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Processes of conscious and unconscious
forms of human memory were explored in three implicit tests (stem
completion, word association, and word identification) by examining how the
two forms of memory within each test were differently affected by
level-of-processing (LOP) and self-generation of study words. A post-test
dissociation (PTD) procedure was used to separate the two forms of memory
within each test without being contaminated by memory and guessing effects
produced by post-test judgments. Results show that both LOP and generation
produced positive effects, associated with either a positive effect (in the
tests of stem completion and word identification) or a null effect (in the
test of word association) of repetition priming under shallow processing, on
estimates of conscious memory. On the other hand, LOP produced null effects
and generation produced reverse effects accompanied by a
repetition-inhibition effect under generation on estimates of unconscious
memory. This pattern of results suggests that conscious memory of a studied
word benefits from either perceptual or conceptual processing of the word at
study depending upon the number of processing modes matched between the test
and the study. On the contrary, unconscious memory of a studied word either
(1) benefits from stimulus encoding at study to the extent that the stimulus
encodings at test and at study form the same information Gestalt or (2)
either suffers inhibitions or does not benefit from stimulus encoding at
study to the extent that the stimulus encodings at study and at test form
different information Gestalten. The inhibition aspect of the assumption is
based on the reasoning that the information Gestalt formed by encoded
information about a study word and other types of information (e.g., either
information about generation cues or information about an associate of the
study word) will inhibit its part from being triggered by a different
information Gestalt provided at test. |
