Abstract
Four experiments were performed to explore a recognition decrement that is associated with the recognition of a word from a short list. The stimulus material for demonstrating the phenomenon was a list of words of different syntactic types. A word from the list was recognized less well following a decision that a word of the same type had occurred in the list than following a decision that such a word had not occurred in the list. A recognition decrement did not occur for a word of a given type following a positive recognition decision to a word of a different type. A recognition decrement did not occur when the list consisted exclusively of nouns. It was concluded that the phenomenon may reflect a criterion shift but, probably, does not reflect a list strength effect, suppression, or familiarity attribution consequent to a perceived discrepancy between actual and expected fluency.
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The research reported here was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 66189.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, when Colin M. MacLeod was Editor.
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Dopkins, S., Ngo, C.T. & Sargent, J. Exploring a recognition-induced recognition decrement. Memory & Cognition 34, 839–853 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193431
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193431