The role of retrieval failures in memory incubation.

This dissertation investigates the mental processes that operate during the interval between an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve a word from memory and a subsequent flash of recall. Such flashes of recall resemble sudden insight for the solution to a difficult problem which arises after a period of incubation. I hypothesize that a retrieval failure initiates a sequence of mental events that are fundamentally different from standard semantic retrieval. In particular, a failure sensitizes individuals to notice relevant stimuli encountered in their environment. Such stimuli are often incorporated into subjects' representation of the failed question, resulting in improved memory performance later. The dissertation extends the work of Yaniv, Meyer, and Davidson (YMD, 1995) who used a definition-recall procedure to evaluate the effect of retrieval failures upon subsequent memory processing. Subjects attempted to retrieve rare English words when presented with their definitions. The goal was to determine whether these open questions sensitized subjects to notice the answers when they appeared in an intervening Lexical-Decision task (LDT). The results supported this Sensitization Hypothesis in that the attempt to recall the definition answers interacted with the subsequent exposure to the answers in the LDT to improve memory performance on the second day. The goal of the dissertation was to determine to what extent the obtained sensitization was initiated by the retrieval failure. To accomplish this, I completed a study in which the same definitions were used as in YMD, but subjects did not experience retrieval failures. Instead of providing answers to the definitions, subjects were asked to verify whether a particular word was the answer or not. Subsequently, some of the answers to the original definitions were presented in a LDT following the initial verifications. Twenty-four hours later, subjects completed a definition task like that in YMD in which they provided the definition answers. Through a comparison of these results with those of YMD, I show that the absence of a retrieval failure has a differential effect upon subjects' subsequent memory processing. This study supports a new theory about the memory processes involved in retrieval failures and subsequent flashes of recall.Ph.D.PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129517/2/9527611.pd