In Defense of the Signal Detection Interpretation of Remember/Know Judgments
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2004
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Donaldson (1996) argued that remember/know judgments can be conceptualized within a signal detection framework by assuming that they are based on two criteria situated along a strength-of-memory decision axis. According to this model, items that exceed a high criterion receive a remember response, whereas items that only exceed a lower criterion receive a know response. Although a variety of findings have been presented in evidence against this idea, Dunn (2004) recently showed that detection theory is fully compatible with those findings. We present a variety of new results and new analyses that weigh strongly in favor of the detection interpretation. We further show that a dual-process account of recognition memory is compatible with a unidimensional detection model despite the common notion that such a model necessarily assumes a single process. The key assumption of this model is that individual recognition decisions are based on both recollection and familiarity (not on one process or the other).
Publication Title
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Volume
11
Issue
4
First Page
616
Last Page
641
Recommended Citation
Wixted, J. T.,
Stretch, V.
(2004). In Defense of the Signal Detection Interpretation of Remember/Know Judgments. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11(4), 616-641.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/3085