Abstract:

According to Marsh and Hicks (2002), source memory concerns the memory of where the item comes from (source), and target memory or destination memory concerns the memory of where the item goes (target). Compared to source memory, target memory might play a more important role in social life. Many contradictory findings were produced when researchers compared target memory and source memory. Marsh and Hicks (2002) denied the advantage of source memory over target memory or vice versa. They found that memory performance will be better if participants need to decide who to be the target or source, because decision involves more processing. Gopie and MacLeod (2009) argued that target memory is easier to fail than source memory, because people usually focus on themselves while they are outputting information. Two experiments aimed to compare the processing level of both type of memory under the condition that decision components were removed from the memory tasks. Experiment 1 measured the ERPs of item memory, source memory and target memory during their retrieval. Experiment 2 measured the learning times required for source memory and target memory to meet the high standard of success. Twenty-one university students (8 males and 13 females) participated in Experiment 1. They were required to perform item-, source- and target memory task. The results show that although there was no significant difference between the accuracies of source memory and target memory, ERPs of correct retrieval of source memory and that of target memory showed a marginal significant difference at LPC—which is related with recollection: (target memory more positive than source memory and the difference is most obvious in the parietal area), indicating that target memory may have deeper level of processing than the source memory. Twenty-four university students participated in Experiment 2. The task was a combination of source memory and target memory, and it had a high criterion of success (accuracy rate of nearly 90%, or 21 out of 24 items). The results show that it took more time to reach the criterion of success in target memory than in source memory. To be summarized, the difference of processing depth between source memory and target memory was slight, but ERPs and high criterion learning paradigm provided strong support for the inference that target memory has deeper processing level than source memory, even when both are without decision component.

Key words: source memory, target memory, ERP, familiarity, recollection

摘要：

本研究通过两个实验来比较源记忆和靶记忆的难度。实验一比较两种记忆提取阶段的事件相关电位（ERPs）。实验二设置较高的成功标准，比较两者达标所需的时间，以此比较它们的难度。在实验一中，被试先进行项目记忆任务，接着进行源记忆任务（从两位虚拟人处接收项目，并记住项目的来源）和靶记忆任务（向两位虚拟人递送项目，并记住项目的去向）。源记忆和靶记忆的测试阶段要求被试再认项目的源或靶，并记录提取阶段的脑电。结果显示，虽然源记忆与靶记忆的正确率没有显著差异，但是在正确提取的ERP中观察到，两者与回想有关的LPC之间有边缘显著差异（靶记忆比源记忆更趋正向，且在顶区差异最明显），这说明在回想上，靶记忆可能比源记忆需要更深的加工。实验二将源记忆和靶记忆结合在同一个任务中，要求被试反复尝试，直至两种记忆的正确率都达到较高的成功标准（近90%）。结果进一步证实，源记忆的加工水平深于源记忆。

关键词: 源记忆, 靶记忆, 事件相关电位, 熟悉, 回想