Deciding about decision models of remember and know judgments: A reply to Murdock (2006) (original) (raw)
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The detection model of recognition using know and remember judgments
Memory & Cognition, 1998
The signal detection model for know and remember recognition judgments was tested in two experiments. In Experiment 1, two predictions of the model were tested: (1) that measures of memory sensitivity, A', are equivalent in value when based on either the recognition (know or remember) criterion or on the remember criterion; and (2) that there is a positive correlation between recognition bias and the proportion of know judgments that are hits, but no correlation between recognition bias and proportion of remember hits . Both predictions were supported by the data. In Experiment 2, the context of test items was manipulated to make it more or less similar to learning context. The detection model requires that memory sensitivity be the same for both recognition and remember judgments, regardless of test context. Alternatively, if remember judgments reflect only the retrieval of episodic information from memory, the two measures of memory sensitivity should become more disparate in value as learning and test context are made more similar. Memory sensitivity was generally the same in value for recognition and remember criteria but different across context conditions, thus supporting the detection model. The nature of the memory continuum used in detection theory is also discussed.
A continuous dual-process model of remember/know judgments
Psychological Review, 2010
The dual-process theory of recognition memory holds that recognition decisions can be based on recollection or familiarity, and the remember/know procedure is widely used to investigate those 2 processes. Dual-process theory in general and the remember/know procedure in particular have been challenged by an alternative strength-based interpretation based on signal-detection theory, which holds that remember judgments simply reflect stronger memories than do know judgments. Although supported by a considerable body of research, the signal-detection account is difficult to reconcile with G. Mandler's (1980) classic "butcher-on-the-bus" phenomenon (i.e., strong, familiarity-based recognition). In this article, a new signal-detection model is proposed that does not deny either the validity of dual-process theory or the possibility that remember/know judgments can-when used in the right way-help to distinguish between memories that are largely recollection based from those that are largely familiarity based. It does, however, agree with all prior signal-detection-based critiques of the remember/know procedure, which hold that, as it is ordinarily used, the procedure mainly distinguishes strong memories from weak memories (not recollection from familiarity).
Recognition memory: A cue and information analysis
Memory & Cognition, 1983
Recall and recognition are operationally distinct procedures, yet there is increasing evidence for the involvement of recall in recognition decisions. Although this observation is not generally disputed, there has been no agreement about the appropriate level of theoretical analysis. Our contention in this paper is that the most fundamental level of analysis is in terms of the cues used, with the next level referring to the nature of the information employed as evidence. We compare at length two dual-information models to demonstrate important differences in their cuing assumptions and the difficulty of establishing that anything more than a cue analysis is required. We conclude tentatively in support of an information distinction and devote the final section to determining whether item information is contextually descriptive or is a strength variable that merely correlates with occurrence in the experiment.
The dimensionality of the remember-know task: A state-trace analysis
Psychological Review, 2008
This article addresses the issue of whether the remember-know (RK) task is best explained by a single-process or a dual-process model. All single-process models propose that remember and know responses reflect different levels of a single strength-of-evidence dimension. Thus, across conditions in which response criteria are held constant, these models predict that the RK task is unidimensional. Many dual-process models propose that remember and know responses reflect two qualitatively distinct processes underlying recognition memory, often characterized as recollection and familiarity. These models predict that the RK task is bidimensional. Using data from 37 studies, the author conducted a state-trace analysis to determine the dimensionality of the RK task. In those studies, non-memory-related differences between conditions were eliminated via decision criteria constrained to be constant across all levels of the independent variables. The results reveal little or no evidence of bidimensionality and lend additional support to the unequal-variance signal detection model. Other arguments supporting a bidimensional interpretation are examined, and the author concludes there is insufficient evidence for the RK task to be used to identify qualitatively different memory components.
Sum-Difference Theory of Remembering and Knowing: A Two-Dimensional Signal-Detection Model
Psychological Review, 2004
In the remember-know paradigm for studying recognition memory, participants distinguish items whose presentation is episodically remembered from those that are known to be old because of their familiarity. A one-dimensional model of this paradigm, based on signal detection theory (SDT), postulates that "remember" responses are merely high-confidence "old" judgments. A meta-analysis of 373 experiments, extending those of W. and J. M. Gardiner, C. Ramponi, and A. Richardson-Klavehn (2002), shows that the ROC curves predicted by this model have the wrong slope. We present a new two-dimensional SDT model in which Old items differ from New ones in both global and specific memory strength: the "old" versus "new" response is based on a weighted sum of these dimensions according to the theory, and the "remember" versus "know" judgment is based on a weighted difference. The sum-difference theory of remembering and knowing (STREAK) makes predictions about several novel kinds of ROC curves. The results of experiments testing these predictions, as well as existing remember-know and conventional item-recognition data, are accurately described by STREAK.
On the nature of the decision axis in signal-detection-based models of recognition memory
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2002
Most models of recognition memory involve a signal-detection component in which a criterion is placed along a decision axis. Older models generally assume a familiarity-decision axis, but newer models often assume a likelihood ratio axis instead because it allows for a more natural account of the ubiquitous mirror effect. In 3 experiments reported here, item strength was differentially manipulated to see whether a mirror effect would occur. Within a list, the items from 1 category were strengthened by repetition, but the items from another category were not. On the subsequent recognition test, the hit rate was higher for the strong category, but the false-alarm rates for the weak and strong categories were the same (i.e., no mirror effect was observed). This result suggests that the decision axis represents a familiarity scale and that participants adopt a single decision criterion that they maintain throughout the recognition test.
Prediction of recognition when recall fails: Exploring the feeling-of-knowing phenomenon
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior
Two investigations of a neglected property of the human memory system, namely, its knowledge of its own content, were performed. Experiment I used a short-term-memory procedure to extend and magnify an earlier finding that subjects' feeling-of-knowing judgments accurately predict their recognition of unrecalled consonant trigrams. The results were interpreted in terms of attribute conception of memory. Experiment II explored the contribution of mnemonic attributes to the phenomenon by limiting their usefulness for recognition. Findings were that feeling-of-knowing responses were reported with no less frequency than in Experiment I, and that the feeling-of-knowing judgments were still predictive, albeit significantly less so. It was concluded that the feelingof-knowing and its predictive accuracy were the result of attribute knowledge, and that partial recall was important only to the extent that it constituted a source of attribute information.
Memory strength and the decision process in recognition memory
Memory & Cognition, 2007
We investigated the role that memory strength plays in the decision process by examining the extent to which strength is used as a cue to dynamically modify recognition criteria. The study list consisted of strong and weak items, with strength a function of study duration or repetition. The recognition test list was divided into two consecutive blocks; strong items appeared in one block, weak items in the other. If the change in item strength across blocks leads to a shift in criterion, the false alarm rate should change accordingly. In four experiments, the false alarm rates did not change across blocks, even when the difference between the strong and the weak items was magnified and marked with semantic cues. However, the strength of the items in the first test block affected the false alarm rate. Thus, strength cues influence initial criterion placement but fail to induce criterion shifts following permanent and even dramatic changes in item strength. These null findings are contrasted with those in a fifth experiment, in which accuracy feedback produced dynamic criterion shifts. Memory & Cognition 2007, 35 (2), 254-262 M. F. Verde, michael.verde@plymouth.ac.uk
The subjective likelihood model [SLiM; McClelland, J. L., & Chappell, M. (1998). Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory. Psychological Review, 105(4), 734-760.] and the retrieving effectively from memory model [REM; Shiffrin, R. M., & Steyvers, M. (1997). A model for recognition memory: REM-Retrieving effectively from memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4, are often considered indistinguishable models. Indeed both share core assumptions including a Bayesian decision process and differentiation during encoding. We give a brief tutorial on each model and conduct simulations showing cases where they diverge. The first two simulations show that for foils that are similar to a studied item, REM predicts higher false alarms rates than SLiM. Thus REM is not able to account for certain associative recognition data without using emergent features to represent pairs. Without this assumption, rearranged pairs have too strong an effect. In contrast, this assumption is not required by SLiM. The third simulation shows that SLiM predicts a reversal in the low frequency hit rate advantage as a function of study time. This prediction is tested and confirmed in an experiment.