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Projeto de investigação
Interactions between retrieval and present or subsequent learning
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Publicações
Off the top of my head: Malleability and stability in natural categories
Publication . Palma, Tomás; Correia dos Santos, Ana Sofia; Garcia-Marques, Leonel
Previous research has found that category representations are highly malleable knowledge structures, varying
widely across different contexts and individuals. However, it has also been found that such malleability does not
apply equally to all types of category information. The present research further investigates the representational
malleability versus stability of natural taxonomic categories. Using perceptual fluency as means to induce
malleability, we explored whether malleability is moderated by the degree of typicality of category information.
In the first experiment, we found that fluency-based malleability only occurs for non-typical category information. In follow-up experiments, we investigated the boundary conditions under which such fluency-based
malleability occurs. Namely, in Experiment 2, we showed that the effect of fluency on non-typical features
disappeared when there is a sensory modality mismatch between study and test phases. Finally, in Experiment 3,
we demonstrated that this effect reappears in the modality mismatch condition when participants are given a
response deadline. The implications of these findings to current theories of category representation and the
perceptual fluency literature are discussed.
Learning what to inhibit: The influence of repeated testing on the encoding of gender and age information
Publication . Palma, Tomás; Garcia-Marques, Leonel; Marques, Pedro; Haga, Sara; Payne, B. Keith
Psychological research has devoted considerable attention to the relationship between the multiple
category dimensions that can be extracted from faces. In the present studies, we investigated the role of
experience and learning on the way the social perceiver deals with multiple category dimensions.
Specifically, we tested whether learning which of 2 dimensions is the most relevant to the task at hand
influences the encoding and retrieval of both task-relevant and irrelevant dimensions. In our studies,
participants went through several cycles, each consisting of a study and a test phase. We manipulated the
structure of the tests such that participants were probed on only 1 category dimension (age or gender),
despite viewing faces of both category dimensions in all study phases. We hypothesized that when
participants were repeatedly tested on 1 dimension, they would proactively control their attention toward
that specific dimension and away from the nonrelevant dimension. Five studies demonstrated that: (a)
participants learned which dimension was test-relevant such that they gradually became faster and more
accurate on that dimension; (b) when the gender dimension was test-relevant, participants were faster and
more accurate retrieving information concerning the target faces’ gender than age, while the opposite did
not happen when the age dimension was test-relevant; and (c) this dominance of the gender dimension
is mainly caused by the inhibition of the age dimension. Implications about the importance of previous
experience and control for research on social categorization in general and research examining the
interplay between gender and age are discussed.
The future is now: the impact of present fluency in judgments about the future
Publication . Palma, Tomás; Correia dos Santos, Ana Sofia; Garcia-Marques, Leonel
Recent research has emphasised the role of episodic memory in both remembering past events
and in envisaging future events. On the other hand, it has been repeatedly shown that
judgments about past events are affected by the fluency with which retrieval cues are
processed. In this paper we investigate whether perceptual fluency also plays a role in
judgments about future events. For this purpose we conducted four experiments. The first
experiment replicated recent findings showing that stimuli that are processed fluently tend
to be wrongly recognised as having been encountered in the past outside the laboratory
walls [Brown, A. S., & Marsh, E. J. (2009). Creating illusions of past encounter through brief
exposure. Psychological Science, 20, 534–538. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02337.x]. Two
follow-up experiments using Brown and Marsh’s [(2009). Creating illusions of past encounter
through brief exposure. Psychological Science, 20, 534–538. doi:10.1111/j.1467-
9280.2009.02337] task tested the influence of perceptual fluency on future judgments. The
fourth and last experiment was designed to rule out a potential confounding factor in the
two previous experiments. Across experiments, we found that people rely on fluency when
making judgments about events that are yet to come. These results suggest that fluency is
an equally valid cue for past and future judgments.
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
Projetos de Investigação Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico - 2014
Número da atribuição
PTDC/MHC-PCN/1267/2014