Unitization Benefits Associative Recognition Whereas Impairs Item Recognition

Multimedia storage involves unitized processing of different types of information, such as text, images, and audio. Although unitized processing could greatly enrich the input information, its role in subsequent retrieval is unknown. This study investigated the general effects of unitized processing on item recognition and associative recognition. Specifically, we induced two types of unitized processing, namely long-term unitized processing and short-term unitized processing through manipulating the types of the encoding tasks (short-term unitized processing) and the properties of the encoding materials (long-term unitized processing). Recognition for item information (single words) and associative information (word pairs) was tested using Tulving's (1985) remember/know response procedure. We found both long-term unitized processing and short-term unitized processing increased the overall performance for associative recognition whereas decreased the overall performance for item recognition. Therefore, strategic use of multimedia storage should be valued for the security and the flexibility of the individual information.