TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus T1 - Binding and inhibition in working memory : individual and age differences in short-term recognition N2 - Two studies investigated the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC), adult age, and the resolution of conflict between familiarity and recollection in short-term recognition tasks. Experiment 1 showed a specific deficit of young adults with low WMC in rejecting intrusion probes (i.e., highly familiar probes) in a modified Sternberg task, which was similar to the deficit found in old adults in a parallel experiment (K. Oberauer, 2001). Experiment 2 generalized these results to 3 recognition paradigms (modified Sternberg, local recognition, and n back tasks). Old adults showed disproportional performance deficits on intrusion probes only in terms of reaction times, whereas young adults with low WMC showed them only in terms of errors. The generality of the effect across paradigms is more compatible with a deficit in content-context bindings subserving recollection than with a deficit in inhibition of irrelevant information in working memory. Structural equation models showed that WMC is related to the efficiency of recollection but not of familiarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2005 SN - 0096-3445 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidenfeld, Andrea A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Hornig, R T1 - Causal and noncausal conditionals : an integrated model of interpretation and reasoning N2 - We present an integrated model for the understanding of and the reasoning from conditional statements. Central assumptions from several approaches are integrated into a causal path model. According to the model, the cognitive availability of exceptions to a conditional reduces the subjective conditional probability of the consequent, given the antecedent. This conditional probability determines people's degree of belief in the conditional, which in turn affects their willingness to accept logically valid inferences. In addition to this indirect pathway, the model contains a direct pathway: Availability of exceptional situations directly reduces the endorsement of valid inferences. We tested the integrated model with three experiments using conditional statements embedded in pseudonaturalistic cover stories. An explicitly mentioned causal link between antecedent and consequent was either present (causal conditionals) or absent (arbitrary conditionals). The model was supported for the causal but not for the arbitrary conditional statements Y1 - 2005 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus T1 - Control of the contents of working memory : a comparison of two paradigms and two age groups N2 - Two experiments investigated whether young and old adults can temporarily remove information from a capacity- limited central component of working memory (WM) into another component, the activated part of long-term memory (LTM). Experiment I used a modified Sternberg recognition task (S. Sternberg, 1969); Experiment 2 used an arithmetic memory- updating task. In both paradigms, participants memorized 2 lists, one of which was cued as temporarily irrelevant. Removal of the irrelevant list from capacity-limited WM was indexed by the disappearance of list-length effects of that list on latencies for concurrent processing tasks. Young adults could oursource the irrelevant list within 2-3 s and retrieve it back into the central part of WM later. Old adults showed the same flexibility in the arithmetic updating task but seemed somewhat less able or inclined to temporarily move information into the activated part of LTM in the modified Sternberg task Y1 - 2005 SN - 0278-7393 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Hornig, R. A1 - Weidenfeld, Andrea A1 - Wilhelm, Oliver T1 - Effects of directionality in deductive reasoning : II. Premise integration and conclusion evaluation N2 - Previous research (Oberauer & Wilhelm, 2000) has shown an inherent directionality between the two terms linked in premises of typical deductive reasoning tasks. With three experiments we investigated the effect of inherent directionality on the time to integrate two premises and for the derivation of a conclusion. We varied figure (i.e., order of terms in the premises) and direction of inference (i.e., order of terms in the conclusion) in deduction tasks from various domains (propositional reasoning, syllogisms, spatial, temporal, and linear order reasoning). Effects of figure on premise reading times varied with the directionality of the relations. Effects of direction of inference reflected the same directionality for a subset of relations. We propose that two factors are jointly responsible for a large part of observed directionality effects in premise integration: the inherent directionality of relational statements and a general advantage for a given-new order of terms in the second premise. Difficulty of deriving a conclusion is affected by the directionality or relations if and only if the relation is semantically asymmetric, so that the directionality must be preserved in the integrated mental model Y1 - 2005 SN - 0272-4987 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lewandowsky, Stephan A1 - Stritzke, W. G. K. A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Morales, M. T1 - Memory for fact, fiction, and misinformation : the Iraq War 2003 N2 - Media coverage of the 2003 Iraq War frequently contained corrections and retractions of earlier information. For example, claims that Iraqi forces executed coalition prisoners of war after they surrendered were retracted the day after the claims were made. Similarly, tentative initial reports about the discovery of weapons of mass destruction were all later disconfirmed. We investigated the effects of these retractions and disconfirmations on people's memory for and beliefs about war-related events in two coalition countries (Australia and the United States) and one country that opposed the war (Germany). Participants were queried about (a) true events, (b) events initially presented as fact but subsequently retracted, and (c) fictional events. Participants in the United States did not show sensitivity to the correction of misinformation, whereas participants in Australia and Germany discounted corrected misinformation. Our results are consistent with previous findings in that the differences between samples reflect greater suspicion about the motives underlying the war among people in Australia and Germany than among people in the United States Y1 - 2005 SN - 0956-7976 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, Elke B. A1 - Oberauer, Klaus T1 - Overwriting of phonemic features in serial recall N2 - We tested explanations of the phonological similarity effect in verbal short-term memory: the confusion hypothesis assumes that serial positions of similar items are confused. The overwriting hypothesis states that similar items share feature representations, which are overwritten. Participants memorised a phonologically dissimilar list of CVC-trigrams (Experiment 1) or words (Experiment 2 and 3) for serial recall. In the retention interval they real aloud other items. The material of the distractor task jointly overlapped one item of the memory list. The recall of this item was impaired, and the effect was not based on intrusions from the distractor task alone. The results provide evidence for feature overwriting as one potential mechanism contributing to the phonological similarity effect Y1 - 2005 SN - 0965-8211 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hornig, R. A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Weidenfeld, Andrea T1 - Two principles of premise integration in spatial reasoning N2 - We propose two principles that facilitate integration of two relational premises in spatial reasoning. Integration is easier if the anaphor in the second premise, P2, bears the role of the relatum (relatum = given). Moreover, integration is easier if, in P2, the anaphor is mentioned before the new element (given-new). In premises with canonical word order (grammatical subjects mentioned first), these principles always conflict with one another. In topicalized statements mentioning the prepositional phrase first, the two principles work in tandem. By varying word order, we tested the two principles by measuring P2 comprehension times. Comprehension times indicated that integration was easiest when P2 obeyed both principles and most difficult when both principles were violated. Canonical premises were of intermediate difficulty. This pattern emerged regardless of whether the anaphor was a definite description or a pronoun Y1 - 2005 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Schulze, Ralf A1 - Wilhelm, Oliver A1 - Süss, Heinz-Martin T1 - Working memory and intelligence : their correlation and their relation ; Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005) N2 - On the basis of a mete-analysis of pairwise correlations between working memory tasks and cognitive ability measures, P. L. Ackerman. M. E. Beier, and M. O. Boyle (2005) claimed that working memory capacity (WMC) shares less than 25% of its variance with general intelligence (,;) and with reasoning ability. In this comment, the authors argue that this is an underestimation because of several methodological shortcomings and biases. A reanalysis of the data reported in Ackerman et al. using the correct statistical procedures demonstrates that g and WMC are very highly correlated. On a conceptual level. the authors point out that WMC should be regarded as an explanatory construct for intellectual abilities. Theories of working memory do not claim that WMC is isomorphic with intelligence factors but that it is a very strong predictor of reasoning ability and also predicts general fluid intelligence and g. Y1 - 2005 SN - 0033-2909 ER -