Confidence carryover during interleaved memory and perception judgments

Recognition memory tests typically consist of randomly intermixed studied and nonstudied items that subjects classify as old or new, often while indicating their confidence in these classifications. Under most decision theories, confidence ratings index an item's memory strength-the extent to which it elicits evidence of prior occurrence. Because the test probes are randomly ordered, these theories predict that confidence judgments should be sequentially independent: confidence on trial n should not predict confidence on n + 1. However, analysis of two extant data sets demonstrated reliable serial correlations in recognition memory confidence (confidence carryover). In a new experiment, we examined the domain specificity of confidence carryover by serially interleaving recognition and perceptual classification judgments. Analysis revealed domain-general and domain-specific confidence carryover effects: The confidence of a current recognition judgment was shown to reflect both the confidence of an immediately preceding perceptual gender judgment (domain-general carryover at Lag 1) and also the confidence of the recognition judgment prior to that (domain-specific carryover at Lag 2). Moreover, the domain-specific effect was sensitive to response consistency: Confidence carryover was highest when old-new classifications repeated across trials. Whereas the domain-general effect may reflect metacognitive monitoring of internal factors such as alertness, the domain-specific effect was easily simulated by assuming that evidence within domains is "sticky," such that current memory or perceptual evidence is pulled toward prior evidence representations.