title: Contextual information influences the feeling of knowing in episodic memory.
abstract: The feeling of knowing (FOK) predicts the likelihood of eventually recognizing currently unrecalled items. Koriat (1993, 1995) showed that retrieval of partial target information influences FOK ratings. Building on Koriat's view, the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis contends that contextual information influences FOKs (Brewer, Marsh, Clark-Foos, & Meeks, 2010). Our study assessed the validity of the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis by controlling the amount of potentially-retrievable contextual information presented to participants. We varied the amount of contextual information accompanying the name and image of imaginary animals. There were three information conditions: minimum (name and image), medium (name, image, and country), and maximum (name, image, country, diet and weight). Information condition did not affect recall accuracy. The minimum condition resulted in greater response output (recall and commission errors together). FOKs for unrecalled items were lower in the minimum condition than the other conditions. Consistent with the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis, FOKs were positively correlated with the retrieval of contextual information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA. Electronic address: bennett.schwartz@fiu.edu.
authors.forename: Bennett L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Inserm u1114, Federation of Translational Medicine of Strasbourg (FMTS), University of Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pillot
authors.affiliation: Inserm u1114, Federation of Translational Medicine of Strasbourg (FMTS), University of Strasbourg, France. Electronic address: elisabeth.bacon@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bacon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Accessibility hypothesis; Feeling of knowing; Memory; Metamemory; Noncriterial-recollection hypothesis