Katherine Guérard | Université de Moncton (original) (raw)

Papers by Katherine Guérard

Experimental Psychology, 2009

Tapping and the acoustic confusion effect 2 Abstract When items in a to-be-remembered list sound ... more Tapping and the acoustic confusion effect 2 Abstract When items in a to-be-remembered list sound similar, recall performance is worse than when items are acoustically distinct, what is known as the acoustic confusion effect (ACE).

Acta Psychologica, 2009

Serial memory for spatial locations increases as the distance between successive stimuli location... more Serial memory for spatial locations increases as the distance between successive stimuli locations decreases. This effect, known as the path length effect . Transitional information in spatial serial memory: Path characteristics affect recall performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 31,[412][413][414][415][416][417][418][419][420][421][422][423][424][425][426][427], was investigated in a systematic manner using eye tracking and interference procedures to explore the mechanisms responsible for the processing of spatial information. In Experiment 1, eye movements were monitored during a spatial serial recall task -in which the participants have to remember the location of spatially and temporally separated dots on the screen. In the experimental conditions, eye movements were suppressed by requiring participants to incessantly move their eyes between irrelevant locations. Ocular suppression abolished the path length effect whether eye movements were prevented during item presentation or during a 7 s retention interval. In Experiment 2, articulatory suppression was combined with a spatial serial recall task. Although articulatory suppression impaired performance, it did not alter the path length effect. Our results suggest that rehearsal plays a key role in serial memory for spatial information, though the effect of path length seems to involve other processes located at encoding, such as the time spent fixating each location and perceptual organization.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2009

Immediate serial recall of visually presented verbal stimuli is impaired by the presence of irrel... more Immediate serial recall of visually presented verbal stimuli is impaired by the presence of irrelevant auditory background speech, the so-called irrelevant speech effect. Two of the three main accounts of this effect place restrictions on when it will be observed, limiting its occurrence either to items processed by the phonological loop (the phonological loop hypothesis) or to items that are not too dissimilar from the irrelevant speech (the feature model). A third, the object-oriented episodic record (O-OER) model, requires only that the memory task involves seriation. The present studies test these three accounts by examining whether irrelevant auditory speech will interfere with a task that does not involve the phonological loop, does not use stimuli that are compatible with those to be remembered, but does require seriation. Two experiments found that irrelevant speech led to lower levels of performance in a visual statistical learning task, offering more support for the O-OER model and posing a challenge for the other two accounts.

Experimental Psychology, 2012

In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers whe... more In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers when the distance between successive locations increases relatively to the size of the display in which they are presented (the path length effect; e.g., Parmentier et al., 2005) but not when distance is increased by enlarging the size of the display (e.g., Smyth & Scholey, 1994). In the present study, we examined the effect of varying the absolute and relative distance between to-be-remembered items on memory for spatial information. We manipulated path length using small (15″) and large (64″) screens within the same design. In two experiments, we showed that distance was disruptive mainly when it is varied relatively to a fixed reference frame, though increasing the size of the display also had a small deleterious effect on recall. The insertion of a retention interval did not influence these effects, suggesting that rehearsal plays a minor role in mediating the effects of distance on serial spatial memory. We discuss the potential role of perceptual organization in light of the pattern of results.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2008

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2012

In a recent study, Bireta et al. (2010) suggested that when participants are required to recall l... more In a recent study, Bireta et al. (2010) suggested that when participants are required to recall lists of items in the reverse order, more attention is devoted to the recall of order at the expense of item information, leading to the abolition of item-based phenomena (the item and order trade-off hypothesis). In order to test the item and order trade-off hypothesis, we manipulated 4 lexical factors that are well known to influence item retention. The effects of word frequency, of lexicality, of semantic similarity, and of imageability were tested in forward and backward recall. All 4 phenomena were maintained in backward recall, which contradicts the item and order trade-off hypothesis. Instead, we suggest that backward recall might rely on semantic retrieval strategies.

Memory & Cognition, 2011

Sequence learning has notably been studied using the Hebb repetition paradigm (Hebb, 1961) and th... more Sequence learning has notably been studied using the Hebb repetition paradigm (Hebb, 1961) and the serial reaction time (SRT) task (Nissen & Bullemer, Cognitive Psychology 19:1–32, 1987). These two paradigms produce robust learning effects but differ with regard to the role of awareness: Awareness does not affect learning a repeated sequence in the Hebb repetition paradigm, as is evidenced by recall performance, whereas in the SRT task, awareness helps to anticipate the location of the next stimulus. In this study, we examined the role of awareness in anticipation and recall performance, using the Hebb repetition paradigm. Eye movements were monitored during a spatial reconstruction task where participants had to memorize sequences of dot locations. One sequence was repeated every four trials. Results showed that recall performance for the repeated sequence improved across repetitions for all participants but that anticipation increased only for participants aware of the repetition.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2009

The process of binding information from different modalities and sources into an object is ubiqui... more The process of binding information from different modalities and sources into an object is ubiquitous in cognition and has been a problem for research and modelling efforts in psychology. This process has been considered by most researchers as necessarily always beneficial to memory. In the present study we provide evidence that binding can be detrimental through the propagation of vulnerabilities to interference. Phonologically similar and dissimilar letters were presented sequentially at different locations on a computer monitor. Participants had to recall either the letters in their order of presentation or the spatial locations at which the letters had appeared. Whether binding was encouraged or not--providing prior knowledge of which dimension to remember--phonological similarity had a detrimental effect on recall of locations. Such a finding poses a challenge to the view that binding is the panacea in enhancing memory capacity.

Memory & Cognition, 2010

Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs... more Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs from other items in a sequence (the distinctiveness effect; see, e.g., Kelley & Nairne, 2001). Distinctiveness effects, however, have been demonstrated mainly in the verbal domain. The present study extends distinctiveness effects to the spatial domain. In two experiments, participants recalled the order in which series of spatially located dots had been presented. Item discriminability was varied within the sequence by manipulating the duration of the interval inserted between the presentation of the dots (Experiment 1) and the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli (Experiment 2). The results showed that these manipulations in the spatial domain produce distinctiveness effects similar to those observed with verbal material (see, e.g., Neath & Crowder, 1990) and suggest that distinctiveness models of memory should take into account the processing of spatial information.

Journal of Experimental Psychology-human Perception and Performance, 2011

In serial memory for spatial information, performance is impaired when distractors are interpolat... more In serial memory for spatial information, performance is impaired when distractors are interpolated between to-be-remembered (TBR) stimuli (Tremblay, Nicholls, Parmentier, & Jones, 2005). The so-called sandwich effect, combined with the use of eye tracking, served as a tool for examining the role of the oculomotor system in serial memory for spatial information. Participants had to recall the order in which sequences of TBR locations were presented. In some trials, to-be-ignored blue dots were presented after each TBR location. Our results show that response locations shift toward the location of the distractors, and this deviation is related to the eye movement deviation toward the distractor location. These results suggest that TBR and to-be-ignored locations are encoded onto a common map that could lie within the oculomotor system. Interference in memory for spatial information is interpreted in light of a model of oculomotor behavior (Godijn & Theeuwes, 2002b).

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2008

The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the p... more The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the processing of verbal and spatial information in short-term memory. This was done by investigating the patterns of intrusions, omissions, transpositions, and fill-ins in verbal and spatial serial recall and order reconstruction tasks under control, articulatory suppression, and spatial tapping conditions. The authors observed that when tasks were fully equated, all patterns of errors were equivalent between the verbal and spatial domains. Moreover, articulatory suppression interfered more with the verbal memory tasks than with the spatial memory tasks. This interference was mostly due to an increase of omissions and transpositions. Similarly, tapping was more disruptive of spatial memory than of verbal memory tasks and affected primarily the number of omissions and transpositions. The patterns of errors and their interaction with interference are discussed in light of the predominant approaches to modeling memory and provide a rich set of data for modeling efforts.

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2006

In 2 experiments, the authors tested whether the classical modality effect-that is, the stronger ... more In 2 experiments, the authors tested whether the classical modality effect-that is, the stronger recency effect for auditory items relative to visual items-can be extended to the spatial domain. An order reconstruction task was undertaken with four types of material: visual-spatial, auditory-spatial, visualverbal, and auditory-verbal. Similar serial position curves were obtained regardless of the nature of the to-be-remembered sequences, with the exception that a modality effect was found with spatial as well as with verbal materials. The results are discussed with regard to a number of models of short-term memory.

Experimental Psychology, 2009

Tapping and the acoustic confusion effect 2 Abstract When items in a to-be-remembered list sound ... more Tapping and the acoustic confusion effect 2 Abstract When items in a to-be-remembered list sound similar, recall performance is worse than when items are acoustically distinct, what is known as the acoustic confusion effect (ACE).

Acta Psychologica, 2009

Serial memory for spatial locations increases as the distance between successive stimuli location... more Serial memory for spatial locations increases as the distance between successive stimuli locations decreases. This effect, known as the path length effect . Transitional information in spatial serial memory: Path characteristics affect recall performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 31,[412][413][414][415][416][417][418][419][420][421][422][423][424][425][426][427], was investigated in a systematic manner using eye tracking and interference procedures to explore the mechanisms responsible for the processing of spatial information. In Experiment 1, eye movements were monitored during a spatial serial recall task -in which the participants have to remember the location of spatially and temporally separated dots on the screen. In the experimental conditions, eye movements were suppressed by requiring participants to incessantly move their eyes between irrelevant locations. Ocular suppression abolished the path length effect whether eye movements were prevented during item presentation or during a 7 s retention interval. In Experiment 2, articulatory suppression was combined with a spatial serial recall task. Although articulatory suppression impaired performance, it did not alter the path length effect. Our results suggest that rehearsal plays a key role in serial memory for spatial information, though the effect of path length seems to involve other processes located at encoding, such as the time spent fixating each location and perceptual organization.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2009

Immediate serial recall of visually presented verbal stimuli is impaired by the presence of irrel... more Immediate serial recall of visually presented verbal stimuli is impaired by the presence of irrelevant auditory background speech, the so-called irrelevant speech effect. Two of the three main accounts of this effect place restrictions on when it will be observed, limiting its occurrence either to items processed by the phonological loop (the phonological loop hypothesis) or to items that are not too dissimilar from the irrelevant speech (the feature model). A third, the object-oriented episodic record (O-OER) model, requires only that the memory task involves seriation. The present studies test these three accounts by examining whether irrelevant auditory speech will interfere with a task that does not involve the phonological loop, does not use stimuli that are compatible with those to be remembered, but does require seriation. Two experiments found that irrelevant speech led to lower levels of performance in a visual statistical learning task, offering more support for the O-OER model and posing a challenge for the other two accounts.

Experimental Psychology, 2012

In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers whe... more In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers when the distance between successive locations increases relatively to the size of the display in which they are presented (the path length effect; e.g., Parmentier et al., 2005) but not when distance is increased by enlarging the size of the display (e.g., Smyth & Scholey, 1994). In the present study, we examined the effect of varying the absolute and relative distance between to-be-remembered items on memory for spatial information. We manipulated path length using small (15″) and large (64″) screens within the same design. In two experiments, we showed that distance was disruptive mainly when it is varied relatively to a fixed reference frame, though increasing the size of the display also had a small deleterious effect on recall. The insertion of a retention interval did not influence these effects, suggesting that rehearsal plays a minor role in mediating the effects of distance on serial spatial memory. We discuss the potential role of perceptual organization in light of the pattern of results.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2008

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2012

In a recent study, Bireta et al. (2010) suggested that when participants are required to recall l... more In a recent study, Bireta et al. (2010) suggested that when participants are required to recall lists of items in the reverse order, more attention is devoted to the recall of order at the expense of item information, leading to the abolition of item-based phenomena (the item and order trade-off hypothesis). In order to test the item and order trade-off hypothesis, we manipulated 4 lexical factors that are well known to influence item retention. The effects of word frequency, of lexicality, of semantic similarity, and of imageability were tested in forward and backward recall. All 4 phenomena were maintained in backward recall, which contradicts the item and order trade-off hypothesis. Instead, we suggest that backward recall might rely on semantic retrieval strategies.

Memory & Cognition, 2011

Sequence learning has notably been studied using the Hebb repetition paradigm (Hebb, 1961) and th... more Sequence learning has notably been studied using the Hebb repetition paradigm (Hebb, 1961) and the serial reaction time (SRT) task (Nissen & Bullemer, Cognitive Psychology 19:1–32, 1987). These two paradigms produce robust learning effects but differ with regard to the role of awareness: Awareness does not affect learning a repeated sequence in the Hebb repetition paradigm, as is evidenced by recall performance, whereas in the SRT task, awareness helps to anticipate the location of the next stimulus. In this study, we examined the role of awareness in anticipation and recall performance, using the Hebb repetition paradigm. Eye movements were monitored during a spatial reconstruction task where participants had to memorize sequences of dot locations. One sequence was repeated every four trials. Results showed that recall performance for the repeated sequence improved across repetitions for all participants but that anticipation increased only for participants aware of the repetition.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2009

The process of binding information from different modalities and sources into an object is ubiqui... more The process of binding information from different modalities and sources into an object is ubiquitous in cognition and has been a problem for research and modelling efforts in psychology. This process has been considered by most researchers as necessarily always beneficial to memory. In the present study we provide evidence that binding can be detrimental through the propagation of vulnerabilities to interference. Phonologically similar and dissimilar letters were presented sequentially at different locations on a computer monitor. Participants had to recall either the letters in their order of presentation or the spatial locations at which the letters had appeared. Whether binding was encouraged or not--providing prior knowledge of which dimension to remember--phonological similarity had a detrimental effect on recall of locations. Such a finding poses a challenge to the view that binding is the panacea in enhancing memory capacity.

Memory & Cognition, 2010

Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs... more Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs from other items in a sequence (the distinctiveness effect; see, e.g., Kelley & Nairne, 2001). Distinctiveness effects, however, have been demonstrated mainly in the verbal domain. The present study extends distinctiveness effects to the spatial domain. In two experiments, participants recalled the order in which series of spatially located dots had been presented. Item discriminability was varied within the sequence by manipulating the duration of the interval inserted between the presentation of the dots (Experiment 1) and the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli (Experiment 2). The results showed that these manipulations in the spatial domain produce distinctiveness effects similar to those observed with verbal material (see, e.g., Neath & Crowder, 1990) and suggest that distinctiveness models of memory should take into account the processing of spatial information.

Journal of Experimental Psychology-human Perception and Performance, 2011

In serial memory for spatial information, performance is impaired when distractors are interpolat... more In serial memory for spatial information, performance is impaired when distractors are interpolated between to-be-remembered (TBR) stimuli (Tremblay, Nicholls, Parmentier, & Jones, 2005). The so-called sandwich effect, combined with the use of eye tracking, served as a tool for examining the role of the oculomotor system in serial memory for spatial information. Participants had to recall the order in which sequences of TBR locations were presented. In some trials, to-be-ignored blue dots were presented after each TBR location. Our results show that response locations shift toward the location of the distractors, and this deviation is related to the eye movement deviation toward the distractor location. These results suggest that TBR and to-be-ignored locations are encoded onto a common map that could lie within the oculomotor system. Interference in memory for spatial information is interpreted in light of a model of oculomotor behavior (Godijn & Theeuwes, 2002b).

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2008

The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the p... more The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the processing of verbal and spatial information in short-term memory. This was done by investigating the patterns of intrusions, omissions, transpositions, and fill-ins in verbal and spatial serial recall and order reconstruction tasks under control, articulatory suppression, and spatial tapping conditions. The authors observed that when tasks were fully equated, all patterns of errors were equivalent between the verbal and spatial domains. Moreover, articulatory suppression interfered more with the verbal memory tasks than with the spatial memory tasks. This interference was mostly due to an increase of omissions and transpositions. Similarly, tapping was more disruptive of spatial memory than of verbal memory tasks and affected primarily the number of omissions and transpositions. The patterns of errors and their interaction with interference are discussed in light of the predominant approaches to modeling memory and provide a rich set of data for modeling efforts.

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2006

In 2 experiments, the authors tested whether the classical modality effect-that is, the stronger ... more In 2 experiments, the authors tested whether the classical modality effect-that is, the stronger recency effect for auditory items relative to visual items-can be extended to the spatial domain. An order reconstruction task was undertaken with four types of material: visual-spatial, auditory-spatial, visualverbal, and auditory-verbal. Similar serial position curves were obtained regardless of the nature of the to-be-remembered sequences, with the exception that a modality effect was found with spatial as well as with verbal materials. The results are discussed with regard to a number of models of short-term memory.