太田 信夫

A distinction has recently been drawn between two forms of implicit tests, one sensitive to perceptual factors (implicit perceptual tests) and another sensitive to semantic factors (implicit conceptual tests). In two experiments, we examined the statistical relation between performance on an implicit perceptual test (kanji fragment completion test - a new test described in this article), on an implicit conceptual test (category association test) and on an explicit memory test (recognition). Stochastic independence was observed between the implicit perceptual and the explicit tests, between the two implicit tests (Experiment 1), and between the implicit conceptual and the explicit tests (Experiment 2). These results lend support to the distinction between perceptual and conceptual forms of priming.

A distinction has recently been drawn between two forms of implicit tests, one sensitive to perceptual factors (implicit perceptual tests) and another sensitive to semantic factors (implicit conceptual tests). In two experiments, we examined the statistical relation between performance on an implicit perceptual test (kanji fragment completion test - a new test described in this article), on an implicit conceptual test (category association test) and on an explicit memory test (recognition). Stochastic independence was observed between the implicit perceptual and the explicit tests, between the two implicit tests (Experiment 1), and between the implicit conceptual and the explicit tests (Experiment 2). These results lend support to the distinction between perceptual and conceptual forms of priming.

Terasawa (1991) explained word-frequency effect in recognition memory as interference caused by preexperimental encounters with a target item. As a result of additional encounters with high-frequency words, target episodes with these words are more difficult to distinguish from pre-experimental encounters than target episodes with low-frequency words. Following Terasawa's proposition, it was hypothesized that recognition performance is influenced by an encounter with the target occurring much earlier, as long as the episode remained outside conscious awareness. Two similar experiments, with intersession interval of four and six months respectively, were carried out to see the effects of the first session on recognition performance in the second session. Each session consists of study and test phases. In the first experiment, high false alarm rate was detected with the items presented in the first session. In the second experiment, in addition to the within-session recognition task, subjects were asked to recognize targets studied in the first session; a task at which they were remarkably successful. These results suggest that a much earlier event may substantially influence memory.