Marty Niewiadomski Steve Joordens Bill Hockley Recollection in the context of recognition memory: When the probe is willing but the mind is weak Marty Niewiadomski Steve Joordens Bill Hockley U of Toronto at Scarborough Wilfrid Laurier University

Mirror Effect Within a yes/no recognition memory context present low and high frequency items Low frequency words show a memory advantage: lower false alarms and higher hits Low freq High freq new old FAs HITS LOW FREQ .20 .78 HIGH FREQ .26 .70

Mirror Effect Several accounts of the mirror effect, eg. Glanzer & Adams (1985); Hintzman & Curran (1997); Hirshman & Arndt (1997); Reder et al. (2000); Joordens & Hockley (2000) Joordens & Hockley (2000) - Hit portion of the mirror effect is due to a combination of familiarity and recollection Low freq High freq familiarity recollection new old

Memory Factors that affect memory Good encoding Environmental support Recognition Cued recall Free recall

Memory Factors that affect memory Good encoding Environmental support Recognition Cued recall Free recall

Experiment 1 SCURVY OFFICE MOTHER SISTER NEBULA COOKIE RECALL REASON NEW OLD OFFICE NEW OLD MOTHER NEW OLD SISTER NEW OLD NEBULA NEW OLD COOKIE NEW OLD RECALL NEW OLD REASON NEW OLD PEOPLE NEW OLD

Experiment 1 FAs HITS LOW FREQ .12 .78 HIGH FREQ .27 .68

Memory Factors that affect memory Good encoding Environmental support Recognition = mirror effect Partial-item recognition = ? Cued recall Free recall

Experiment 2a SI_TER NE_ULA CO_KIE RE_ALL RE_SON PE_PLE NEW OLD

Experiment 2a FAs HITS LOW FREQ .24 .72 HIGH FREQ .35 .73

Experiment 2b Environmental support Recognition = mirror effect Partial-item recognition = no mirror effect Partial-item recognition 2? Cued recall Free recall

Experiment 2b SI__ER NE__LA CO__IE RE__LL RE__ON PE__LE NEW OLD

Experiment 2b FAs HITS LOW FREQ .31 .63 HIGH FREQ .40 .60

Environmental support Recognition = mirror effect Partial-item recognition = no mirror effect Partial-item recognition 2 = no mirror effect Cued recall Free recall

Conclusions.....so far Given the assumption that the old portion of the effect is primarily due to recollection, environmental support appears to affect not just memory retrieval in general, but more specifically the recollection component

Question Is there anything else beyond encoding and environmental support that influences recollection? Well, Yes (if not, I probably wouldn’t ask the question)

Experiment 3 SCURVY OF_ICE MO_HER SI_TER NE__LA COOKIE RECALL SC__OL NEW OLD OF_ICE NEW OLD MO_HER NEW OLD SI_TER NEW OLD NE__LA NEW OLD COOKIE NEW OLD RECALL NEW OLD SC__OL NEW OLD RE__ON NEW OLD PEOPLE NEW OLD

Experiment 3

Experiment 3 Exp2a Exp3 LOW FREQ .72 .69 HIGH FREQ .73 .72

Experiment 3 Exp2b Exp3 LOW FREQ .63 .57 HIGH FREQ .60 .64

Experiment 3 Exp1 Exp3 LOW FREQ .78 .66 HIGH FREQ .68 .76

In Conclusion Recollection begets recollection Failure of successful recollection on some trials appears to prevent the use of recollection for the entire test – even when good encoding and environmental support are present Possibly the best all around strategy – one size (read: strategy) fits all

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