Ok, here is the answer. I received quite a few responses
though most were admitted speculation, and no correct answers.
You were correct if you guessed it pre-dated Deese's original
publication in 1959- either from the language used or the apparent
novelty of the phenomena.
Good guesses included Underwood, Tulving, Bartlett, James
and Ebbinghaus.
I'll actually post the answer from the original questioner, Roddy
Roediger, with permission.
I am interested to hear from the history experts out there.
I have a book by this fellow, Inductive Psychology, and have
come across some other work by him, but have not found much
on him in history books, despite our attempts. Any facts out there
on this guy?
The (marginal) teaching relevance is found in Roddy's historical
tidbit, though not incredibly inspiring. What goes around comes around.
Here is Roddy's answer...
>OK, by popular demand, the answer to The Holiday Puzzle:
>
> Kirkpatrick, E.A. (1894). An experimental study of memory.
>Psychological Review, 1, 602-609. The quote comes from page 608.
>I reprint it below, at the bottom of this note, in case you lost it.
>
> Among the guesses were Frederic Bartlett, George A. Miller,
> and Endel Tulving.
>
> I read this paper in graduate school when I was doing research on
>modality differences with Bob Crowder, which is what the main experiment
>is partly about. However, it is also concerned with visual and auditory
>imagery. Of course, I must have read the critical paragraph around
>1971 + or - 2, and the last sentence of that quote sums up matters
>quite well, really, even today. Kirpatrick's experiment revealed that
>showing people objects produced better retention than for words
>(although the experiment is not conducted well by moderns standards,
>of course), and he/she lauded the efficacy of mental imagery (for
>which the paper is still cited, though not too frequently). There
>is also a distinction between spontaneous and voluntary recollection,
>and an estimate that twice as many words can be recognized as recalled.
>Some analyses of individual differences, too, and a few other tidbits.
>
> Of minor historical interest: Experiment 2 of Roediger & McDermott
>was conducted in 1994, 100 years after Kirkpatrick's paper. The great
>wheel of history turning around and landing more or less in the same
>place?
>
> Who was E. A. Kirkpatrick? Beats me. He or she (probably he,
>given the times) is listed in Psych Review as from "Winona, Minnesota."
> He/she is not cited in Boring's History of Experimental Psychology, but
>I have not tried harder than that. I am hoping Darryl Bruce and Gene
>Winograd will take up the challenge here.
>
> Thanks to Randy Buckner for finding this quote (in a book I lent
>him!). Dan Schacter had heard about it from Randy, too, so he got it right.
>No one else got it.
>
> Roddy
>
>
> THE QUOTE FROM PAGE 608:
>
> "There were some incidental illustrations of false recognition. About a
>week previously in experimenting upon mental imagery I had pronounced to
>the students ten common words. Many of these were recalled and placed with
>the memory list. Again, it appears that when such words as "spool,"
>"thimble," "knife," were pronounced many students at once thought of
>"thread, "needle", "fork," which are so frequently associated with them.
>The result was that many gave those words as belonging to the list. This
>is an excellent illustration of how things suggested to a person by an
>experience may be honestly reported by him as part of the experience."
>
At 08:47 AM 01/20/2000 -0600, Patrick O. Dolan wrote:
>I can't take credit for this- it was circulated around the dept.
>over the holidays but I thought cognitive folks would find it
>interesting, it will have *some* teaching relevence, and will open
>up a history question after I reveal the answer. I'll take
>private responses and post the answer in a day or two.
>
>Most of you who teach Cognitive or even Intro, are probably
>familiar with the Deese/Roediger & McDermott false memory paradigm.
>_____________________________________________________________________
>Ok, Here is the puzzle: Identify the quote below, from a prominent
>psychology journal. Can you give me the author, journal, and date? The
>observations reported were incidental to the main findings for which
>the paper is known (to the extent that it is known).
>
>Hint: The correct answer is not Deese, Roediger, or McDermott.
>
>
>"There were some incidental illustrations of false recognition. About a
>week previously in experimenting upon mental imagery I had pronounced to
>the students ten common words. Many of these were recalled and placed with
>the memory list. Again, it appears that when such words as "spool,"
>"thimble," "knife," were pronounced many students at once thought of "thread,
>"needle", "fork," which are so frequently associated with them. The result
was
>that many gave those words as belonging to the list. This is an excellent
>illustration of how things suggested to a person by an experience may be
>honestly reported by him as part of the experience."
****************************************************************
Patrick O. Dolan, Ph.D Voice: 314-935-8731
Department of Psychology Fax: 314-935-7588
Washington University
Campus Box 1125
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
