Processing with and without Long-Term Memory Modification: Attention, Level of Processing and Word Frequency.

摘要

In this research we examine the relationships among long-term memory (LTM) modification, attentional allocation and type of processing. The experiments test the proposal from automatic/controlled processing theory (Schneider and Shiffrin, 1977) that the modification of LTM occurs only during controlling processing and that stimuli can be automatically processed with no resulting LTM effect. Subjects in the first experiment were exposed to words while performing an intentional learning task; a semantic categorization task; a graphic categorization task; a distracting digit search task while trying to remember presented words; or a distracting task while trying to ignore the simultaneous words. In the distracting digit search conditions frequency judgments of words were at or near chance. Distractor learning for the semantic and intentional conditions was better than for graphic orienting, which was better than chance. In the second experiment, subjects were trained for approximately 5,000 trials to develop an automatic categorization response. The results showed no evidence of a frequency estimation ability and little recognition memory for words semantically categorized twenty times. The data support the hypothesis of a close connection between controlled processing and LTM storage and little if any link between automatic processing and LTM storage.