More Is Not Necessarily Better: How Different Aspects of Sensorimotor Experience Affect Recognition Memory for Words

Autor/inn/en	Dymarska, Agata; Connell, Louise; Banks, Briony
Titel	More Is Not Necessarily Better: How Different Aspects of Sensorimotor Experience Affect Recognition Memory for Words
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 49 (2023) 10, S.1572-1587 (16 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Dymarska, Agata) ORCID (Connell, Louise) ORCID (Banks, Briony)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/xlm0001265
Schlagwörter	Memory; Semantics; Word Recognition; Sensory Experience + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gedächtnis; Semantik; Worterkennung; Sinnerfahrung
Abstract	Semantic richness theory predicts that words with richer, more distinctive semantic representations should facilitate performance in a word recognition memory task. We investigated the contribution of multiple aspects of sensorimotor experience--those relating to the body, communication, food, and objects--to word recognition memory, by analyzing megastudy data in a series of hierarchical linear regressions. We found that different forms of sensorimotor experience produced different effects on memory. While stronger grounding in object- and food-related experience facilitated word memory performance as expected for semantic richness, experience relating to communication did not. Critically, sensorimotor experience relating to the body impaired rather than facilitated recognition memory by inflating false alarms, which was not consistent with the idea that semantically richer representations are more memorable. Additionally, we found that pure imageability (i.e., consciously generating mental imagery, distinct from sensorimotor experience) contributes to semantic richness effects on word memory but with much smaller effect sizes than previously reported, once sensorimotor grounding was taken into account. These results suggest that word recognition memory is often but not consistently facilitated by rich semantic representations and that it is essential to separately consider distinct forms of sensorimotor experience rather than assuming more information is always better. The findings have implications for the use of semantic variables in memory research. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01