The theoretical construct of distinctiveness emphasizes that the representation of unique properties enhances memory. Hunt and Elliott (1980) provided evidence for this approach by demonstrating that orthographic distinctiveness enhanced memory. In this paper, we provide further evidence that distinctive perceptual attributes enhance memory by demonstrating that distinctive orthographic-to-phonological mapping enhances memory. Our experiments show that exception words are recalled better than regular words and that this advantage occurs with visual, but not with auditory, presentation. In addition, the recall advantage for exception words is independent of the effect of orthographic distinctiveness and occurs in a variety of encoding contexts. We assume that a distinctive orthographic-to-phonological mapping enhances recall by providing discriminative cues during retrieval. แญง 1997 Academic Press
The theoretical construct of distinctiveness from this perspective is Hunt and Elliott's (1980) demonstration that unusual or distinc- (Eysenck, 1979; Hunt & Elliott, 1980; Jative orthography enhances memory. Hunt and coby & Craik, 1979; Nelson, 1979) empha-Elliott (1980) demonstrated that words subsizes that the representation of properties that jects rated as visually distinctive produced uniquely specify an item is critical to memory better recall and recognition than control performance. This construct has been used to words rated less distinctive. Further, they explain a range of memory phenomena from demonstrated that this mnemonic advantage levels of processing effects (Jacoby & Craik, was tied to specific visual properties of the 1979) to bizarre-imagery effects (McDaniel & distinctive words. It disappeared when audi-Einstein, 1986; see Schmidt (1991) for a retory presentation was used and when words view of the many guises and applications of were presented in capital, instead of small, the distinctiveness construct.) In many apletters. Hunt and Elliott (1980) explained the proaches (e.g., Jacoby & Craik, 1979), the mnemonic advantage of orthographically disunique properties of encoded items are hytinct words by focusing on the discriminative pothesized to facilitate performance by helprole of orthographic information in retrieval. ing to discriminate target items from competi-They hypothesized that distinctive orthogrators during retrieval.
phy helped discriminate target items from a One of the most striking findings emerging larger set of items activated by semantic information.