The effects of modality and stimilus type on memory for frequency

The effect of presentation modality and stimulus type on memory for frequency was examined. In Experiment 1, forty undergraduate students viewed or handled 21 three-dimensional items. Items were either (a) geometric shapes, (b) nonsense objects, or (c) familiar items and occurred either 2, 4, or 6 times, creating a randomly ordered list of 72 items. Subjects were tested in the same modality on their memory for frequency of those items. Subjects were able to distinguish between items which occurred less frequently versus those which occurred more often. The average frequency estimates for nonsense and familiar items were closest to the actual average. In Experiment 2, subjects initially viewed or handled the items and were tested in the opposite modality. Subjects were again sensitive to frequency although the pattern of frequency estimates for geometric items differed significantly. It appears subjects may have been deprived of too many haptic cues to distinctly identify each geometric shape. Results support a central frequency processing mechanism hypothesis