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Dissertation Information for Douglas Metzler

NAME:
- Douglas Metzler
- (Alias) Douglas Paul Metzler

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Psychology

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Davis (USA) (1981)

ADVISORS:
- Neal Kroll

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: PREDICTIONS OF MEMORY PERFORMANCE WITHIN LEVELS OF PROCESSING

Abstract: "Five experiments are reported that support the general heuristic value of the Levels of Processing approach by demonstrating (1) that the model can be used to predict memory performance within homogeneous task domains, thus partially avoiding the problem of circularity, and (2) that the model relates in interesting ways to other concepts and models, and is productive of research which is of general interest.

Experiment I supported the findings of Johnson-Laird, Gibbs & deMowray (1978) that the number of decisions made about a word is a major determinant of recall, while eliminating a possible confounding based upon retrieval cuing, and extending the generality of this finding in several ways. Experiment II extended the Semantic Distance Effect to a large number of adjective dimensions, including many that are abstract. It demonstrated that the effect is not dependent upon a working memory representation built up on the basis of repeated comparisons within a single dimension. Semantic Distance and Imageability of the dimension were found to produce independent effects upon reaction time. Experiment III demonstrated that the Semantic Distance involved in a comparison affected memory performance, as predicted by an effort interpretation of Depth of Processing. Experiment IV also demonstrated that cognitive effort can affect memory performance. In this case effort overcame the usually overwhelming effects of imageability, but only for recognition. The difference between recall and recognition effects in this experiment were interpreted in terms of Mandler's (1977) distinction between integrative and elaborative organization. Experiment V demonstrated that semantically processed words led to a greater facilitation of reaction time performance in a lexical decision task than did graphemically processed words, thus extending the range of phenomena encompassed within the Levels of Processing approach, and localizing at least some of the effect within the encoding process."

MPACT Scores for Douglas Metzler

A = 1
C = 0
A+C = 1
T = 8
G = 3
W = 5
TD = 4
TA = 2
calculated 2011-04-03 13:46:00

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