Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Different Definitions of the Non-recollection-based Response Option(s) Change how People use the “Remember” Response in the Remember/Know Paradigm

Williams, Helen; Lindsay, D. Stephen

Different Definitions of the Non-recollection-based Response Option(s) Change how People use the “Remember” Response in the Remember/Know Paradigm Thumbnail


Authors

D. Stephen Lindsay



Abstract

In the Remember/Know paradigm, a Know response can be defined to participants as a high-confidence state of certainty or as a low-confidence state based on a feeling of familiarity. To examine the effects of definition on use of responses, in two experiments definitions of Remember and Guess were kept constant but definitions of Know and/or Familiar were systematically varied to emphasize (a) a subjective experience of high-confidence-without-recollection, (b) a feeling of familiarity, (c) both of these subjective experiences combined within one response option, or (d) both of these experiences as separate response options. The confidence expressed in Know and/or Familiar definitions affected how participants used response options. Importantly this included use of the Remember response, which tended to be used more frequently when the non-recollection-based middle response option emphasized a feeling of familiarity rather than an experience of “just knowing.” The influence of the definitions on response patterns was greater for items that had undergone deep rather than shallow processing, and was greater when deep- and shallow-encoded items were mixed, rather than blocked, at test. Our findings fit with previous research suggesting that the mnemonic traces underlying subjective judgments are continuous and that the Remember/Know paradigm is not a pure measure of underlying processes. Findings also emphasize the importance of researchers publishing the exact definitions they have used to enable accurate comparisons across studies.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 19, 2019
Online Publication Date May 22, 2019
Publication Date 2019-10
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Memory & Cognition
Print ISSN 0090-502X
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 47
Pages 1359-1374
DOI https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00938-0
Keywords Remember-Know, subjective experience, recollection, familiarity, dual-process
Publisher URL http://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00938-0

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations