Abstract
After viewing a list of single-word answers to general knowledge questions, participants received a test list containing general knowledge questions, some of whose answers were studied, and some of whose were not. Regardless of whether participants could provide the answer to a test question, they rated the likelihood that the answer had been studied. Across three experiments, participants consistently gave higher ratings to unanswerable questions whose answers were studied than to those whose answers were not studied. This discrimination ability persisted in the absence of reported tipof-the-tongue (TOT) states and when no information about the answer could be articulated. Studying a question’s answer did not increase the likelihood of a later TOT state for that question, yet participants gave higher recognition ratings when in a TOT state than when not in a TOT state. A possible theoretical mechanism for the present pattern is discussed, as are relevant theories of familiarity-based recognition and of the TOT phenomenon.
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This project was part of a research program supported by National Science Foundation Grant 0349088.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, when Colin M. MacLeod was Editor.
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Cleary, A.M. Relating familiarity-based recognition and the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Detecting a word’s recency in the absence of access to the word. Memory & Cognition 34, 804–816 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193428
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193428