Associative recognition: a case of recall-to-reject processing.
Two-process accounts of recognition memory assume that memory judgments are based on both a rapidly available familiarity-based process and a slower, more accurate, recall-based mechanism. Past experiments on the time course of item recognition have not supported the recall-to-reject account of the second process, in which the retrieval of an old item is used to reject a similar foil (Rotello & Heit, 1999). In three new experiments, using analyses similar to those of Rotello and Heit, we found robust evidence for recall-to-reject processing in associative recognition, for word pairs, and for list-discrimination judgments. Put together, these results have implications for two-process accounts of recognition.
Rotello
C M
CM
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003-7710, USA. caren@psych.umass.edu
Heit
E
E
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D012153:Retention, Psychology