Main content
Investigating Fast Mapping (FM) in healthy adults using an implicit memory measure: A replication
Date created: | Last Updated:
: DOI | ARK
Creating DOI. Please wait...
Category: Project
Description: Fast Mapping (FM) is an incidental learning process that is hypothesised to allow rapid, cortical-based memory formation, independent of the normal, hippocampally-dependent episodic memory system. Recently, Coutanche and Thompson-Schill (2014) reported evidence for a learning advantage under an FM condition over a more conventional explicit learning condition (EE) in healthy young people using an implicit measure of learning, namely same-day lexical integration using a category (man-made/natural) decision task. They reported that under FM there were significantly slower RTs to hermit words, i.e., “galaxy”, whose made-up neighbours, i.e., “ganaxy” has been incidentally learned as unfamiliar animal name during the study phase; there was no slowing in the EE condition. They concluded that this offered evidence of same-day lexical integration learning that was present following FM, but not EE. We ran a methodological replication with power of over 80% and N=56 young adults, but found no evidence of same-day lexical competition (i.e., slowing) following either FM or EE. However, a post-hoc analysis produced an interesting significant result. In all learning conditions ‘names’ (i.e, made-up neighbours, e.g., “ganaxy”, “naskin”) had been incidentally learned as unfamiliar animal names; we found facilitation (i.e., speeding) for natural words, e.g.,“galaxy”, but slowing for man-made words, e.g., “napkin” under the FM condition, suggesting a facilitatory semantic priming effect, instead of a inhibitory lexical competition effect. We now wish to attempt to replicate this significant semantic priming effect, which would further inform the mechanisms of FM learning. Our experiment will have six between-participant conditions: 1 FM, 1 FM-r, and 1 EE condition where the ‘names’ are for unfamiliar animals, and 1 FM, 1 FM-r, and 1 EE condition where ‘names’ are unfamiliar man-made objects. We predict that when studied neighbours (e.g., “ganaxy”, “naskin”) are names for (1) unfamiliar animal pictures, natural words (galaxy) will be speeded and man-made words (napkin) will be slowed, but for (2) unfamiliar man-made objects, natural words (galaxy) will be slowed and man-made words (napkin) will be speeded.