Evidence for discrete-state processing in recognition memory

We provide evidence that recognition memory is mediated by a detect-or-guess mental-state model without recourse to concepts of latent-strength or multiple-memory systems. We assess performance in a two-alternative forced-choice recognition memory task with confidence ratings. The key manipulation is that sometimes participants are asked which of two new items is old, and the resulting confidence distribution is unambiguously interpreted as arising from a guessing state. The confidence ratings for other conditions are seemingly the resultant of mixing this stable guessing state with an additional stable detect state. Formal model comparison supports this observation, and an analysis of associated response times reveals a mixture signature as well.

[1]  R. Luce,et al.  A threshold theory for simple detection experiments. , 1963, Psychological review.

[2]  Martin Fieldhouse,et al.  Review: Book review: Linear programming , 1964, Comput. J..

[3]  C. M. Reeves,et al.  Function minimization by conjugate gradients , 1964, Comput. J..

[4]  John A. Nelder,et al.  A Simplex Method for Function Minimization , 1965, Comput. J..

[5]  H. Kucera,et al.  Computational analysis of present-day American English , 1967 .

[6]  H. Akaike.  A new look at the statistical model identification , 1974 .

[7]  G. Schwarz.  Estimating the Dimension of a Model , 1978 .

[8]  B. Murdock.  A Theory for the Storage and Retrieval of Item and Associative Information. , 1982 .

[9]  Douglas L. Hintzman,et al.  Judgments of frequency and recognition memory in a multiple-trace memory model. , 1988 .

[10]  Timothy R. C. Read,et al.  Goodness-Of-Fit Statistics for Discrete Multivariate Data , 1988 .

[11]  Neil A. Macmillan,et al.  Detection Theory: A User's Guide , 1991 .

[12]  R. Kinchla.  Comments on Batchelder and Riefer's multinomial model for source monitoring. , 1994, Psychological review.

[13]  A. Yonelinas.  Receiver-operating characteristics in recognition memory: evidence for a dual-process model. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  A model for recognition memory: REM—retrieving effectively from memory , 1997, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[15]  C. Lebiere,et al.  The Atomic Components of Thought , 1998 .

[16]  E. Erdfelder,et al.  Comment: Process-dissociation measurement models: Threshold theory or detection theory? , 1998 .

[17]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory. , 1998, Psychological review.

[18]  Michael Wilson.  MRC Psycholinguistic Database , 2001 .

[19]  C. L. Raye,et al.  Source ROCs are (typically) curvilinear: comment on Yonelinas (1999). , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[20]  Kenneth J. Malmberg,et al.  On the form of ROCs constructed from confidence ratings. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[21]  A. Yonelinas.  The Nature of Recollection and Familiarity: A Review of 30 Years of Research , 2002 .

[22]  Thomas A. Schreiber,et al.  The University of South Florida free association, rhyme, and word fragment norms , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[23]  Scott D. Slotnick,et al.  Support for a continuous (single-process) model of recognition memory and source memory , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[24]  Fredrik U. Jönsson,et al.  A model for stochastic drift in memory strength to account for judgments of learning. , 2005, Psychological review.

[25]  Denis G. Pelli,et al.  ECVP '07 Abstracts , 2007, Perception.

[26]  Colleen M. Parks,et al.  Receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) in recognition memory: a review. , 2007, Psychological bulletin.

[27]  Jeffrey N. Rouder,et al.  Bayesian t tests for accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis , 2009, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[28]  A. Bröder,et al.  Recognition ROCs are curvilinear-or are they? On premature arguments against the two-high-threshold model of recognition. , 2009, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.