Modulation of the word frequency effect in recognition memory after an unrelated lexical decision task

The natural language frequency of a word is known to influence the ability to perform recognition judgments based on either semantic or episodic memory, an effect commonly known as the word frequency effect (WFE). For episodic recognition specifically, the WFE presents a mirrored pattern with higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates for low frequency words compared to high frequency words. Interestingly, the use of certain study tasks such as judgements of concreteness has been shown to reduce or even abolish the hit rate advantage of low frequency words. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that prior exposure to an unrelated lexical decision task leads to a modulation of the WFE in a subsequent episodic recognition test. Results showed an increase in hit rates and false alarm rates for high frequency words and a decrease in false alarm rates for low-frequency words. Analysis of behaviour with the linear ballistic accumulator model furthermore revealed that this effect was driven by changes in the rate of evidence accumulation of the decision process and in the response threshold. We discuss the relevance of these findings for current theories of memory.