Automaticity of Basic-Level Categorization Accounts for Naming Effects in Recognition Memory

Abstract

What is the consequence of calling objects by their names? Lupyan (2008) suggests that overtly naming objects at the basic-level impairs subsequent recognition memory because naming shifts the memory representation towards the category prototype. Here I show that 1) processing objects at the basic-level without categorization or naming responses produces equivalent memory effects as overt naming and 2) depth of processing better accounts for this so-called naming effect. These results suggest that naming does not influence memory by changing the representation, but rather that naming is a shallow processing task because it is an automatic instantiation of basic-level categorization.