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Recognition memory: The probe, the returned signal, and the decision

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Abstract

In an attempt to better understand recognition memory we look at how three approaches (dual processing, signal detection, and global matching) have addressed the probe, the returned signal and the decision in four recognition paradigms. These are single-item recognition (including the remember/know paradigm), recognition in relational context, associative recognition, and source monitoring. The contrast, with regards to the double-miss rate (the probability of recognizing neither item in intact and rearranged pairs) and the effect of the oldness of the other member of the test pair, between identifying the old words in test pairs (the relational context paradigm) and first identifying the intact test pairs and then identifying the old words (adding associative recognition to the relational context paradigm) suggests that the retrieval of associative information in the relational context paradigm is unintentional, unlike the retrieval of associative information in associative recognition. It also seems possible that the information that is spontaneously retrieved in single-item recognition, possibly including the remember/know paradigm, is also unintentional, unlike the retrieval of information in source monitoring. Probable differences between intentional and unintentional retrieval, together with the pattern of effects with regards to the double-miss rate and the effect of the other member of the test pair, are used to evaluate the three approaches. Our conclusion is that all three approaches have something valid to say about recognition, but none is equally applicable across all four paradigms.

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Notes

  1. Bain and Humphreys (1988) referred to the effect when pairs of words are studied, and a studied word is tested in the context of the other member of the study pair, as the relational-context effect. This was done to emphasize that it was the relationship or association between the two pair members that was driving this effect.

  2. We would like to thank Vencislav Popov and Lynne Reder for providing us with these analyses.

  3. This account suggests that the recognition of B will be enhanced, but not the recognition of A. This is not what is observed (Buchler et al., 2008; Hockley & Bancroft, 2011; Humphreys, 1976). However, the participant is free to read the test pair before choosing to start the recognition process with one of the two items or to return to an attempt to recognize A after having first attempted to recognize A and then B.

  4. The idea of a different state of consciousness instead of different processes or different information emerged in a discussion between Michael Humphreys and Simon Dennis.

  5. Humphreys et al. (2010a) had participants read a paragraph that named a brand as the sponsor of an event. The following day they had the same participants read another paragraph where a competitor of the first brand was linked to the event but was unambiguously named as an ambusher (a brand that attempts to associate itself with an event without being a sponsor). In a subsequent test the name of the event was provided as a cue and the participants were asked to name the sponsor. Under these conditions the name of the ambusher intruded at a very high rate, so the participants were clearly not recalling the ambusher information. In order to explain this failure, the authors assumed that in addition to the event name, which was supplied by the experimenter, the participants were also using the concept of a brand name as a cue, which effectively limited recall to brand names.

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Authors’ Note

Sadly, Mike Humphreys passed away while working on the final revisions of this paper. His contributions to our understanding of human memory are far ranging and his depth of understanding and appreciation of the history of research on human memory is a loss to the discipline.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Michael S. Humphreys

  2. Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    William E. Hockley

  3. Department of Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

    Kerry A. Chalmers

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  1. Michael S. Humphreys
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Humphreys, M.S., Hockley, W.E. & Chalmers, K.A. Recognition memory: The probe, the returned signal, and the decision. Psychon Bull Rev (2023). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01955-4

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