A hybrid model of source monitoring in paired-associates learning

Three source-monitoring models were tested using the data of Bellezza, Elek, and Zhang (2016), who presented word pairs with each word in 1 of 4 locations. Given 1 word as a cue, participants had to remember the other word as well as the 2 corresponding locations. Results included (a) locations of the cue and target words were identified equally well; (b) source identification of unrecalled words was above chance; (c) the correct identification of the cue word was positively correlated with that of the target word; and (d) the location of the cue word was frequently confused with the location of the target. Three multinomial processing-tree models were tested to explain these results: a word-code model, an event-code model, and a hybrid model. The hybrid model was able to fit the data from the 5 experimental conditions of Bellezza et al. data. The model also fit data both from an experiment using four background colors as the source attributes and from a validation experiment manipulating visual-imagery instructions. The parameter values of the hybrid model suggested that source performance using locations was based predominantly on a memory code labeled an event code that included a source axis describing the locations of the 2 words, whereas performance using color relied more on word codes that associated each word with its color. It appears that different source attributes draw upon different combinations of cognitive processes, but each process occurs within the framework of the hybrid model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).