The Tulving-Wiseman law and the recognition of recallable music

Abstract

Memory for well-known musical phrases was tested first for recognition in the absence of any specific musical context and then for recall given the preceding musical phrase as a contextual cue. Recognition and recall were found to be largely, but not completely, independent. Moreover, there was no evidence of any greater dependency between recognition and recall than that previously observed in the relation between word recognition and recall, as summarized by the Tulving-Wiseman law. These findings significantly extend the range of applicability of this law.It has been claimed that there is an empirical law in the relation between recognition and recall. This law has come to be known as the Tulving-Wiseman law, after those who discovered the regularity that it embodies (Tulving & Wiseman, 1975). Tulving and Wiseman proposed that this regularity could be summarized mathematically by the following equation:where the constant e = .5. In this equation, the relation between recognition and recall is assessed by the conditional probability of recognition (Rn) given recall (Re), and the relation is one in which recognition and recall are largely, but not completely, independent.The claim that this relation between recognition and recall is lawful has been recently discussed by Gardiner (1988Gardiner ( , 1989, Jones and Gardiner (1990), Nilsson, Dinniwell, andTulving (1987), andNilsson, Law, andTulving (1988). But the fullest review has been provided by Gardiner and Nilsson (1990), who state the law as follows:Recognition of a set of to-be-remembered items in the absence of any item-specific context is largely independent of their subsequent recall given item-specific contextual cues-provided these cues are functionally related to, hut not equivalent to, the target items themselves.Gardiner and Nilsson reviewed results from 78 relevant experiments from 42 published articles. These experiments yielded a total of 272 different observations of the probability ofrecognition given recall, and-with few exceptions-these observations all corresponded approximately with the probability of recognition given recall that would be expected, on the basis of Equation 1, from the probability of recognition. The experiments naturallyWe thank Ian Cross for help in computer programming and James Harnpton and Paul Williams for help in recording the music. Requests for reprints should be addressed to lohn Gardiner, Memory

Mathematical constraints and the Tulving-Wiseman law.

“…Second, one can come to at least a partial understanding of why certain conditions yield data that deviate noticeably from the law. Gardiner et al (1990) cited experiments by Begg (1979) and by Gardiner and Tulving (1980) as exceptions to the law. Begg's (1979) exceptions occurred particularly when instructions were for rote learning.…”

“…Several articles have argued that this relation constitutes a scientific law (e.g., Gardiner, Kaminska, Java, Clarke, & Mayer, 1990; Nilsson, Dinniwell, & Tulving, 1987; Nilsson, Law, & Tulving, 1988), and some have dubbed it the “Tulving-Wiseman law” (e.g., Gardiner, 1989; Gardiner et al, 1990; Nilsson & Gardiner, 1991). In one article espousing what amounts to canonization of the apparent regularity, Nilsson et al (1988) expressed their “wish to stimulate other workers to tell us and the rest of the world why the regularity in question should not be called a ‘law’” (p. 276).…”

Dissociations among functional subsystems governing melody recognition after right-hemisphere damage

“…Two previous studies, both with university students, have contrasted recognition memory for song and instrumental melodies. Both showed slightly higher recognition rates for song over instrumental melodies (Gardiner, Kaminska, Java, Clarke, & Mayer, 1990;Peretz, Babaï, Lussier, Hébert, & Gagnon, 1995). The first goal of the Famous Melodies test was to document in KB selective sparing of song melody recognition abilities.…”

Very long‐term recall and recognition of well‐learned material

“…Gardiner et al (1990) found that the function held for musical phrases, and Muter (1978) and Neely and Payne (1983) demonstrated RF under both semantic and episodic testing. Nilsson et al (1990) found that the Tulving-Wiseman function also held for words embedded in a story.…”