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Processing fluency affects subjective claims of recollection.

Bran P Kurilla¹, Deanne L Westerman

¹Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA. bkurill1@binghamton.edu

Memory & Cognition

|March 8, 2008

Summary

Processing fluency influences memory judgments. New methods show fluency affects both familiarity ("know") and recollection ("remember") responses, challenging prior conclusions from the standard remember-know paradigm.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Memory Research

Background:

The remember-know paradigm traditionally suggests processing fluency impacts familiarity judgments ('know' responses) but not recollection ('remember' responses).
This distinction is often explained by inferential processing for familiarity versus direct conscious retrieval for recollection.
Recent criticisms and findings on fluency's broad effects question this strict separation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if recollection judgments are influenced by inferential processes, not just conscious retrieval.
To determine if the standard remember-know procedure accurately captures the full impact of processing fluency on memory awareness.
To explore whether alternative methodologies reveal different effects of fluency on memory components.

Main Methods:

Experiment 1: Employed the standard remember-know procedure with perceptual fluency manipulations.
Experiment 2: Utilized an independent ratings method with perceptual fluency manipulations.
Experiment 3: Used an independent ratings method with conceptual fluency manipulations.

Main Results:

Replication of previous findings: Perceptual fluency increased 'know' responses but not 'remember' responses in the standard paradigm (Experiment 1).
Novel findings: Both perceptual and conceptual fluency reliably increased claims of familiarity and recollection using an independent ratings method (Experiments 2 & 3).

Conclusions:

The standard remember-know procedure may artifactually limit the observed effects of processing fluency.
Processing fluency appears to influence both familiarity and recollection judgments.
Rethinking the remember-know paradigm is necessary to fully understand fluency's role in subjective memory awareness.