Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology

Reshaping the mind: The benefits of bilingualism.
Studies have shown that bilingual individuals consistently outperform their monolingual counterparts on tasks involving executive control. The present paper reviews some of the evidence for this conclusion and relates the findings to the effect of bilingualism on cognitive organisation and to conceptual issues in the structure of executive control. Evidence for the protective effect of bilingualism against Alzheimer's disease is presented with some speculation about the reason for that protection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Extensions of the picture superiority effect in associative recognition.
Previous research has shown that the picture superiority effect (PSE) is seen in tests of associative recognition for random pairs of line drawings compared to pairs of concrete words (Hockley, 2008). In the present study we demonstrated that the PSE for associative recognition is still observed when subjects have correctly identified the individual items of each pair as old (Experiment 1), and that this effect is not due to rehearsal borrowing (Experiment 2). The PSE for associative recognition also is shown to be present but attenuated for mixed picture-word pairs (Experiment 3), and similar in magnitude for pairs of simple black and white line drawings and coloured photographs of detailed objects (Experiment 4). The results are consistent with the view that the semantic meaning of nameable pictures is activated faster than that of words thereby affording subjects more time to generate and elaborate meaningful associations between items depicted in picture form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Concreteness effects in short-term memory: A test of the item-order hypothesis.
The following experiments explore word length and concreteness effects in short-term memory within an item-order processing framework. This framework asserts order memory is better for those items that are relatively easy to process at the item level. However, words that are difficult to process benefit at the item level for increased attention/resources being applied. The prediction of the model is that differential item and order processing can be detected in episodic tasks that differ in the degree to which item or order memory are required by the task. The item-order account has been applied to the word length effect such that there is a short word advantage in serial recall but a long word advantage in item recognition. The current experiment considered the possibility that concreteness effects might be explained within the same framework. In two experiments, word length (Experiment 1) and concreteness (Experiment 2) are examined using forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition. These results for word length replicate previous studies showing the dissociation in item and order tasks. The same was not true for the concreteness effect. In all three tasks concrete words were better remembered than abstract words. The concreteness effect cannot be explained in terms of an item-order trade off. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Semantic priming with product verification but not production.
Campbell and Reynvoet (2009) found that time to name a single-digit target was about 8 ms faster if preceded by a near prime (± 1) compared to a far prime (at least ± 3) when prime-digit pairs were interleaved with number comparisons (9 ↑ 3; name larger) and not when they were interleaved with multiplication problems (9 × 3; state product). This is consistent with the claim by previous researchers that magnitude comparison can enable a semantic pathway for digit naming whereas number-fact retrieval can inhibit it. To pursue this, the current study compared priming in the context of multiplication production (9 × 3 = ?) versus multiplication verification (e.g., 9 × 3 = 24, true or false). Multiplication production, but not verification, may inhibit semantic digit naming to reduce naming-related interference with verbal number production. Indeed, semantic priming of digit naming occurred only in verification and not production blocks. This supports the conclusion that multiplication production can inhibit semantic mediation of digit naming, which is enabled in other number processing tasks (e.g., comparison, verification) that do not compete with naming for verbal number production processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Revisiting Fitts and Peterson (1964): Width and amplitude manipulations to the reaching environment elicit dissociable movement times.
The classic theorem of Fitts (1954) asserts that the combined effects of movement amplitude and target width (index of difficulty: ID) define movement times (MTs) for goal-directed reaches. Moreover, Fitts' theorem states that reaches yielding the same ID produce equivalent MTs regardless of the response's amplitude and width combination. However, most work providing direct support for Fitts' theorem has employed short movement amplitudes and small target widths. Thus, no direct evidence supports the unitary nature of MT/ID relations across a range of amplitudes and widths used in contemporary studies of goal-directed reaching. To that end, we contrasted MT/ID relations for discrete reaches equated for movement ID but differing with respect to their amplitude (15.5, 19, 25.5, and 38 cm) and width (2, 3, 4, and 5 cm) requirements. Results show that amplitude and width manipulations yielded robust linear MT/ID relations; however, the slope of the MT/ID function was markedly steeper in the former (amplitude = 92 ms; width = 13 ms). Such findings indicate that the constituent elements of movement ID are dissociable and that the fixed parameter nature of Fitts' theorem cannot be applied to a continuous range of veridical movement amplitudes and target widths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Metamemory judgments and study time allocation in young and older adults: Dissociative effects of a generation task.
This study explored age-related differences in the use of metacognitive judgment to allocate extra study time according to the perceived difficulty of a learning task. The task difficulty was varied by manipulating the encoding condition which entailed either generating or reading paired associates. Perceived difficulty was measured by the global prediction rating, whereby participants predicted that they would recall fewer words in the learning task they considered hardest. Participants were first asked to predict their own future recall performance and then learned paired associates in their own time, and finally performed a cued-recall test for each encoding condition. Our results replicated earlier findings that generation improves the memory performance of both young and older adults. However, both groups thought that generation would be more difficult than reading and predicted that they would recall fewer words under that condition. The young adults allocated different amounts of study time to the two tasks, whereas the older adults allocated the same time. This was interpreted as an age-related impairment in self-initiated coordination of metacognitive judgment and the control processes required for effective allocation of study time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Can balance efficacy be manipulated using verbal feedback?
Verbal feedback was used to alter balance efficacy to examine its effects on perceived and actual balance in young adults. Participants (N = 61) completed a stance task, were randomized to either a high or low balance efficacy or control group, and then completed the same task. The results showed that balance efficacy was manipulated as the low balance efficacy group had decreases in balance efficacy. Although verbal feedback did not alter balance efficacy in the high balance efficacy group, perceptions of stability increased for these participants. No changes in actual balance were found. The nature of verbal feedback may differentially influence balance-related cognitions during a challenging stance task in young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Variations d'encodage et faux souvenirs en rappel. / Variations of encoding and false memories in recall.
This article presents two experiments using the DRM paradigm and examining the effects of variations in the depth of processing on the occurrence of false memories at recall. Contrary to what is generally observed, the results of the first experiment indicate that deep processing, maximizing the possibility of implication of distinctive characteristics, leads to an increase of the recall of hits without increasing the recall of lures. The second experiment uses instructions of inclusion requiring participants to recall not only the presented items but also all the words that were activated in memory both during the encoding and retrieval phases. These instructions, which deactivate the strategy of control of the source, support the notion that deep processing favours the activation of distinctive characteristics that facilitate the process of discrimination during the identification of the source. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstracts of the 2011 CSBBCS Annual Meeting.
Presents a collection of abstracts of the 2011 Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS) Annual Meeting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)

Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale - Vol 65, Iss 4