Effects of category length and strength on familiarity in recognition.

In most recognition models a decision is based on a global measure often termed familiarity. However, a response criterion is free to vary across lists varying in length and strength, making familiarity changes immeasurable. We presented a single list with a mixture of exemplars from many categories, so that the criterion would be unlikely to vary with length or strength of the category of the test item. False alarms rose with category length but not category strength, suggesting that familiarity does not change much with changes in strength of other items but grows when additional items are studied. The results were well fit by an extension of the search of associative memory (SAM) model presented by R. M. Shiffrin, R. Ratcliff, and S. E. Clark (see record 1990-13917-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision processes in recognition memory: Criterion shifts and the list-strength paradigm.

This article focuses on decision processes in recognition memory. It begins with investigation of the hypothesis that the measured criterion increases systematically with the memorability of old items. Three experiments using the list-strength paradigm, and a review of the prior literature, present results consistent with this hypothesis. Several psychological models of criterion placement are examined, generating different predictions about the relative sizes of criterion shifts for strong and weak items. A range model, in which criterion placement depends on the estimated range of the old and new distributions, predicts that criterion shifts should be larger for weak items; this result emerges in a reanalysis of prior studies. The general discussion elaborates on how a focus on criterion placement can explain the mirror effect (Glanzer, Adams, Iverson, & Kim, see record 1993-40158-001) and provides a framework for testing Shiffrin, Ratcliff, and Clark's (see record 1990-13917-001) claims about why null effects of list strength occur with repetition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinctiveness and the Recognition Mirror Effect: Evidence for an Item-Based Criterion Placement Heuristic.

Superior detection and rejection of 1 versus another class of items during recognition is called the mirror effect. Some mirror effects may involve strategic criterion adjustments based on item distinctiveness and its relation to memorability. Three experiments demonstrated mirror effects for known versus unknown scenes and 1 suggested a similar pattern for faces. In opposition to preexperimental familiarity, lures from known and frequently encountered locations were confidently rejected more often than unknown lures. Forgetting and speeding recognition reversed this lure response pattern, suggesting abandonment of strategic adjustment in favor of a single fixed criterion. With sufficient response time and recent encoding, observers demand more evidence for conceptually distinctive items, perhaps because such items typically foster vivid recollection during retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The strategic nature of false recognition in the DRM paradigm.

The false memory effect produced by the Deese/Roediger & McDermott (DRM) paradigm is reportedly impervious to warnings to avoid false alarming to the critical lures (D. A. Gallo, H. L. Roediger III, & K. B. McDermott, 2001). This finding has been used as strong evidence against models that attribute the false alarms to a decision process (e.g., M. B. Miller & G. L. Wolford, 1999). In this report, the authors clarify their earlier article and suggest that subjects establish only 2 underlying criteria for a recognition judgment, a liberal criterion for items that seem to be related to 1 of the study list themes and a conservative criterion for items that do not seem to be related. They demonstrate that warnings designed on the basis of these underlying criteria are effective in significantly suppressing the false recognition effect, suggesting that strategic control of the retrieval response does play a role in the DRM paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of mobilization of knowledge on recognition and recall.

Examined the effect of mobilization of knowledge on recall and recognition in 4 experiments, using 170 undergraduates. In Exp I, the mobilization group generated instances from a specified category and received a study list that contained some of these generated items as well as other members of the category that had not been generated. Control Ss received the same study list after they had generated instances from an irrelevant category. Contrary to previous findings by J. Peeck (see record 1983-22657-001), prior mobilization did not facilitate free recall of the generated study-list items and inhibited recall of nongenerated items. This pattern of recall was replicated in Exp II. The inhibitory effect of prior mobilization on nongenerated items was eliminated in Exp III, which used a recognition memory test. In addition, prior mobilization facilitated the recognition of generated study list items. Exp IV found that when knowledge about the mobilized category was limited, prior mobilization did facilitate free recall but only for generated study-list items. An attempt was made to reconcile data with previous results and to specify the conditions under which mobilization facilitates or inhibits subsequent memory performance. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the difference between strength-based and frequency-based mirror effects in recognition memory

According to the standard signal-detection model of recognition memory, confidence judgments for recognition responses are reached in much the same way that old-new decisions are reached (i.e., on the basis of criteria situated along the strength-of-evidence axis). The question investigated here is how the confidence criteria shift when recognition accuracy is manipulated across conditions. Although several theories assume that the old-new decision criterion shifts when recognition accuracy changes, less is known about how the confidence criteria move. An analysis of data previously reported by R. Ratcliff, G. McKoon, and M. Tindall (1994) and some new data reported here suggest that the confidence criteria fan out on the decision axis as d' decreases. This result is qualitatively consistent with the predictions of a likelihood ratio model, although the data did not support the stronger quantitative predictions of this account.     

Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory

With repeated exposure, people become better at identifying presented items and better at rejecting items that have not been presented. This differentiation effect is captured in a model consisting of item detectors that learn estimates of conditional probabilities of item features. The model is used to account for a number of findings in the recognition memory literature, including (a) the basic differentiation effect (strength-mirror effect), (b) the fact that adding items to a list reduces recognition accuracy (list-length effect) but extra study of some items does not reduce recognition accuracy for other items (null list-strength effect), (c) nonlinear effects of strengthening items on false recognition of similar distractors, (d) a number of different kinds of mirror effects, (e) appropriate z-ROC curves, and (f) one type of deviation from optimality exhibited in recognition experiments.     

Within-category discontinuity interacts with verbal rule complexity in perceptual category learning.

A test of the predicted interaction between within-category discontinuity and verbal rule complexity on information-integration and rule-based category learning was conducted. Within-category discontinuity adversely affected information-integration category learning but not rule-based category learning. Model-based analyses suggested that some information-integration participants improved performance by recruiting more "units" in the discontinuous condition. Verbal rule complexity adversely affected rule-based category learning but not information-integration category learning. Model-based analyses suggested that the rule based effect was on both decision criterion learning and variability in decision criterion placement. These results suggest that within-category discontinuity and decision rule complexity differentially impact information-integration and rule-based category learning and provide information regarding the detailed processing characteristics of these two proposed category learning systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mirror effect and attention–likelihood theory: A reflective analysis.

The mirror effect refers to findings from studies of recognition memory consistent with the idea that the underlying "strength" distributions are symmetric around their midpoint separating studied and nonstudied items. Attention-likelihood theory assumes underlying binomial distributions of marked features and claims that old-item differences result from differential attention across conditions during study. The symmetry arises because subjects use the likelihood ratio as the basis for decision. The author analyzes the model and argues that one of the main criticisms (the complexity of the likelihood-ratio decision rule) is unwarranted. A further analysis shows that other distributions (the Poisson and the hypergeometric) can also produce a mirror effect. Even with the binomial distribution, a variety of parameter values can produce a mirror effect, and with the right combination of parameter values, differential attention across conditions is not necessary for a mirror effect to occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Journey to the center of the category: The dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition.

The authors' theoretical analysis of the dissociation in amnesia between categorization and recognition suggests these conclusions: (a) Comparing to-be-categorized items to a category center or prototype produces strong prototype advantages and steep typicality gradients, whereas comparing to-be, categorized items to the training exemplars that surround the prototype produces weak prototype advantages and flat typicality gradients; (b) participants often show the former pattern, suggesting their use of prototypes; (c) exemplar models account poorly for these categorization data, but prototype models account well for them; and (d) the recognition data suggest that controls use a single-comparison exemplar-memorization process more powerfully than amnesics. By pairing categorization based in prototypes with recognition based in exemplar memorization, the authors support and extend other recent accounts of cognitive performance that intermix prototypes and exemplars, and the authors reinforce traditional interpretations of the categorization-recognition dissociation in amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision rules for recognition memory confidence judgments.

According to the standard signal-detection model of recognition memory, confidence judgments for recognition responses are reached in much the same way that old-new decisions are reached (i.e., on the basis of criteria situated along the strength-of-evidence axis). The question investigated here is how the confidence criteria shift when recognition accuracy is manipulated across conditions. Although several theories assume that the old-new decision criterion shifts when recognition accuracy changes, less is known about how the confidence criteria move. An analysis of data previously reported by R. Ratcliff, G. McKoon, and M. Tindall (1994) and some new data reported here suggest that the confidence criteria fan out on the decision axis as d' decreases. This result is qualitatively consistent with the predictions of a likelihood ratio model, although the data did not support the stronger quantitative predictions of this account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A decision model for accuracy and response latency in recognition memory.

The model of the decision system in Murdock's (1982, 1983) two-stage memory-and-decision model for item recognition is developed and tested. The underlying strength distributions are assumed to result from the operation of a distributed-memory system. The decision model assumes that extraneous noise is added to the result of the memory comparison process, and a decision is made when the total evidence falls below a lower criterion or rises above an upper criterion. The decision model is shown to be able to fit the accuracy and mean response latency data from four major recognition paradigms (Sternberg, study-test, continuous, and prememorized list). In addition, the decision model was also able to fit the response time distributions derived from the convolution analysis of Ratcliff and Murdock (1976), and the changes in the parameters of the distributions over experimental conditions in each paradigm. The model was also applied to speed-accuracy trade-off, repeated negatives, and the mirror effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use and evaluation of discrete test information in decision making.

Elementary decision theory is applied to the problems of evaluating discrete tests or test items used to classify people into several categories, and choosing which of several treatments is best for persons falling within each response category. The technique explicitly considers the base rates of various criterion groups and the relative seriousness of different types of errors of classification, as well as the proportion of each criterion group falling in each response category. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic Influences on Category Learning and Recognition Memory.

The results from 3 category learning experiments suggest that items are better remembered when they violate a salient knowledge structure such as a rule. The more salient the knowledge structure, the stronger the memory for deviant items. The effect of learning errors on subsequent recognition appears to be mediated through the imposed knowledge structure. The recognition advantage for deviant items extends to unsupervised learning situations. Exemplar-based and hypothesis-testing models cannot account for these results. The authors propose a clustering account in which deviant items are better remembered because they are differentiated from clusters that capture regularities. The function of clusters is akin to that of schemas. Their results and analyses expose connections among research in category learning, schemas, stereotypes, and analogy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the dynamic nature of response criterion in recognition memory: Effects of base rate, awareness, and feedback.

The authors examined whether participants can shift their criterion for recognition decisions in response to the probability that an item was previously studied. Participants in 3 experiments were given recognition tests in which the probability that an item was studied was correlated with its location during the test. Results from all 3 experiments indicated that participants' response criteria were sensitive to the probability that an item was previously studied and that shifts in criterion were robust. In addition, awareness of the bases for criterion shifts and feedback on performance were key factors contributing to the observed shifts in decision criteria. These data suggest that decision processes can operate in a dynamic fashion, shifting from item to item. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remember-Know and source memory instructions can qualitatively change old-new recognition accuracy: The modality-match effect in recognition memory.

Remember-Know (RK) and source memory tasks were designed to elucidate processes underlying memory retrieval. As part of more complex judgments, both tests produce a measure of old-new recognition, which is typically treated as equivalent to that derived from a standard recognition task. The present study demonstrates, however, that recognition accuracy can be qualitatively changed by a RK or source-retrieval orientation. Visual and auditory presentations of words were varied at encoding and at test. The memory test was either a standard (old-new) recognition test, the RK test, or a source (modality) test. No effect of modality match was found on standard recognition. However, recognition accuracy in the RK and modality tests was greater when study and test modalities matched—a result obtained for both 1-step (e.g., R, K, or new?) and 2-step (e.g., old-new decision followed by RK decision for items judged old) versions of these tests. Thus, the RK and source (modality) memory procedures produced a measure of old-new recognition that was qualitatively different than standard recognition, having a greater sensitivity to perceptual information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dynamic stimulus-driven model of signal detection.

Signal detection theory forms the core of many current models of cognition, including memory, choice, and categorization. However, the classic signal detection model presumes the a priori existence of fixed stimulus representations—usually Gaussian distributions—even when the observer has no experience with the task. Furthermore, the classic signal detection model requires the observer to place a response criterion along the axis of stimulus strength, and without theoretical elaboration, this criterion is fixed and independent of the observer's experience. We present a dynamic, adaptive model that addresses these 2 long-standing issues. Our model describes how the stimulus representation can develop from a rough subjective prior and thereby explains changes in signal detection performance over time. The model structure also provides a basis for the signal detection decision that does not require the placement of a criterion along the axis of stimulus strength. We present simulations of the model to examine its behavior and several experiments that provide data to test the model. We also fit the model to recognition memory data and discuss the role that feedback plays in establishing stimulus representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preservation of specific experiences in the representation of general knowledge.

Investigated the representation of categorical events by observing patterns of generalization in a memory-guided perceptual task. In 8 experiments, undergraduates inferred the representation of pseudoword categories from the relative perceptibility of probes. The type of training items and the distribution of transfer items differed for each experiment. Findings show that when typicality was unconfounded from similarity to previous instances, performance depended on the latter, even when category structure was made explicit and members of a category were massed. Alteration of the encoding task reversed the relative perceptibility of probes. Results are predictable if events are encoded as experienced and retrieved in parallel. It is concluded that dual-memory accounts that assume automatic, stable abstraction are less powerful than episodic accounts that assume encoding variability and specificity of retrieval to the conditions of encoding. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A decrement-to-familiarity interpretation of the revelation effect from forced-choice tests of recognition memory

In the revelation effect, the probability of labeling a target or a lure as "old" on item recognition tests increases if just prior to their recognition judgment, participants first identify a disguised version of the test item. The same occurs with interpolated tasks that occur just prior to a recognition judgment if the task shares constituents with the test items. One explanation of this test bias is an increased feeling of familiarity that comes from the identification stage preceding the recognition judgment (e.g., D. C. LeCompte, 1995; C. R. Lou, 1993). This study's finding in 4 experiments that 2-alternative forced-choice recognition either yields no effects of revelation or an "antirevelation" effect, even when both items were studied or nonstudied, is incongruent with this explanation. The authors argue that revelation decrements familiarity, and this results in a more liberal criterion shift. They also argue that their theory is more consistent with previous empirical data.     

Process demands of rejection mechanisms of recognition memory.

A surge of research has been conducted to examine memory editing mechanisms that help distinguish accurate from inaccurate memories. In the present experiment, the authors examined the ability of participants to use novelty detection, recollection rejection, and plausibility judgments to reject lures presented on a recognition memory test. Participants studied a list of word pairs that were arranged in a category relationship (both words from the same category) or an unrelated relationship (both words from different categories) under full or divided attention. At test, participants were given a yes/no recognition test in which they were to respond after seeing the test items for 400 ms or 2,800 ms. Some of the test items were rearranged word pairs that were consistent with the study relationship, whereas others were inconsistent with the study relationship. The results demonstrate that the participants required full attention at study to use novelty detection, recollection rejection, and plausibility judgments to reject lures. Moreover, the results indicate that a long response deadline at test was needed for participants to use both recollection rejection and plausibility judgments to reject lures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)