanied by a letter of support from the Supervisor or Head of Schoo Surh reauests must be submitted with the thesis/project report. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY \ 'Vl'_Kegistra~n~Deputy Principal THIS SHEET IS TO BE GLUED TO THE INSIDE FRONT COVER OF THE THESIS ST 401.9 402 The familiarity of repeated words: Conscious and unconscious contributions to repetition priming Steven Cumming March, 1998 This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales. UNSW 1 6 JUl 1999 LIBF!ARY I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in the text. CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this sub . knowledge it con rains no ma=on IS. my own ":'ork and to the best of m person, nor material which to a subst!~;ously pubhshed or written by anoth; of any other degree or diploma at UNS:;x~nt has been accep~ for the award except where due acknowledg . .or any other educational instiiUti to th ement IS made m the th . on, . e. research by others, with whom l hav CSIS. Any contnbution made exphcJtly acknowledged in the thesis. e worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is I also declare that th · e m~lleCIUal content of th · . work, e~cept to the extent that assislance fro IS thCS!s. IS the product of my own concepbon or in style, Presenration and lin .Ill_ others m_ th~ project's d~gn and gtllstic ex.press•on IS acknowledged. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Associate Professor Sally Andrews, for her energy, enthusiasm, support and friendship. I am also indebted to the hundreds of undergraduates who volunteered for the studies and my friends and colleagues at the University of New South Wales, Charles Sturt University and the University of Sydney, who have provided support and assistance over many years. I also gratefully acknowledge the support, tolerance and encouragement of my family, especially my wife, Rosalie, my daughter Gemma, my mother and my father, whose quiet pride in his children has inspired us all. CONTENTS ABSTRACT 6 CHAPTER 1: FAMILIARITY AND UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES 7 1.1 Information processing without conscious awareness 7 1.2 Methods for investigating conscious and unconscious knowledge. 9 Data limited stimulus presentation. 9 Critique of data limited procedures. 14 Awareness at the time oftesting: direct and indirect retrieval 15 1.3 Theoretical approaches to dissociations between familiarity and recollection. 19 Multiple Systems Perspectives 20 Multiple process perspective 23 1.4 Integration of systems and process perspectives 28 Differential sensitivity of direct and indirect measures. 28 Perceptual representation systems. 29 1.5 Repetition priming. 30 Episodic contributions to repetition priming 31 'Phenomenal' and 'instance-specific' episodic memory 32 'Lexical' accounts of repetition priming. 36 Mechanisms of repetition priming 37 Word frequency effects. 40 Nonword repetition priming 42 1.6 Single process models 44 The REM Model 45 1 Counter Model 47 1.7 Connectionist approaches. 48 1.11 The present experiments 49 CHAPTER 2: EXPERIMENTS 1 AND 2 51 2.1 Familiarity and recognition failure. 51 Repetition, familiarity and recognition 53 2.2 Preliminary study 57 Results: 58 2.3 Experiment 1 60 Method. 61 Results. 63 Discussion. 66 2.4 Experiment 2. 67 Method. 69 Results. 70 Discussion, Experiments 1 and 2. 73 Familiarity accrues with repetition 74 Recognition does not require familiarity 74 Chance performance in recognition and familiarity 76 Significant correlations between recognition and familiarity. 77 2.5 The direct familiarity task 79 2.6 Theoretical implications: Experiment 1 and 2 81 Response bias 81 Inhibitory mechanisms 82 2 CHAPTER 3. EXPERIMENTS 3 AND 4 90 3.1 Rationale and Overview: Experiments 3 to 6 90 3.2 Experiment 3 92 Method. 93 Results. 96 Discussion. 99 3.3 Experiment 4. 102 Method 102 Results 103 3.4 Discussion: Experiments 3 and 4. 106 Lexical status 107 Word frequency 111 CHAPTER 4: DISSOCIATING FAMILIARITY AND RECOLLECTION 114 4.1 Process Dissociation (Opposition) procedures. 115 Task and process dissociations. 115 Process Dissociation. 116 4.2 Applications of Process Dissociation Procedures 119 4.3 Process Dissociation: Critique and Review 122 Lack of defmitional clarity. 122 Poor control of guessing and response sets. 123 The independence assumption. 124 Equivalence of inclusion and exclusion tasks. 127 4.4 Alternative conceptualisations of process dissociation 128 3 Exclusivity Model. 128 Redundancy Model 128 Integrating the independence, exclusivity and redundancy models. 130 CHAPTERS 133 EXPERIMENTS 5 AND 6 133 5.1 Experiment 5 13<& Method. 137 Results. 142 Discussion 155 5.2 Experiment 6. 160 Method 163 Results 164 Discussion 172 5.3 Conclusions from Experiments 3 to 6. 174 Simple repetition. 175 Differential Word and Nonword repetition effects. 175 Response repetition. 179 5.4 Repetition effects in memory. 180 CHAPTER 6: GENERAL DISCUSSION 184 6.1 Familiarity and perceptual fluency. 184 Repetition, frequency and familiarity 184 Baseline and intra-experimental familiarity 184 6.2 The Process Dissociation operationalisation of familiarity. 186 4 Process dissociation and nonword familiarity 187 The Redundancy model 190 6.3 Study Task Differences 194 6.4 Contextual specification. 195 Intra-experimental familiarity and specification. 197 Specification and word frequency 197 6.6 Electrophysiological support for specification 199 6. 7 Conclusions 203 REFERENCES 206 APPENDICES 223 5 ABSTRACT Six experiments are presented which investigate the role of conscious and unconscious memory mechanisms in repetition effects for high and low frequency words and legal nonwords. The definition and role of 'familiarity' in priming is particularly elaborated upon. Experiments 1 and 2 directly investigate recognition memory and familiarity for repeated masked words. They suggest a paradoxical inhibition of 'familiarity' which results from repetition of masked words. Experiments 3 and 4 develop a novel lexical decision task that isolates the effects of repeated presentation and repetition of response components. Repeated presentation and repeated responding are found to interact with frequency and lexicality, suggesting that repetition priming of words and nonwords may arise through different aspects of the priming experience. In