How the measurement of memory processes can affect memory performance: the case of remember/know judgments.

Relatively little attention has been paid thus far in memory research to the effects of measurement instruments intended to assess memory processes on the constructs being measured. The current article investigates the influence of employing the popular remember/know (R/K) measurement procedure on memory performance itself. This measurement procedure was extensively used in the past to assess the respective contributions of 2 processes to memory judgments, one based on familiarity and the other on recollection. Two experiments using unrelated word pairs showed that the use of an R/K procedure can alter memory performance. Specifically, the R/K procedure improved associative memory among older but not younger adults compared to conditions in which participants were not asked to provide R/K judgments. Such an effect was not observed in item memory performance. Potential mechanisms mediating these differential memory measurement effects are outlined, and the measurement effects' implications for memory and cognitive research are discussed.

[1]  Sandra E. Trehub,et al.  Aging and cognitive processes , 1982 .

[2]  W. Heisenberg.  Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik , 1927 .

[3]  M. D. Murphy,et al.  Age differences in free recall rehearsal strategies. , 1980, Journal of gerontology.

[4]  Jeffrey D. Karpicke,et al.  Test-Enhanced Learning , 2006, Psychological science.

[5]  Miri Besken,et al.  Remember-Know and source memory instructions can qualitatively change old-new recognition accuracy: the modality-match effect in recognition memory. , 2010, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[6]  Paul Verhaeghen,et al.  Production deficiency hypothesis revisited: Adult age differences in strategy use as a function of processing resources , 1994 .

[7]  David B. Mitchell,et al.  Semantic activation and episodic memory: age similarities and differences , 1986 .

[8]  Matthew G. Rhodes,et al.  Associative recognition of face pairs by younger and older adults: the role of familiarity-based processing. , 2008, Psychology and aging.

[9]  L L Jacoby,et al.  An opposition procedure for detecting age-related deficits in recollection: telling effects of repetition. , 1997, Psychology and aging.

[10]  Arthur I. Gates,et al.  Recitation As a Factor in Memorizing , 1917 .

[11]  Larry L. Jacoby,et al.  Automatic versus intentional uses of memory: aging, attention, and control. , 1993 .

[12]  R. Java,et al.  Effects of age on state of awareness following implicit and explicit word-association tasks. , 1996, Psychology and aging.

[13]  Robert T Knight,et al.  The contribution of recollection and familiarity to yes–no and forced-choice recognition tests in healthy subjects and amnesics , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[14]  Denise C. Park,et al.  Handbook of the Psychology of Aging , 1979 .

[15]  Bruce E. Wampold,et al.  Research Design in Counseling , 1991 .

[16]  Barbara L. Chalfonte,et al.  Sum-Difference Theory of Remembering and Knowing : A Two-Dimensional Signal-Detection Model By : , 2004 .

[17]  R. Woodworth.  Archives of psychology , 2010 .

[18]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  Information Processing and Cognition: The Loyola Symposium , 1976 .

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

[20]  L. Jacoby,et al.  The Relation between Remembering and Knowing as Bases for Recognition: Effects of Size Congruency , 1995 .

[21]  M. Perlmutter,et al.  Aging and Memory , 1987, Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

[22]  Fergus I. M. Craik,et al.  Aging and cognitive deficits : The role of attentional resources , 1982 .

[23]  R. R. Hunt,et al.  The effect of study modality on false recognition , 2008, Memory & cognition.

[24]  K S Multhaup,et al.  Aging, source, and decision criteria: when false fame errors do and do not occur. , 1995, Psychology and aging.

[25]  R. Keefover,et al.  Aging and cognition. , 1998, Neurologic clinics.

[26]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Feature memory and binding in young and older adults , 1996, Memory & cognition.

[27]  Hulicka Im,et al.  Age-group comparisons for the use of mediators in paired-associate learning. , 1967 .

[28]  J. Dunlosky,et al.  Aging and deficits in associative memory: what is the role of strategy production? , 1998, Psychology and aging.

[29]  E. Maylor.  Remembering versus knowing television theme tunes in middle‐aged and elderly adults , 1995 .

[30]  M. Naveh-Benjamin,et al.  The associative memory deficit of older adults: the role of strategy utilization. , 2007, Psychology and aging.

[31]  M. D. Murphy,et al.  Training older adult free recall rehearsal strategies. , 1981, Journal of gerontology.

[32]  U. Bayen,et al.  Age-related differences in the use of contextual information in recognition memory: a global matching approach. , 2000, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[33]  D. Gallo.  Using recall to reduce false recognition: diagnostic and disqualifying monitoring. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[34]  A. Greenwald,et al.  Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  John M. Gardiner,et al.  Experiences of Remembering, Knowing, and Guessing , 1998, Consciousness and Cognition.

[36]  Moshe Naveh-Benjamin,et al.  Paying attention to binding: Further studies assessing the role of reduced attentional resources in the associative deficit of older adults , 2007, Memory & cognition.

[37]  L L Jacoby,et al.  Separating habit and recollection in young and older adults: effects of elaborative processing and distinctiveness. , 1999, Psychology and aging.

[38]  Barbara A. Spellman,et al.  When Predictions Create Reality: Judgments of Learning May Alter What They Are Intended to Assess , 1992 .

[39]  E. Tulving.  Memory and consciousness. , 1985 .

[40]  M. Naveh-Benjamin.  Adult age differences in memory performance: tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[41]  M. Naveh-Benjamin,et al.  The associative memory deficit of older adults: further support using face-name associations. , 2004, Psychology and aging.

[42]  Ralph L. Rosnow,et al.  Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis , 1984 .

[43]  William E. Hockley,et al.  Familiarity and recollection in item and associative recognition , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[44]  Michael R. Healy,et al.  Effects of repetition and response deadline on associative recognition in young and older adults , 2004, Memory & cognition.

[45]  Raymond J. Shaw,et al.  Age differences in context integration in memory. , 1998, Psychology and aging.

[46]  Barbara J Knowlton,et al.  The effect of testing procedure on remember-know judgments , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[47]  J. Byrne.  Learning and memory : a comprehensive reference , 2008 .

[48]  E. Tulving,et al.  PET studies of encoding and retrieval: The HERA model , 1996, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[49]  M. Naveh-Benjamin,et al.  Differential effects of age on item and associative measures of memory: a meta-analysis. , 2008, Psychology and aging.

[50]  A. D. Fisk,et al.  An individual differences analysis of ability and strategy influences: age-related differences in associative learning. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.