INTERRUPTING RECOGNITION MEMORY: TESTS OF THE CRITERION-FLUX ACCOUNT OF THE REVELATION EFFECT Marty W. Niewiadomski University of Toronto at Scarborough William E. Hockley Wilfrid Laurier University Revelation Effect: Presenting a cognitive task, such as an anagram, before a recognition test word, increases the probability of that word being called “old”. Theories: Increment-to-familiarity (Westerman & Greene, 1998) The cognitive task briefly activates additional information in memory. This additional activation is summed with the activation produced by the probe, thus increasing the overall familiarity of test probes preceded by a cognitive task, resulting in an increase of “old” responses. Decrement-to-familiarity (Hicks & Marsh, 1998) The cognitive task activates competing alternatives, which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio for the test item. Faced with a more difficult recognition decision, subjects adopt a more liberal criterion thereby increasing “old” responses. INTRODUCTION Purpose: To test the familiarity-based accounts of the Revelation Effect in two ways: present a non-verbal (math) task (two, 3-digit numbers) A non-verbal task should not increase the familiarity of a verbal probe, thus no effect should be observed. present two cognitive tasks If a cognitive task increases familiarity, two such tasks could increase it more, resulting in a greater effect. Method: At test, subjects were presented with intact probes (words not preceded by a cognitive task), and, depending on group assignment, single anagram probes (words preceded by an anagram), double anagram probes (words preceded by two anagrams), single math probes (words preceded by a math problem), and double math probes (words preceded by two math problems). Results: All four conditions induced a Revelation Effect of statistically equivalent magnitudes. EXPERIMENT 1 Table 1. Proportion of Old Responses in All Conditions in Experiment 1. Purpose: To investigate potential differences in processing intact and anagram test probes. Method: The standard Revelation Effect procedure was used. Following the recognition test, subjects were given a second recognition test involving all previously presented probes, along with 96 new ones. This design yielded five conditions on the final recognition test: new probes, intact and anagram Old/Old probes (presented in the study list and the first recognition test), and intact and anagram New/Old probes (probes that were new in the first recognition test). Results: The usual Revelation Effect was obtained on first recognition test. Subjects showed significantly poorer memory for new items that followed an anagram on the first test compared to new items that did not. EXPERIMENT 3 Table 3. Proportion of Old Responses in All Conditions in Experiment 3 Study list: 60 were presented, one at a time, on the computer screen. Subjects were asked to study the words. Recognition test: 96 words were presented on the computer screen, one at a time. Half of the words appeared in the study list (old), and half did not (new). Subjects were asked to decide whether the words are old or new. Half of old and half of new words were preceded by a cognitive task, usually an anagram. Subjects were asked to solve the anagram and voice their solution aloud. A solution code was always provided with the anagrams. Sample anagram: giaetvan 54687321 GENERAL METHOD Results of all three experiments pose problems for familiarity-based accounts of the Revelation Effect. We propose that any unrelated task presented before a test probe displaces study list context information from working memory. Faced with a recognition task of unknown difficulty, subjects adopt a more liberal criterion. Responding to the probe aids in recalling the context and subjects are then able to reestablish a more appropriate decision criterion. NEW THEORY: CRITERION-FLUX Purpose: To investigate whether manipulating subjects’ criterion would affect the revelation effect. Method: Subjects were divided into two conditions, and were instructed to assume either a liberal or a conservative decision criterion, depending on group assignment. Results: Assuming a liberal decision criterion attenuated the effect, and assuming a conservative criterion eliminated it. EXPERIMENT 2 Table 2. Proportion of Old Responses in All Conditions in Experiment 2 REFERENCES Hicks, J. L. & Marsh, R. L. (1998). A decrement to familiarity interpretation of the revelation effect from forced-choice tests of recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 24, 1105-1120. Westerman, D. L. & Greene, R. L. (1998). The revelation that the revelation effect is not due to revelation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 24, 377-386. This research was supported by an NSERC operating grant