title: Relative fluency and illusions of recognition memory.
abstract: A hallmark of the experience of perceptual fluency is the sense that a familiar stimulus seems to pop out from its background, such as when one notices the face of a friend in a crowd of strangers. This experience suggests that fluency-based illusions of recognition memory may be more powerful when there are only a few fluent stimuli presented in a recognition context. The results of the present study were consistent with this prediction. The magnitude of fluency-based illusions of recognition memory was inversely related to the percentage of fluent stimuli on a recognition test. Furthermore, standard fluency manipulations did not impact recognition responses in between-participants designs. The results suggest that illusions of recognition memory may be more powerful when fluency is encountered in a context in which the surrounding stimuli are less fluent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA. wester@binghamton.edu
authors.forename: Deanne L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Westerman
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D011939:Mental Recall; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning