Dissociating knowing and the feeling of knowing: Further evidence for the accessibility model.

Predictions derived from the accessibility model of the feeling of knowing (FOK; A. Koriat, 1993) were tested regarding the basis of FOK and the reason for its accuracy. According to the model, FOK monitors the accessibility of partial information about unrecallable targets, and its validity depends on the accuracy of that information. General knowledge questions were classified in terms of their tendency to precipitate answers in recall (accessibility, or ACC), and the proportion of such answers that were correct (output-bound accuracy, or OBA). FOK increased with increasing ACC independent of actual recognition memory, and the FOK recognition correlation varied dramatically with OBA: It was positive for high-OBA questions, but nil or negative for low-OBA questions. The results suggest that people have no privileged access to the contents of their memory over and above what they can retrieve from it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The feeling of knowing experience in educable retarded children.

Required 50 educable retarded children to predict their recognition accuracy when recall failed. Ss were divided into 3 ability levels: (a) old Ss (mean CA 13.25 yrs, mean MA 10.5 yrs), (b) medium Ss (mean CA 11.25 yrs, mean MA 8.75 yrs), and (c) young Ss (mean CA 9 yrs 5 mo, mean MA 6 yrs 9 mo). Results indicate that old and medium Ss could reliably predict their recognition accuracy, suggesting sensitivity to their own feeling of knowing experience, but that the young Ss showed no evidence of this sensitivity. Even though the young Ss had difficulty predicting their recognition accuracy in advance they were able to estimate the success or failure of their responses after they had occurred. Results are discussed in terms of the complexity of the metamemory judgment required, and the advisability of evaluating metamemorial knowledge across several situations is emphasized. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of three predictors of an individual's memory performance: The individual's feeling of knowing versus the normative feeling of knowing versus base-rate item difficulty.

Compared the memory performance predictions of 168 undergraduates with normative item-difficulty predictions and with normative feeling-of-knowing (FOK) predictions. Ss attempted to recall the answers to general-information questions, made FOK judgments on nonrecalled items, and were subsequently administered a criterion test (relearning, perceptual identification, or 1 of 2 versions of recognition). Results indicate that, for predicting an S's criterion performance, the S's own FOK predictions were intermediate between 2 kinds of normative predictions: Ss' FOK predictions were more accurate than predictions derived from normative FOK ratings but were less accurate than predictions derived from base-rate item difficulty (normative probabilities of correct recall). Subsidiary analyses showed that factors other than unreliability were responsible for the partial inaccuracy of Ss' FOK. Possible ways to improve the accuracy of an individual's FOK predictions are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What determines initial feeling of knowing? Familiarity with question terms, not with the answer.

How do people know whether they have an answer to a question before they actually find it in their memory? Two experiments explored this question. Ss were trained on relatively novel 2-digit?×?2-digit arithmetic problems (e.g., 23?×?27). Before answering each problem, Ss made a quick feeling of knowing judgment as to whether they could directly retrieve the answer from memory or had to compute it. Knowing the answer initially appeared to be linearly related to having a feeling of knowing the answer; however, when the frequency of exposure to complete problems and the frequency of exposure to parts of the problems were separately varied, feeling of knowing was better predicted by the frequency of presentation of the problem parts, not by knowledge of the answer. This suggests that the processes involved in knowing the answer are different from those involved in having a feeling of knowing. Specifically, an early feeling of knowing is not just based on an early read of the answer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence level and feeling of knowing in question answering: The weight of inferential processes.

What are the sources of metamemory judgments in question answering? Exp 1 showed that the level of confidence in the correctness of a recalled answer (CL) is a reliable measure (test–retest G?=?.87) and a valid predictor of recognition (G?=?.55/.58). In contrast, the feeling of knowing the correct answer (FOK), although reliable (G?=?.82), is a poor predictor of recognition (G?=?.11). In Exp 2 it was discovered that FOK levels are more highly correlated with beliefs about what should be known than are CL judgments. Controlling for the relationship between FOK and those beliefs eliminates any correlation between FOK and recognition (G drops from .27 to .08), which is not the case with CL (G remains as high as .52). These data suggest that CL is based on the retrieval of at least some elements of the right answer, whereas FOK may be derived from recency or familiarity effects elicited by the question itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How do we know that we know? The accessibility model of the feeling of knowing

Even when Ss fail to recall a solicited target, they can provide feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments about its availability in memory. Most previous studies addressed the question of FOK accuracy, only a few examined how FOK itself is determined, and none asked how the processes assumed to underlie FOK also account for its accuracy. The present work examined all 3 questions within a unified model, with the aim of demystifying the FOK phenomenon. The model postulates that the computation of FOK is parasitic on the processes involved in attempting to retrieve the target, relying on the accessibility of pertinent information. It specifies the links between memory strength, accessibility of correct and incorrect information about the target, FOK judgments, and recognition memory. Evidence from 3 experiments is presented. The results challenge the view that FOK is based on a direct, privileged access to an internal monitor.     

On the relation between feeling of knowing and lexical decision: Persistent subthreshold activation or topic familiarity?

Exp 1 replicated I. Yaniv and D. E. Meyer's (1987) finding that lexical decision and episodic recognition performance was better for words previously yielding high-accessibility levels (a combination of feeling-of-knowing and tip-of-the-tongue ratings) in comparison with those yielding low-accessibility levels in a rare word definition task. Exp 2 yielded the same pattern even though lexical decisions preceded accessibility estimates by a full week. Exp 3 dismissed the possibility that the Exp 2 results may have been due to a long-term influence from the lexical decision task to the rare word judgment task. These results support a model in which Ss (1) retrieve topic familiarity information in making accessibility estimates in the rare word definition task and (2) use this information to modulate lexical decision performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading and knowing.

In some modern accounts of cognitive processes, emphasis is given to modeling performance in terms of discrete mental abstractions; such propositionalized accounts are found especially in work on perception of written language. An alternative view proposes that an actional basis of performance be pursued, urging that much of what is known is derived from procedural rather than propositional knowledge. (In psychology the 2 are not equivalent.) A review of some experiments on literacy and bilingualism supports a procedural account. (French summary) (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence level and feeling of knowing for episodic and semantic memory: an investigation of lorazepam effects on metamemory

The effects of lorazepam (0.026 or 0.038 mg/kg), a benzodiazepine, and of a placebo on metamemory, i.e. knowledge about one's own memory capabilities, were investigated in 36 healthy volunteers. Accuracy of confidence levels (CL) in the correctness of recalled answers and accuracy of feeling of knowing (FOK) the answers when recall fails were measured using a sentence memory task assessing episodic memory and a task consisting of general information questions and assessing semantic memory. Lorazepam impaired episodic memory. Unexpectedly, it also impaired performance in both the recall and recognition phases of the task assessing semantic memory, suggesting that it decreased the ability to distinguish between correct and incorrect information. In episodic memory, lorazepam 0.038 mg/kg-treated subjects exhibited an impaired CL accuracy, compared to placebo-treated subjects, and their FOK accuracy was at chance. In semantic memory, their overall CL and FOK accuracy was apparently spared. However, these subjects selectively overestimated their CL judgements for incorrect answers; moreover, secondary analyses showed that FOK accuracy for a subset of low-accuracy items was virtually nil. These results suggest that lorazepam impairs metamemory for both episodic and semantic memory.     

Developmental aspects of recovery of function following septal lesions in the infant rat.

In an experiment with 4 litters of Long-Evans hooded rats (14 pups/litter), 1/2 of each litter received septal lesions at the age of 7 days, and the remaining 1/2 received control operations (incision). Septal lesions in infant Ss resulted in hyperemotionality and altered open-field behaviors at the ages of 21, 42, 63, and 90 days. When Ss reached 90 days of age, their behavior was compared with that of normal adult rats and rats that had received septal lesions in adulthood. Measures of active avoidance, fixed-ratio responding, and social facilitation were collected for all groups. Results show that septal lesions in infancy or adulthood enhanced avoidance responding, fixed-ratio responding, and social behavior when compared with infant or adult controls. Failure to observe recovery of function was interpreted in terms of phylogeny and hierarchical cerebral organization. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental and sociocultural aspects of imagery in the picture-word paired-associate learning of children.

Taught 128 middle-class Anglo-Americans and 128 lower socioeconomic Spanish-American children paired-associate lists in which pictures and orally presented words were learned as combinations of picture-picture, picture-word, word-picture, and word-word. Half of the Ss were placed in a recall test during learning trials and half in a recognition condition. One wk after original learning, the Ss were retested. Pictures in the stimulus position greatly facilitated learning, whereas pictures in the response term produced negative effects, but only in the recall condition. Pictures produced better long-term retention in both stimulus and response positions than did words. No significant differences between sociocultural groups in overall paired-associate performance appeared, but long-term retention was significantly better for Anglo Ss. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental aspects of amino acid transport. Suggestion of switching-on and switching-off mechanisms

L-Lysine-14 C uptake was studied in vitro in intestinal segments of rats, in various ages, ranging between 15-day fetuses and adults. L-Lysine in 0.065 mM concentrations was accumulated against a chemical concentration gradient by processes which obeyed saturation kinetics. There appeared to be two peaks of lysine uptake values, one in the fetus, diminishing by the 17th fetal day and another on the 2nd postnatal day. Fetal transport of lysine was not inhibited by anaerobic conditions and was not Na+ dependent, in contrast with increasing O2 and Na+ dependency postnatally. A series of amino acids including representatives of the neutral, imino acid and dibasic groups, failed to inhibit lysine uptake, with the exception of L-arginine, which was also antagonized by L-lysine. These findings suggest that in the rat intestine L-lysine is transported by at least two mechanisms, one fetal, not requiring O2 and Na+, and another developing postnatally with a peak during the 2nd day, which is Na-dependent and requires aerobic conditions.     

Developmental and endocrine aspects of normal ovarian aging

The fluorescence plus Giemsa (FPG) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques have been used to determine, respectively, the frequencies of sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and stable chromosome aberrations (translocations) induced by different concentrations of BrdU in the Chinese hamster ovary cell mutant EM9 and its parental line AA8. The results indicate that BrdU induced a high frequency of SCEs and translocations in EM9 as compared with AA8, and that the translocation/dicentric ratio was also higher in the mutant cell line than in the parental cell line in both untreated and BrdU-treated cultures. These observations may indicate a possible relationship between the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of SCEs and translocations.     

Conceptual fluency selectively influences knowing.

Research shows that Remember and Know judgments are effective measures of recollective experience. This article shows that Know responses can be selectively affected by fluency of processing that is created using a conceptual manipulation. In a recognition test, studied and nonstudied words were preceded by semantically related or unrelated primes. Participants gave significantly more Know judgments to items with related primes than unrelated primes but Remember responses were unaffected. Know responses are discussed in terms of familiarity assumed to arise from fluency of processing which, in turn, may be created through various sources including conceptual processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feeling bad and feeling badly.

An alternative psychoanalytic theory of affect is presented. It is suggested here that affective response consists of rapidly repeated generation of a series of brief responses each enduring for fractions of seconds, continuing over whatever period conscious or unconscious focus on a specific mental content is maintained. The subjective impression, however, is that of a continuous steady state. The experiencing of affect is, in this way, similar to that of sensory process experience in general. Affect cannot store. Since affect does not store, there is no damming of affect and no requirement for affect expression or discharge. A sequence of theoretical ramifications and elaborations results in a redefinition of the classic neuroses and some other disorders. Extensive paths of implications of affect actualities and affect dynamics are suggested as impinging on various aspects of human psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental aspects of gender role flexibility and traditionality in middle childhood and adolescence.

Explored developmental patterns of gender traditionality and flexibility in 479 Ss across middle childhood and early and late adolescence and assessed the correlates of gender flexibility at these 3 developmental periods. Gender flexibility was differentiated into 2 dependent variables: self-related gender preferences and attitudes toward others. Varying theoretical developmental trends have been posited with regard to gender flexibility, but relationships obtained between age and gender flexibility were mostly positive. Several negative relationships, however, underscored the complexity of gender-related responses. Most variables assessed contributed significantly and cumulatively to the prediction of gender flexibility; socialization variables proved to be the strongest predictors of all 3 developmental levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)