Investigating category transitions and interresponse times in fluency tasks.
Semantic fluency tasks require participants to recall as many items as possible from a category (e.g., animals) within a fixed time. These tasks are known to produce heavy-tailed distributions of interresponse times (IRTs), a pattern also found in natural foraging. The present study examined whether...
| Publicado en: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 1731 - 1753 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jul2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195652887&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195652887 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 54 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 195652887 10.3758/s13421-025-01836-4 ppf: 1731 ppct: 22 formats: tig: atl: Investigating category transitions and interresponse times in fluency tasks. aug: au: Magaldino, Corey M. Amazeen, Eric L. affil: https://ror.org/03efmqc40 Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA su: Task performance Psychology Analysis of variance Repeated measures design Conceptual models Descriptive statistics Semantic memory Reaction time Verbal behavior sug: subj: Task performance Psychology Analysis of variance Repeated measures design Conceptual models Descriptive statistics Semantic memory Reaction time Verbal behavior keyword: Free recall Heavy-tailed distributions Memory foraging Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Semantic fluency Free recall Heavy-tailed distributions Memory foraging Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Semantic fluency ab: Semantic fluency tasks require participants to recall as many items as possible from a category (e.g., animals) within a fixed time. These tasks are known to produce heavy-tailed distributions of interresponse times (IRTs), a pattern also found in natural foraging. The present study examined whether long IRTs arise specifically at category transitions. Across three experiments, participants completed fluency tasks that varied in scope: recalling items from a single semantic category (animals), from two categories (animals and vegetables), or from letter-based categories (words beginning with S or T). IRTs were modeled against normal, lognormal, and power-law distributions, and transitions were identified using both behavioral ratings and algorithmic similarity measures. Results showed that lognormal distributions consistently provided the best fit at group and individual levels, confirming the heavy-tailed nature of memory search. The longest IRTs appeared immediately after, rather than during, a category switch, suggesting a brief adjustment period when participants begin exploring a new cluster of items. These findings support the view that memory retrieval operates according to principles of optimal foraging, highlighting shared dynamics across spatial, semantic, and abstract domains. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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