The Processing Mechanism Of Different Source Memory: Accompanied By Chinese Characters Priming

Source memory refers to the memory which is relevant to source background,including elements such as time,space,physical characteristic and so on.Previous research has found that the retrieval of source memory required recall process.However,recent research has found that familiarity also can contribute to source memory.The priming effect is the phenomenon that the processing of target becomes faster or slower due to the prime stimulus.Priming can promote familiarity.Can priming promote the associated source memory which is related to the inherent information of the item? Chinese characters are integrated with font,phoneme and meaning.Therefore,this research designed three experiments to explore the processing mechanism of different types of source memory under the condition of different Chinese character priming.In experiment 1,we used 2(priming type: shaped Chinese character/ non-shaped Chinese character)× 2(source: associated source/ organized source)two factors’ within subject design.The dependent variables were the RT time of target characters’ font judgement,the ACC of item memory and the ACC of source memory.This experiment aimed to explore the processing mechanism of source memory under the condition of font priming.The results suggested that there was a priming effect in the experiment.In terms of item memory,the ACC of shaped Chinese character was significantly higher than non-shaped Chinese character.In terms of source memory,the ACC of target character under the condition of shaped Chinese character was significantly higher than non-shaped Chinese character and the ACC of organized source memory was significantly higher than associated source memory.In experiment 2,we used 2(priming type: semantically related/ semantically unrelated)×2(source: associated source/ organized source)two factors’ within subject design.The dependent variables were the RT time of target characters’ semantic judgement,the ACC of item memory and the ACC of source memory.This experiment aimed to explore the processing mechanism of source memory under the condition of semantic priming.The results revealed that there was no priming effect in the experiment,the ACC of semantic related item memory was significantly higher than semantic unrelated item memory and the ACC of organized source memory was significantly higher than associated source memory.In experiment 3,we used 2(priming type: homophone/ non-homophone)× 2(source: associated source/ organized source)two factors’ within subject design.The dependent variables were the RT time of target characters’ homophonic judgement,the ACC of item memory and the ACC of source memory.This experiment aimed to explore the processing mechanism of source memory under the condition of pronunciation priming.The results showed that there was no priming effect in the experiment.In terms of item memory,the ACC of homophone was significantly higher than non-homophone.There was interaction between priming type and source type.Specifically,under the condition of homophone,the ACC of target characters’ organized source memory was higher than associated source memory.In contrast,the ACC of associated source memory was higher than organized source memory under the condition of non-homophone.In terms of source memory,the ACC of homophonic priming was significantly higher than non-homophonic priming and the ACC of organized source memory was significantly higher than associated source memory.There was interaction between the two factors.Specially,under the condition of homophone,the ACC of organized source memory was higher than associated source memory.In contrast,under the condition of non-homophone,the ACC of organized source memory decreased significantly while associated source memory didn’t decrease significantly.Through the three experiments,we drew the following conclusions:(1)with the influence of Chinese characters priming,the mechanism of item memory and source memory was complicated.This research supported both the dual-process model and the single-process model,showing the dynamic processing of source memory;(2)whether the organized source memory was better than the associated source memory depended on the material properties,tasks,presentation and so on.It couldn’t be generalized.