title: ROC curves show that the revelation effect is not a single phenomenon.
abstract: The revelation effect describes the increased tendency to call items old when a recognition judgment is preceded by an incidental task. In theory, the effect could come about either from a more liberal response bias or from a change in underlying memory sensitivity. Using analyses of receiver-operating characteristic curves, we show that the revelation effect occurs for each of these reasons, but under different empirical conditions. A shift in response bias fully accounts for the revelation effect when revealed items are unrelated to the subsequent recognition probes. However, a change in memory sensitivity contributes to the effect when revealed items are identical to the recognition probes. Thus, the revelation effect encompasses at least two distinct phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-7710, USA. mverde@psych.umass.edu
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Verde
authors.forename: Caren M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Rotello
mesh_terms: D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008568:Memory; D012372:ROC Curve; D021641:Recognition, Psychology