Abstract
One popular technique in the study of human recognition memory involves the elicitation ofremember andknow judgments and the attribution of those judgments to qualitative states of memory retrieval. An alternative view, reviewed here, implicates quantitative, but not qualitative, differences in evidence as the basis for those two judgments. That theory makes two clear and testable predictions: that of criterion shifts in “remembering” and that of isodiscriminability across different response sets. In this experiment, the makeup of the distractor set in a recognition test is shown to influence overall recognition criterion and also rates of “remember” responses. The second portion of the article demonstrates howA’ is a poor choice of a measure to test the prediction of isodiscriminability. When this measure is corrected (Equation 7) to make it more consistent with current knowledge about the receiveroperating characteristic in recognition memory, it reveals that there is no difference in discriminability between “remember” and all positive responses.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Algarabel, S., Gotor, A., &Pitarque, A. (2003). Remember, know, confidence and the mirror effect.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology,15, 589–605.
Arndt, J., &Reder.L. M. (2002). Word frequency and receiver operating characteristic curves in recognition memory: Evidence for a dual-process interpretation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,28, 830–842.
Banks, W. P. (2000). Recognition and source memory as multivariate decision processes.Psychological Science,11, 267–273.
Basdin, C., &Van der Linden, M. (2003). The contribution of recollection and familiarity to recognition memory: A study of the effects of test format and aging.Neuropsychology,17, 14–24.
Benjamin, A. S., &Bawa, S. (2004). Manipulations of distractor plausibility induce an asymmetric criterion shift in recognition.Journal of Memory & Language,51, 159–172.
DeCarlo, L. T. (2002). Signal detection theory with finite mixture distributions: Theoretical developments with applications to recognition memory.Psychological Review,109, 710–721.
Dobbins, I. G. (2001). The systematic discrepancy between A’ for overall recognition and remembering: A dual-process account.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,8, 587–599.
Dobbins, I. G., Kroll, N. E., &Liu, Q. (1998). Confidence-accuracy inversions in scene recognition: A remember-know analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 1306–1315.
Donaldson, W. (1993). Accuracy of d’ and A’ as estimates of sensitivity.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,31, 271–274.
Donaldson, W. (1996). The role of decision processes in remembering and knowing.Memory & Cognition,24, 523–533.
Dunn, J. C. (2004). Remember-know: A matter of confidence.Psychological Review,111, 524–542.
Eldridge, L. L., Sarfatti, S., &Knowlton, B. J. (2002). The effect of testing procedures on remember-know judgments.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,9, 139–145.
Gardiner, J. M. (1988). Functional aspects of recollective experience.Memory & Cognition,16, 309–313.
Gardiner, J. M., Ramponi, C., &Richardson-Klavehn, A. (1998). Experiences of remembering, knowing, and guessing.Consciousness & Cognition,7, 1–26.
Gardiner, J. M., Ramponi, C., &Richardson-Klavehn, A. (1999). Response deadline and subjective awareness in recognition memory.Consciousness & Cognition,8, 484–496.
Gardiner, J. M., Ramponi, C., &Richardson-Klavehn, A. (2002). Recognition memory and decision processes: A meta-analysis of remember, know, and guess responses.Memory,10, 83–98.
Gardiner, J. M., &Richardson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.),The Oxford handbook of memory (pp. 229–244). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gardiner, J. M., Richardson-Klavehn, A., &Ramponi, C. (1998). Limitations of the signal detection model of the remember-know paradigm: A reply to Hirshman.Consciousness & Cognition,7, 285–288.
Glanzer, M., Kim K., Hilford, A., &Adams, J. K. (1999). Slope of the receiver-operating characteristic in recognition memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,25, 500–513.
Grier, J. B. (1971). Nonparametric indexes for sensitivity and bias: Computing formulas.Psychological Bulletin,75, 424–429.
Heathcote, A. (2003). Item recognition memory and the receiver operating characteristic.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,29, 1210–1230.
Henson, R. N. A., Rugg, M. D., Shallice, T., Josephs, O., &Dolan, R. J. (1999). Recollection and familiarity in recognition memory: An event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study.Journal of Neuroscience,19, 3962–3972.
Hirshman, E. (1995). Decision processes in recognition memory: Criterion shifts and the list-strength paradigm.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,21, 302–313.
Hirshman, E., &Hentzler, A. (1998). The role of decision processes in conscious recollection.Psychological Science,9, 61–65.
Hirshman, E., &Hostetter, M. (2000). Using ROC curves to test recognition memory: The relationship between presentation duration and slope.Memory & Cognition,28, 161–166.
Hirshman, E., &Master, S. (1997). Modeling the conscious correlates of recognition memory: Reflections on the remember-know paradigm.Memory & Cognition,25, 345–351.
Macmillan, N. A., &Creelman, C. D. (1996). Triangles in ROC space: History and theory of “nonparametric” measures of sensitivity and response bias.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,3, 164–170.
Macmillan, N. A., Rotello, C. M., & Verde, M. F. (in press). On the importance of models in interpreting remember-know experiments: Comments on Gardiner et al.’s (2002) meta-analysis.Memory.
Parkin, A. J., &Russo, R. (1993). On the origin of functional differences in recollective experience.Memory,1, 231–237.
Pastore, R. E., Crawley, E. J., Berens, M. S., &Skelly, M. A. (2003). “Nonparametric” A’ and other modern misconceptions about signal detection theory.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,10, 556–569.
Postma, A. (1999). The influence of decision criteria upon remembering and knowing in recognition memory.Acta Psychologica,103, 65–76.
Rajaram, S. (1993). Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past.Memory & Cognition,21, 89–102.
Ratcliff, R., Sheu, C.-F., &Gronlund, S. (1992). Testing global memory models using ROC curves.Psychological Review,99, 518–535.
Ratcliff, R., Van Zandt, T., &McKoon, G. (1995). Process dissociation single-process theories, and recognition memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,124, 352–374.
Rotello, C. M., Macmillan, N. A., &Reeder, J. A. (2004). Sum-difference theory of remembering and knowing: A two-dimensional signal detection model.Psychological Review,111, 558–616.
Rotello, C. M., Macmillan, N. A., &Van Tassel, G. (2000). Recallto-reject in recognition: Evidence from ROC curves.Journal of Memory & Language,43, 67–88.
Snodgrass, J. G., &Corwin, J. (1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,117, 34–50.
Strack, F., &Förster, J. (1995). Reporting recollective experiences: Direct access to memory systems?Psychological Science,6, 352–358.
Stretch, V., &Wixted, J. T. (1998). Decision rules for recognition memory confidence judgments.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 1397–1410.
Trott, C. T., Friedman, D., Ritter, W., &Fabiani, M. (1997). Item and source memory: Differential age effects revealed by eventrelated potentials.NeuroReport,8, 3373–3378.
Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness.Canadian Psychologist,26, 1–12.
Verfaillie, M., Giovanello, K. S., &Keane, M. M. (2002). Recognition memory in amnesia: Effects of relaxing response criteria.Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience,1, 3–9.
Yonelinas, A. P., Dobbins, I., Szymanski, M. D., Dhaliwal, H. S., &King, L. (1996). Signal-detection, threshold, and dual-process models of recognition memory: ROCs and conscious recollection.Consciousness & Cognition,5, 418–441.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Benjamin, A.S. Recognition memory and introspective remember/know judgments: Evidence for the influence of distractor plausibility on “remembering” and a caution about purportedly nonparametric measures. Mem Cogn 33, 261–269 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195315
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195315