Memory for unidentified items: evidence for the use of letter information in familiarity processes

Participants can give accurate recognition judgments to word fragments that they are unable to complete. In three experiments, the generality of this finding was examined across tasks. Accurate memory judgments in the absence of identification were obtained in item recognition and judgments of presentation frequency but not in associative recognition or list discrimination. The former two tasks are thought to involve the use of familiarity; the latter two are thought to rely on recollection. The present results are consistent with the claim that recognition without identification reflects familiarity processes.