Retrieval monitoring is influenced by information value: the interplay between importance and confidence on false memory.
The perceived value of information can influence one's motivation to successfully remember that information. This study investigated how information value can affect memory search and evaluation processes (i.e., retrieval monitoring). In Experiment 1, participants studied unrelated words associated with low, medium, or high values. Subsequent memory tests required participants to selectively monitor retrieval for different values. False memory effects were smaller when searching memory for high-value than low-value words, suggesting that people more effectively monitored more important information. In Experiment 2, participants studied semantically-related words, and the need for retrieval monitoring was reduced at test by using inclusion instructions (i.e., endorsement of any word related to the studied words) compared with standard instructions. Inclusion instructions led to increases in false recognition for low-value, but not for high-value words, suggesting that under standard-instruction conditions retrieval monitoring was less likely to occur for important information. Experiment 3 showed that words retrieved with lower confidence were associated with more effective retrieval monitoring, suggesting that the quality of the retrieved memory influenced the degree and effectiveness of monitoring processes. Ironically, unless encouraged to do so, people were less likely to carefully monitor important information, even though people want to remember important memories most accurately.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, 505 Hackberry Lane, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. Electronic address: ian.mcdonough@gmail.com.
Ian M
IM
McDonough
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Dung C
DC
Bui
Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Harvard University, 125 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Michael C
MC
Friedman
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Alan D
AD
Castel
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
False memory; Heuristics; Memory; Metamemory; Value; Word recognition