Two-process recognition memory: Evidence from ROC curve

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One-process models of recognition memory assume that judgments are based on the familiarity of the test probe; two-process models assume that the familiarity-based process is sometimes supplemented by the output of a recollective process. A variety of methods, including evaluation of receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves, have been used to provide evidence for the two-process view (e.g., Rotello, Macmillan, and Van Tassel, 2000). Other researchers have chosen a potentially more direct route to the two processes that underlie recognition, using subjective judgments of "remembering" and "knowing" to measure recollection and familiarity (Tulving, 1985). Yonelinas (2001) has argued that these "R-K" judgments produce the same estimates of the processes as are obtained from ROC data. We propose a new two-dimensional SDT model of R-K judgments (Rotello, Macmillan, and Reeder, resubmitted). In our model, Old items differ from New ones in both global and specific memory strength. Global strength can be thought of as traditional "familiarity," and specific strength as either continuous recollective process or familiarity of an item based on specific details. Old-new judgments are based on a weighted sum of these dimensions, and R-K decisions are based on a weighted difference. Our model accurately describes existing recognition and Remember-Know data, and makes novel predictions about several new kinds of ROCs (i.e., ROCs based on "remember" or "know" responses only). These ROC curves distinguish our model from existing one- and two-process models that have been applied to R-K data. Importantly, the two-dimensional model assumes that Remember and Know judgments are not "process-pure"; they do not measure recollection or familiarity directly. We will explore our model using a two-pronged approach, involving both (1) empirical evaluation of the two-dimensional model and (2) theoretical generalization of the model to other experimental situations. Proposed empirical work involves the production of various kinds of ROC curves, along with the comparison of the shape and extent of those curves to theoretically-generated curves. Theoretical work will generalize the two-dimensional model of R-K judgments to account for other findings in recognition, such as linear ROC functions and the time-course of recognition.