Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T07:28:50.745Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The biasing effect of verbal labels on memory for ambiguous figures in patients with progressive dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2009

Arne L. Ostergaard ,
William C. Heindel  and
Jane S. Paulsen
Arne L. Ostergaard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
William C. Heindel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
Jane S. Paulsen
Affiliation:
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, CA 92161 Department of Psychiatry, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, California 92093
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This experiment investigated the effects of verbal labels on recognition memory for ambiguous visual figures in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with Huntington's disease (HD), and matched normal control subjects. The study employed ambiguous figures that could be interpreted in two different ways. During the study phase each figure was presented together with a verbal label that corresponded to one interpretation of the figure. After a 30-min retention interval a recognition memory test was given during which the study figures and distractor figures were presented one at a time without verbal labels. For each study figure two distractor figures were employed, each corresponding to a different interpretation of the study figure. The patients' overall recognition memory performance was severely impaired compared to control subjects. However, all subject groups tended to produce responses and response latencies to distractor items that were consistent with the verbal labels presented during the study phase. This bias effect occurred in the AD patients despite the fact that their recognition memory performance was at chance level. Indeed, there was no significant difference in the bias evidenced by the AD and HD patients and their respective matched control subjects. The bias effects were obtained in an explicit memory task, and the findings are discussed in terms of unconscious influences on explicit memory processes. (JINS, 1995, I, 271–280.)

Keywords

MemoryDementiaBias
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , May 1995 , pp. 271 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benzing, W.C. & Squire, L.R. (1989). Preserved learning and memory in amnesia: Intact adaptation-level effects and learning of stereoscopic depth. Behavioral Neuroscience, 103, 538–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bower, G.H., Karlin, M.B., & Dueck, A. (1975). Comprehension and memory for pictures. Memory and Cognition, 3, 216–220.Google Scholar
Brooks, D.N. & Baddeley, A.D. (1976). What can amnesic patients learn? Neuropsychologia, 14, 111–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butters, N., Heindel, W.C., & Salmon, D. (1990) Dissociations of implicit memory in dementia: Neurological implications. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 28, 359–366.Google Scholar
Carmichael, L., Hogan, H.P., & Walter, A.A. (1932). An experimental study of the effect of language on the reproduction of visually perceived form. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 15, 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, R.L. (1966). Effect of verbal labels on recall of a visually perceived simple figure: Recognition vs reproduction. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 23, 859–862.Google Scholar
Cohen, N.J. & Squire, L.R. (1980). Preserved learning and retention of pattern-analyzing skill in amnesia: Dissociation of knowing how and knowing that. Science, 210, 207–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daniel, T.C. (1972). Nature of the effect of verbal labels on recognition memory for form. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 96, 152–157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daniel, T.C. & Ellis, H.C. (1972). Stimulus codability and long-term recognition memory for visual form. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 93, 83–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, H.C. (1968). Transfer of stimulus prediffercntiation to shape recognition and identification learning: Role of properties of verbal labels. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 78, 401–409.Google Scholar
Ellis, H.C. (1973). Stimulus encoding processes in human learning and memory. In Bower, G.H. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation vol. 7 (pp. 123–182). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, H., Boiler, E., Moreines, J., & Butters, N. (1973). Retrieving information from Korsakoff patients: Effects of categorical cues and reference to the task. Cortex, 9, 165–175.Google Scholar
Graf, P. & Schacter, D.L. (1985). Implicit and explicit memory for new associations in normal and amnesic patients. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11, 501–518.Google Scholar
Graf, P., Squire, L.R., & Mandler, G. (1984). The information that amnesic patients do not forget. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 10, 164–178.Google Scholar
Hachinski, V.C., Illiff, L.D., Zilhka, E., DuBoulay, G.H., McAllister, V.L., Marshall, J., Russell, R.W.R., & Symon, L. (1975). Cerebral blood flow in dementia. Archives of Neurology, 32, 632–637.Google Scholar
Heindel, W.C., Butters, N., & Salmon, D.P. (1988). Impaired learning of a motor skill in patients with Huntington's disease. Behavioral Neuroscience, 102, 141–147.Google Scholar
Heindel, W.C., Salmon, D.P., & Butters, N. (1990). Pictorial priming and cued recall in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease. Brain and Cognition, 13, 282–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heindel, W.C., Salmon, D.P., & Butters, N. (1991). The biasing of weight judgements in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease: A priming or programming phenomenon. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 13, 189–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacoby, L.L. (1983). Perceptual enhancement: Persistent effects of an experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 21–38.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L.L. (1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, L.L., Lindsay, D.S., & Toth, J. (1992). Unconscious influences revealed: Attention, awareness, and control. American Psychologist, 47, 802–809.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L.L., Toth, J.P., & Yonelinas, A.P. (1993). Separating conscious and unconscious influences of memory: Measuring recollection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 139–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jernigan, T.L. & Ostergaard, A.L. (1993). Word priming and recognition memory both affected by mesial temporal lobe damage. Neuropsychology, 7, 14–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, M.K., Kim, J.K., & Risse, G. (1985). Do alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome patients acquire affective reactions? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11, 22–36.Google Scholar
Mayes, A., Meudell, P., & Neary, D. (1980). Do amnesics adopt inefficient encoding strategies with faces and random shapes. Neuropsychologia, 18, 527–540.Google Scholar
Masson, M.E.J. (1989). Fluent processing as an implicit expression of memory for experience. In Lewandowsky, S., Dunn, J.C, & Kirsner, K. (Eds.), Implicit memory: Theoretical issues (pp. 123–138). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D., & Stadlan, E.M. (1984). Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology, 34, 939–944.Google Scholar
Ostergaard, A.L. (1987). Episodic, semantic and procedural memory in a case of amnesia at an early age. Neuropsychologia, 25, 341–357.Google Scholar
Ostergaard, A.L. (1994). Dissociations between word priming effects in normal subjects and patients with memory disorders: Multiple memory systems tirretrieval? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47A, 331–364.Google Scholar
Price, R.H. & Slive, A.B. (1970). Verbal processes in shape recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 83, 373–379.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prentice, W.C.H. (1954). Visual recognition of verbally labeled figures. American Journal of Psychology, 67, 315–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roediger, H.L., Weldon, M.S., & Challis, B.H. (1989). Explaining dissociations between implicit and explicit measures of retention: A processing account. In Roediger, H.L. & Craik, F.I.M. (Eds.), Varieties of memory and consciousness: Essays in honour of Endel Tulving (pp. 3–41). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Salmon, D.P., Shimamura, A.P., Butters, N., & Smith, S. (1988). Lexical and semantic priming deficits in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 10, 477–494.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shimamura, A.P., Salmon, D.P., Squire, L.R., & Butters, N. (1987). Memory dysfunction and word priming in dementia and amnesia. Behavioral Neuroscience, 101, 347–351.Google Scholar
Squire, L.R. (1992). Memory and the hippocampus: A synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans. Psychological Review, 99, 195–231.Google Scholar
Squire, L.R. & McKee, R. (1992). Influence of prior events on cognitive judgements in amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 106–115.Google Scholar
Winer, B.J. (1971). Statistical principles in experimental design, second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar