A number of studies (Mace et al., Memory & Cognition, 47, 299–312, 2019; Mace & Unlu, Memory & Cognition, 48, 931–941, 2020) have demonstrated that the activation of semantic memories leads to the activation of autobiographical memories on an involuntary memory task (the vigilance task; Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, Memory & Cognition, 36, 920–932, 2008), suggesting that this form of priming (semanti

Previous research has found that reading a list of ostensibly unrelated expressions based on the same underlying conceptual metaphor can evoke false recognition on a memory task for new expressions that use the same metaphor, the so-called conceptual metaphor false memory effect. We examined the automaticity of this effect by dividing participants’ attention with a concurrent task. In Study 1, attention

A popular model proposes that metamemory is based on two processes, monitoring and control. The first examines memories and evaluates their quality and the second uses that information to decide on the most appropriate course of action. Monitoring and control processes have been studied mostly with university students, which raises the question of how well do they work in groups of people from under-represented

Across three experiments (N = 1565), we investigated how forecasts about the spread of COVID 19 are impacted by data trends, and whether patterns of misestimation predict adherence to social-distancing guidelines. We also investigated how mode of data presentation influences forecasting of future cases by showing participants data on the number of COVID-19 cases from a 5-week period in either graphical

Metacognition involves the understanding and awareness of one’s cognitive processes, and responsible remembering is the notion that people strategically focus on and remember important information to prevent negative consequences for forgetting. The present study examined the metacognitive control processes involved in responsible remembering by evaluating how information importance affects one’s allocation

An ability discrepancy (crystallized minus fluid abilities) might be a personally relevant cognitive marker of risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and might help reduce measurement bias often present in traditional measures of cognition. In a large national sample of adults aged 60–104 years (N = 14,257), we investigated whether the intersectionality of group characteristics previously shown to pose

The amount of cognitive control required during a task may fluctuate over the course of performing a task. The dynamic upregulation of cognitive control has been proposed to occur in response to conflict or in response to the need for additional control during demanding cognitive tasks. Specifically, upregulation in cognitive control results in improved performance on trials that follow more demanding

Against the typical results of laboratory studies, it has been suggested that retrieving distant analogs from autobiographical memory would be relatively easy, since we frequently encode daily-life events in terms of overlearned relational categories that allow for a uniform abstract encoding. In each of two experiments, we formed two groups of participants who, as determined by a questionnaire presented

Prior work with hearing children acquiring a spoken language as their first language shows that spatial language and cognition are related systems and spatial language use predicts spatial memory. Here, we further investigate the extent of this relationship in signing deaf children and adults and ask if late sign language exposure, as well as the frequency and the type of spatial language use that

Autobiographical remembering is a subjective experience, and whether retrieval is perceived to occur through involuntary or voluntary, direct or generative cognitive processes is also based on subjective intuition. The present study examined factors that may contribute to the subjective judgment that occurs when we perceive memories as being retrieved directly (i.e., a memory comes to mind directly

This study aimed to investigate the role of emotion and working memory capacity (WMC) on false memory by measuring memory sensitivity independently of response bias. We used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm in which arousal levels were kept constant across positive, negative, and neutral word lists associated with unstudied critical lures. Participants’ WMC was measured by the Operation

On the 50th anniversary of Tulving’s introduction of the celebrated distinction between episodic and semantic memory, it seems more than fitting to revisit his proposal in light of recent conceptual and methodological advances in the field. This Special Issue of Memory & Cognition brings together researchers doing cutting-edge work at the intersection between episodic and semantic memory to showcase

While items learned immediately before testing are generally remembered better than prior items in a study list, in delayed testing this relationship is reversed, yielding a negative recency effect. To adjudicate between the strategic rehearsal and spacing accounts of this phenomenon, we examined performance of 169 participants on a delayed recognition test following multiple sessions requiring the

Deciding together is common in our everyday life. However, the process of this joint decision-making plays out across different levels, for example language, intonation, or non-verbal behaviour. Here we focused on non-verbal interaction dynamics between two participants in probability discounting. We applied a gamified decision-making task in which participants performed a series of choices between

In the current study, we examine and compare the effects of talker and accent familiarity in the context of a voice identity sorting task, using naturally varying voice recording samples from the TV show Derry Girls. Voice samples were thus all spoken with a regional accent of UK/Irish English (from [London]derry). We tested four listener groups: Listeners were either familiar or unfamiliar with the

Solving a problem requires relating the pieces of information available to each other and to the solution. We investigated how the strength of these relationships determines the likelihood of solving insight tasks based on remote associates. In these tasks, the solver is provided with several cues (e.g., drop, coat, summer) and has to find the solution that matches those cues (e.g., rain). We measured

An important aspect of making good decisions is the ability to adapt to changes in the values of available choice options, and research suggests that we are poor at changing behavior and adapting our choices successfully. The current paper contributes to clarifying the role of memory on learning and successful adaptation to changing decision environments. We test two aspects of changing decision environments:

In the numerical Stroop task, participants are presented with two digits that differ in their numerical and physical size and are requested to respond to which digit is numerically larger. Commonly, slower responses are observed when the numerical distance between the digits is small (the distance effect) and when the numerical and physical size are incongruent (the size-congruency effect). The current

The ability to remember and internally represent events is often accompanied by a subjective sense of “vividness”. Vividness measures are frequently used to evaluate the experience of remembering and imagining events, yet little research has considered the objective attributes of event memories that underlie this subjective judgment, and individual differences in this mapping. Here, we tested how the

Compositionality is a primary feature of language, but graphics can also create combinatorial meaning, like with items above faces (e.g., lightbulbs to mean inspiration). We posit that these “upfixes” (i.e., upwards affixes) involve a productive schema enabling both stored and novel face–upfix dyads. In two experiments, participants viewed either conventional (e.g., lightbulb) or unconventional (e