Aging and single versus multiple cues in source monitoring.

Participants heard words said by 2 speakers and later decided who said each word. The authors varied the perceptual distinctiveness of the speakers and the distinctiveness of the cognitive operations participants performed on the words. Relative to younger adults, older adults had significantly lower source monitoring scores when perceptual or cognitive operations conditions were similar but not when either cue was more distinctive. Combining cues did not affect source monitoring of younger adults but hurt older adults' performance relative to the distinctive perceptual condition. Evidently, older adults generate cognitive cues at the expense of encoding perceptual cues; any deficit in binding perceptual and semantic information disadvantages them more in source monitoring than in old/new recognition. There was no correlation between neuropsychological tests assessing frontal function and source monitoring in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and source monitoring: Cognitive processes and neuropsychological correlates.

This study shows that relative to younger adults, older adults are more adversely influenced by similar items when judging a memory's source, and the phenomenal features of their correctly and incorrectly attributed memories have greater overlap. The authors argue in accordance with the source monitoring framework that this age-related impairment in source accuracy is related to processes involved in binding features into complex memories and those involved in accessing and evaluating contextual features of memories. These processes are linked to medial temporal and frontal brain regions, respectively, as evidenced by correlations in older adults between source accuracy and neuropsychological tests often used to assess medial temporal and frontal function. The results suggest that adequate feature binding is particularly important when items from different sources share similar features and access-evaluation processes are particularly important after a delay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and the effects of affective and factual focus on source monitoring and recall.

Pairs of young (aged 17–29 yrs) and elderly (aged 64–77 yrs) Ss participated in a short play and were then instructed to talk about factual or affective aspects of the play or to talk about the play without any particular focus suggested. In both the affective and control condition, older adults' ability to discriminate what they had said from what the other person had said was poorer than that of young adults. In contrast, when induced to focus on the factual content of the events, older Ss' source monitoring improved, and the age difference was reduced. The pattern was similar when Ss' ability to discriminate what they had said from what they had thought was examined. Furthermore, affective focus lowered the overall level of recall for both young and older Ss and led older Ss, in particular, to introduce more elaborations into their recall. The possibility that age differences in remembering content and source are related to type of focus is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, source memory, and emotion.

In 2 experiments we assessed younger and older adults' ability to remember contextual information about an event. Each experiment examined memory for 3 different types of contextual information: (a) perceptual information (e.g., location of an item); (b) conceptual, nonemotional information (e.g., quality of an item); and (c) conceptual, emotional information (e.g., safety of an item). Consistent with a large literature on aging and source memory, younger adults outperformed older adults when the contextual information was perceptual in nature and when it was conceptual, but not emotional. Age differences in source memory were eliminated, however, when participants recalled emotional source information. These findings suggest that emotional information differentially engages older adults, possibly evoking enhanced elaborations and associations. The data are also consistent with a growing literature, suggesting that emotional processing remains stable with age (e.g., Carstensen & Turk-Charles, 1994, 1998; Isaacowitz, Charles, & Carstensen, 2000). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, source memory, and misrecollections.

The authors propose an illusory recollection account of why cognitive aging is associated with episodic memory deficits. After listening to statements presented by either a female or a male speaker, older adults were prone to misrecollecting past events. The authors' illusory recollection account is instantiated in a new illusory recollection signal detection model that provides a better fit of older adults' data than does the standard signal detection model. They observed that age-related differences in source memory (as measured by source d′ scores) virtually disappear after accounting for the occurrence of illusory recollections. These data suggest that age-related source memory impairments are not due to older adults' remembering less diagnostic source information and having to guess more. Instead, older adults appear to misremember past events more often than younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response strategies in source monitoring.

Examines the role that response strategies play in a memory paradigm known as source monitoring. It is argued that several different response biases can interact to confound the interpretation of source-monitoring data. This problem is illustrated with 2 empirical examples, taken from the psychological literature, which examine the role of source monitoring in the generation effect and the picture superiority effect. To resolve this problem, a new multinomial model for source monitoring is presented that is capable of separately measuring memory factors from response-bias factors. The model, when applied to the results of 2 new experiments, results in a clearer picture of which source-monitoring variables are instrumental in the generation effect and picture superiority effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process dissociation as source monitoring.

A 2-high-threshold model source-monitoring model (U. J. Bayen, K. Murnane, & E. Erdfelder, 1996) was applied to both source-monitoring and process-dissociation data collected varying source and distracter similarity. The model fit both sets of data using identical parameter values. The values of the detection parameter, D, and the source-discrimination parameter, d, varied in the manner expected. Also, neither the process-dissociation (L. L. Jacoby, 1991) nor the extended process-dissociation model (A. Buchner, E. Erdfelder, & B. Vaterrodt-Plünnecke, 1995) fit either type of data. The memory processes involved in recognition judgments are the same when using the process-dissociation or the source-monitoring procedure. The 4 cognitive processes in both procedures can be interpreted as item detection, source identification, recognition guessing, and source guessing. The potential role of unconscious memory influences via the 2 guessing processes is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory-of-mind development influences suggestibility and source monitoring.

According to the mental-state reasoning model of suggestibility, 2 components of theory of mind mediate reductions in suggestibility across the preschool years. The authors examined whether theory-of-mind performance may be legitimately separated into 2 components and explored the memory processes underlying the associations between theory of mind and suggestibility, independent of verbal ability. Children 3 to 6 years old completed 6 theory-of-mind tasks and a postevent misinformation procedure. Contrary to the model's prediction, a single latent theory-of-mind factor emerged, suggesting a single-component rather than a dual-component conceptualization of theory-of-mind performance. This factor provided statistical justification for computing a single composite theory-of-mind score. Improvements in theory of mind predicted reductions in suggestibility, independent of verbal ability (Study 1, n = 72). Furthermore, once attribution biases were controlled (Study 2, n = 45), there was also a positive relationship between theory of mind and source memory, but not recognition performance. The findings suggest a substantial, and possibly causal, association between theory-of-mind development and resistance to suggestion, driven specifically by improvements in source monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multinomial processing models of source monitoring.

This article presents a family of processing models for the source-monitoring paradigm in human memory. Source monitoring and the special case of reality monitoring have become very popular as paradigms to assess memory deficits in various subject populations. The paradigm provides categorical data that satisfy product-multinomial constraints, and this lends it nicely to multinomial modeling with processing-tree structures as described in D. M. Riefer and W. H. Batchelder (see record 1988-31527-001). The models developed herein are based on ideas from high-threshold signal-detection models, and they involve item-detection parameters, source-identification parameters, and various parameters reflecting guessing biases. The purpose of the models is to provide separate, theoretically based measures of old-item detection and source discrimination. The models may strengthen traditional analyses that are based on ad hoc statistics, as well as avoid flawed interpretations that the traditional analyses may produce. The usefulness of the models is revealed by analyzing published data sets from the areas of reality monitoring and bilingual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in conversational source monitoring.

The present investigation simulated a group conversation in which participants asked (inquirer) and answered (responder) questions, as well as listened to others exchange information. Source (inquirer; responder) identification accuracy was evaluated immediately or after 1 week. Older adults were less adept at source identification, although this difference was reduced with personal (Experiment 2) rather than categorical (Experiment 1) topics. The age difference was independent of explicit memory (cued recall and recognition), suggesting that memory for source and information are separable. Older adults were comparable to younger adults in responder identification but worse at inquirer identification. Responder identification was better than inquirer identification, with the latter dropping to chance at 1 week. Source identification was most accurate when participants were in the responder role; there was little difference between the inquirer and listener roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal source monitoring confusions between perceived and imagined events.

Two experiments tested the prediction based on the source monitoring framework that imagination is most likely to lead to false memories when related perceived events have occurred. Consistent with this, people were more likely to falsely remember seeing events when the events had been both imagined as seen and actually heard than when they were just heard, just visually imagined, or imagined both visually and auditorily. Furthermore, when people considered potential sources for memories or more carefully evaluated features of remembered events, source errors were reduced. On average, misattributed ("false") memories differed in phenomenal qualities from true memories. Taken together, these findings show that as different qualities of mental experience flexibly enter into source attributions, qualities derived from related perceptual events are particularly likely to lead to false claims that imagined events were seen, even when the event involves a primary modality (auditory) different from the target event (visual). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of recollection and partial information in source monitoring.

Two experiments were conducted to assess the degree to which source monitoring required recollective details or could be based on vaguer partial information. Source judgments were followed by remember-know judgments during testing. On the authors' assumption that remember judgments are highly correlated with the presence of recollective details, the results showed that accurate source monitoring did not necessarily require such recollective details. Rather, the high proportion of correct source judgments that were associated with know responses suggests that source-monitoring processes can successfully use the partial information that is recorded in vaguer memories. Consequently, source monitoring can be based on recollection but can also effectively use qualitative characteristics that lack clarity and sufficient amounts of details to give rise to the subjective feeling of remembering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and monitoring associative learning: Is monitoring accuracy spared or impaired?

Mixed lists of associatively related and unrelated paired associates were used to study monitoring of associative learning. Older and younger adults produced above-chance levels of relative accuracy, as measured by intraindividual correlations (γ) of judgments of learning (JOLs) with item recall. JOLs were strongly influenced by relatedness, and this effect was greater for older adults. Relative accuracy was higher for unrelated than for related pairs. Correlations of JOLs with item recall for a randomly yoked learner indicated that access to one's own encoding experiences increased relative accuracy. Both age groups manifested a contrast effect (lower JOLs for unrelated items when mixed with related items). Aging appears to spare monitoring of encoding, even though it adversely affects associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring memory factors in source monitoring: Reply to Kinchla.

D. A. Kinchla (see record 1994-16291-001) criticizes W. H. Batchelder and D. M. Reifer's multinomial model for source monitoring, primarily its high-threshold assumptions, and advocates an approach based on statistical decision theory (SDT). The authors lay out some of the considerations that led to their model and then raise some specific concerns with Kinchla's critique. The authors point out that most of his criticisms are drawn from contrasting the high threshold and the Gaussian, equal-variance SDT models on receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for yes-no recognition memory. The authors indicate how source monitioring is more complicated than yes-no recognition and question the validity of standard ROC analyses in source monitoring. The authors argue that their model is a good approximation for measuring differences between sources on old-new detection and that it has the ability to measure source discrimination as well as detection. The authors also explore a low-threshold multinomial model and discuss the application of SDT models to source monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test-induced priming impairs source monitoring accuracy in the DRM procedure.

Three experiments investigated the effects of test-induced priming (TIP) on false recognition in the Deese/Roediger–McDermott procedure (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In Experiment 1, TIP significantly increased false recognition for participants who made old/new decisions at test but not for participants who made remember/know judgments or were given diagnostic information to help them avoid false recognition. In Experiment 2, a TIP effect was observed with old/new recognition but not when participants were required to remember whether study items were spoken by a male or a female speaker. In Experiment 3, false recognition increased when critical lures were preceded by 10 studied items but not when preceded by 5 studied and 5 unstudied items from the same list. These findings suggest that TIP increases false recognition by disrupting source monitoring processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source discrimination, item detection, and multinomial models of source monitoring.

Source monitoring refers to the discrimination of the origin of information. Multinomial models of source monitoring (W. H. Batchelder & D. M. Riefer, 1990) are theories of the decision processes involved in source monitoring that provide separate parameters for source discrimination, item detection, and response biases. Three multinomial models of source monitoring based on different models of decision in a simple detection paradigm (one-high-threshold, low-threshold, and two-high-threshold models) were subjected to empirical tests. With a 3 (distractor similarity)?×?3 (source similarity) factorial design, the effect of difficulty of item detection and source discrimination on corresponding model parameters was examined. Only the source-monitoring model that is based on a two-high-threshold model of item recognition provides an accurate analysis of the data. Consequences for the use of multinomial models in the study of source monitoring are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging can spare recollection-based retrieval monitoring: The importance of event distinctiveness.

The authors investigated two retrieval-monitoring processes. Subjects studied red words and pictures and then decided whether test words had been studied in red font (red word test) or as pictures (picture test). Memory confusions were lower on the picture test than on the red word test, implicating a distinctiveness heuristic. Memory confusions also were lower when study formats were mutually exclusive (the same item was never studied as both a red word and a picture), compared with a nonexclusive condition, implicating a recall-to-reject process. When the to-be-recollected events were pictures, older adults used each monitoring strategy as effectively as did younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Older adults' use of metacognitive knowledge in source monitoring: Spared monitoring but impaired control.

While episodic memory declines with age, metacognitive monitoring is spared. The current study explored whether older adults can use their preserved metacognitive knowledge to make source guesses in the absence of source memory. Through repetition, words from two sources (italic vs. bold text type) differed in memorability. There were no age differences in monitoring this difference despite an age difference in memory. Older adults used their metacognitive knowledge to make source guesses but showed a deficit in varying their source guessing based on word recognition. Therefore, older adults may not fully benefit from metacognitive knowledge about sources in source monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive factors in source monitoring and auditory hallucinations

BACKGROUND: In order to elucidate further the cognitive processes underlying auditory hallucinations, an experiment investigating delayed and immediate source monitoring for positive, negative and neutral verbal material was conducted with schizophrenic patients. METHODS: Patients experiencing auditory hallucinations, patients not experiencing auditory hallucinations and normal subjects participated in a word association task, rating their responses for how much a self-generated thought was their own, how controllable and involuntary it was and their confidence in these ratings. A delayed source monitoring test in which subjects had to recall the source (self or experimenter) of the words from the association task was also administered. RESULTS: Hallucinators showed a greater bias towards external attribution of their thoughts compared with both control groups for immediate attributions of source, but not for delayed attributions. Hallucinators showed a bias towards external attribution of emotional material for immediate source monitoring and all subjects showed a bias towards misattribution of positive material to an external source and negative material to an internal source for the delayed source monitoring task. CONCLUSIONS: These findings appear to be most consistent with theories proposing that hallucinations result from an external attributional bias for internal events. The implications of these results for research and practice are also discussed.     

Contributions of inadequate source monitoring to unconscious plagiarism during idea generation.

Participants engaged in a creative idea-generation task that required them to monitor source to devise ideas not offered previously by others. In Experiment 1, inadvertent plagiarism (cryptomnesia) occurred more often when participants were generating ideas than when they were taking a recognition test. In Experiment 2, focusing participants on the origin of their ideas during generation resembled the focusing that occurs in recognition performance and reduced plagiarism. In Experiment 3, a speeded-response condition increased inadvertent plagiarism by mimicking conditions in which people cannot or do not adequately monitor source. In Experiment 4, plagiarism was reduced both when participants offered their new ideas in a one-on-one context as compared with a more anonymous group setting and when participants were specifically instructed to avoid plagiarism. The results are discussed in terms of source-monitoring decision criteria and the conscious and unconscious processes that support that monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)