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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

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Published on: December 5, 2014

Can subjects maintain a constant criterion in a memory task?

A F Healy¹, C Jones

¹Yale University, 06550, New Haven, Connecticut.

Memory & Cognition

|February 3, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Participants maintained signal detection theory criteria in recognition memory tasks, even when instructed otherwise. This suggests signal detection theory accurately reflects how people assess memory certainty.

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Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

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Published on: December 5, 2014

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A Within-Subject Experimental Design using an Object Location Task in Rats

Published on: May 6, 2021

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Human Memory Research

Background:

Recognition memory involves judging if an item was previously encountered.
Understanding the criteria people use for these judgments is key to memory research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the psychological validity of different criteria used in recognition memory.
To determine if signal detection theory or Healy and Jones criteria better represent subjective certainty in memory.

Main Methods:

Two recognition memory experiments were conducted.
Participants rated their certainty of item recognition under varying instructions (standard, Healy and Jones, signal detection theory).
A priori probabilities were manipulated to assess criterion stability.

Main Results:

Participants consistently maintained signal detection theory criteria across conditions.
Healy and Jones criteria were shifted by participants, especially when a priori probabilities varied.
This stability supports the psychological reality of signal detection theory's approach to memory.

Conclusions:

Signal detection theory provides a psychologically valid framework for analyzing recognition memory.
Subjective certainty in recognition memory is best understood through the lens of signal detection theory.