Abstract
Familiarity-based processes such as processing fluency can influence memory judgements in tests of item recognition. Many conventional accounts of source memory assume minimal influence of familiarity on source memory, but recent work has suggested that source memory judgements are affected when test stimuli are processed with greater fluency as a result of priming. The present experiments investigated the relationship between fluency and the accuracy of source memory decisions. Participants studied words presented with different source attributes. During test, they identified words that gradually clarified on screen through progressive demasking, made old/new and source memory judgements, and reported confidence ratings for those words. Response times (RTs) recorded from the item identification task formed the basis of a fluency measure, and identification RTs were compared across categories of item recognition, source accuracy and confidence. Identification RTs were faster in trials with correct retrieval of source information compared with trials for which source could not be accurately retrieved. These findings are consistent with the assumption that familiarity-based processes are related to source memory judgements.
Highlights
We often experience situations that require us to recall a certain piece of information and to be able to identify the origins of that information
Identification Response times (RTs) were compared between these three categories of source accuracy in order to evaluate the relationship between fluency, source memory performance and subjective confidence ratings
A priming effect was observed in the vast majority of participants. These results demonstrate that familiarity is linked to R decisions, and may challenge the interpretation of R responses as a processpure index of recollection
Summary
We often experience situations that require us to recall a certain piece of information and to be able to identify the origins of that information. We might remember enjoying a particular dish, but we would need to remember which restaurant we tried the dish in, in order to be able to have it again in the future. Source memory refers to memory for where, when or how a piece of information was acquired. The Source Monitoring Framework [1] conceptualizes source memory as involving a series of decision and evaluation processes, resulting royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R.
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