Estimating the frequency of events from unnatural categories.

Full Abstract

We report two experiments about how people estimate the frequency of event properties when they are explicitly (e.g, spinach-GREEN) and implicitly (e.g, spinach) presented. In Experiment 1, verbal reports indicated that, for explicitly presented properties, participants used several retrieval- and impression-based strategies and were relatively accurate. Implicitly presented properties led to off-target retrieval, which brought to mind more instances of nontarget than of target properties and degraded estimates. A third group estimated the frequency of taxonomic categories (e.g., furniture) much as the explicit property group did, suggesting that people can use properties to organize remembered events. In a second experiment, estimation time patterns underscored the results of Experiment 1 and eliminated reactive verbal reports as an explanation. Off-target retrieval was both ineffective and slow.

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Author information

Author/s: Conrad, Frederick G (FG); Brown, Norman R (NR); Dashen, Monica (M);

Affiliation: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248, USA. fconrad(-atsign-)isr.umich.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jun; vol 31 (issue 4) : pp 552-62

Dates: Created 2003/07/22; Completed 2003/08/27; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12872871, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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