People often misrecognize objects that are similar to those they have previously encountered. These mnemonic discrimination errors are attributed to shared memory representations (gist) typically characterized in terms of meaning. In two experiments, we investigated multiple semantic and perceptual relations that may contribute: at the concept-level, a feature-based measure of concept confusability quantified each concept’s tendency to activate other similar concepts via shared features; at the item-level, rated semantic exemplarity indexed the degree to which the specific depicted objects activated their particular concepts. We also measured perceptual confusability over items using a computational model of vision, HMax, and an index of color confusability. Participants studied single (Experiment 1, N = 60) or multiple (Experiment 2, N = 60) objects for each basic-level concept, followed by a recognition memory test including studied items, similar lures, and novel items. People were less likely to recognize studied items with high concept confusability, and more likely to correctly reject their lures. This points to weaker basic-level semantic gist representations for objects with more confusable concepts because of a greater emphasis on coarse processing of shared features relative to fine-grained processing of individual concepts. In contrast, people were more likely to misrecognize lures that were better exemplars of their concept, suggesting that enhanced basic-level semantic gist processing increased errors due to gist across items. Mnemonic discrimination errors were also more frequent for more perceptually confusable lures. The results implicate semantic similarity at multiple levels and highlight the importance of perceptual as well as semantic relations.

Alexa (2021) Multiple dimensions of semantic and perceptual similarity contribute to mnemonic discrimination for pictures.

The use of research recordings in higher education is increasing, and so is the amount of research on this topic. Recent work focuses on how students use lecture recordings, and how the use mode is associated with demographic and psychological, as well as academic outcomes. A key distinction is between using lecture recordings as a substitute to attending live lectures (watching instead of attending; usually undesirable) and using them as a supplement to attending live lectures (watching in addition to attending; usually desirable). This study examined the demographic and psychological variables associated with attending live lectures, and with the use of lecture recordings as a substitute or supplement. Using data gathered in a large introductory psychology course (n=212), we found that students had a positive attitude and perceived a positive social norm towards all three behaviours. Their perception of lecturer norm was more nuanced, with substitution perceived to be the least accepted by lecturers. Generally, the more positive the students’ own attitude and the perceived peer norm towards the focal behaviour, the more likely students were to engage with lectures in that particular way. However, the effect of the student and lecturer norms often depended on the student’s level of identification with others on the course. These findings suggest that attitudes and social norms may be useful targets for educational interventions promoting the use of lecture recordings as a supplement rather than substitute. Study materials, data and analysis code are available online at https://osf.io/tgp8j/?view_only=7697958bb8df455fba205a94f0e1a9bd.

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