Intelligence and Organization in Memory Scanning for Trigrams

Subjects high (mean IQ 117) and moderate (mean IQ 104) in IQ scanned their memories for either sets of letters or trigrams. The trigrams were either (a) organized, i.e., the positive set items were either all straight or all curved letters, or (b) unorganized, i.e., there was no such pattern. Results showed no IQ-related differences in scanning for letters or trigrams, either organized or unorganized. Subjects in the organized condition responded faster to negative than positive set trigrams, indicating that subjects in this condition were using two separate and hierarchical comparison stages. The first comparison involved the spatial characteristics of the trigrams; if the probe was in the curved trigram category and the positive set items were in the straight trigram category, then a negative response was emitted. But if this comparison was positive, then a further comparison search was made to determine if that specific trigram was a member of the positive set. The results seem to be inconsistent with Sternberg's (1969) four-stage scanning model.