The Relationship between Feelings-of-Knowing and Partial Knowledge for General Knowledge Questions

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Memory Research

Background:

• Feelings of knowing (FoK) reflect confidence in recalling memories.
• FoK is thought to be influenced by partial knowledge accessibility.
• Previous research yielded inconsistent findings on FoK's reliance on knowledge accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of partial knowledge accuracy in feelings of knowing.
• To determine if FoK predicts recognition accuracy based on knowledge quality.
• To examine the relationship between FoK and both correct and incorrect partial knowledge.

Main Methods:

• A recall-judge-recognize procedure was employed with general knowledge questions.
• Partial knowledge was measured more broadly than in prior studies.
• Feelings of knowing were assessed prior to the partial knowledge measure.

Main Results:

• The accuracy of reported partial knowledge positively correlated with subsequent recognition.
• Feelings of knowing predicted recognition accuracy only when partial knowledge was correct.
• Feelings of knowing were associated with the amount of correct partial knowledge, not incorrect knowledge.

Conclusions:

• Feelings of knowing are significantly influenced by the accuracy of underlying partial knowledge.
• Accurate partial knowledge is crucial for feelings of knowing to reliably predict memory recognition.
• This study clarifies the role of knowledge accuracy in metacognitive judgments of memory.