Abstract
Subjects studied a list of lowercase cue and uppercase target pairs containing famous names (e.g., betsy ROSS) and nonfamous names (e.g., edwin CONWAY). Following recognition tests in which surnames were tested in the absence of their cues, cued recall tests for the surnames were given. In semantic recognitio n and recall tests, the response to a surname was to be made solely on the basis of its fame, whether or not it had appeared in the study list. In episodic memory tests, the response to a surname was to be made solely on the basis of whether or not it had appeared in the study list, regardless of its fame. For individual subjects, the type (i.e., episodic vs. semantic) of recognition test and cued recall test was always different. The observed recognition failure rate for the studied famous names tested in the semantic recognition and episodic cued recall condition was significantly lower than that predicted by the Tulving-Wiseman (1975) function, whereas the recognition failure rate for the episodic recognition and semantic cued recall condition was significantly higher than predicted. The data are interpreted as providing some support for the distinction between episodic and semantic memory.
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The research reported here was supported by Grant R01 HD15054 awarded to the second author by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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Payne, D.G., Neely, J.H. Recognition failure of recallable famous names in a hybrid semantic-episodic memory task. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 21, 85–88 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329961
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329961