Similarity and associative recognition

The effects of similarity on associative recognition are studied. Participa nts are more likely to give positive responses in associative recognition w hen a test pair consists of related words (synonyms, antonyms, or members o f the same taxonomic category) than when it consists of unrelated words. Th is effect is greater on distractors than on targets, thereby leading to a n egative effect of within-pair similarity on accuracy. This finding is incon sistent with the conclusion based On previous paired-associate and cued-rec all studies that similarity enhances associative memory and may reflect the fact that related pairs are higher-frequency units than are unrelated pair s. A similarity decrement was also found on a test where participants had t o remember the order of items in a pair. However, a test on item recognitio n, in which items were studied individually but tested a pair at a time, le d to fewer positive responses to related pairs than to unrelated pairs. (C) 2001 Academic Press.