About this srcd poster session

---

Panel information
Panel 1. Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

---

Dubbed the ‘animacy effect’, research has shown that animate stimuli (things that are alive) are often remembered better than inanimate stimuli in adults (e.g., Bonin et al., 2014; Nairne et al., 2010; 2013). The developmental trajectory of the animacy effect has not been studied in detail (cf. Aslan & John, 2016; Bugaiska et al., 2023), and no studies have directly contrasted child and adult samples. Additionally, there are no known studies exploring the neural correlates of the animacy effect, which may shed significant light on its mechanism. In the current series of studies, we re-analyze data from Rollins & Riggins (2013) to examine whether animates influence memory and neural activity (measured via event-related potentials) in a sample of children and adults.

Twenty-nine 6-year-old children (M = 6.5 years, 14 females) and 29 young adults (M = 20.7, SD = .39, 13 females) participated in a recognition memory task. Participants encoded 120 color drawings (60 animates, 60 inanimates) presented for 1500 ms on a white background and followed by a fixation cross. For each picture, participants were asked to make a judgment of aliveness or size. EEG was continuously recorded during encoding using a 64 channel Biosemi Active 2 system with a sampling rate of 512 Hz. After a brief delay, participants were shown the 120 previously presented pictures and 60 novel. Recognition memory performance and event-related potentials at encoding were assessed as a function of animacy.

To examine recognition memory, a series of 2 (animacy: animate, inanimate) x 2 (age group: children, adults) mixed-model ANOVAs were conducted on d′ values, hit rates, and false alarm rates. There was a significant main effect of animacy on d′ values; memory discrimination was higher for inanimate than animate stimuli (F(1, 56) = 8.761, p = .005). There was no significant main effect of age group and no significant age group x animacy interaction (ps >.43). The overall hit rate was higher for adults than children, F(1, 56) = 4.670, p = .035, but it did not significantly vary as a function of animacy or the age group x animacy interaction (ps >.25). The false alarm rate was higher for animates than inanimates (F(1, 56) = 4.974, p = .030), and was higher for adults than children, (F(1, 56) = .571, p = .005), though no significant age group x animacy interaction was found (p = .795). All ERP data has been processed and is awaiting final analyses.

These findings suggest a similarity across development in recognition for animate vs. inanimate stimuli. Though initially counterintuitive, our work dovetails with prior findings demonstrating higher false alarm rates in adults for animates in recognition (as opposed to recall) paradigms (e.g., Leding, 2020), and no difference in hit rates based on animacy for 6-year old children (Bugaiska et al., 2023). The ERP data will also enable the exploration of encoding processes as a potential mechanism of the animacy effect.

Author information

Author	Role
Leslie Rollins, Ph.D., Christopher Newport University	Presenting author
Lauren Howard, Franklin & Marshall College	Non-presenting author
Maame Opoku-Nyamekye, Christopher Newport University	Non-presenting author
Delaney Ewell, Christopher Newport University	Non-presenting author

⇦ Back to session