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What is the mechanism for fluency in successive recognition?
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, CA 94305-2130 USA. poldrack@psych.stanford.edu
Acta Psychologica
|June 11, 1998
Summary
Processing fluency impacts recognition memory, but subjective ease alone doesn't explain it. Recognition judgments involve more complex cognitive processes than simple ease of processing, possibly related to attention shifts.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Research
Background:
- Processing fluency is hypothesized to influence recognition judgments.
- The underlying mechanisms, particularly the role of subjective ease, remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if subjective ease mediates the effect of processing fluency on successive recognition judgments.
- To explore the cognitive mechanisms behind fluency effects in recognition tasks.
Main Methods:
- A successive task design was employed.
- Participants performed lexical decisions at study, followed by lexical decisions and either recognition or ease judgments for studied and new items at test.
Main Results:
- Successive recognition judgments showed greater interference with lexical decision performance compared to ease judgments.
- This suggests recognition judgments involve more than just an automatic ease assessment.
Conclusions:
- The fluency contributing to successive recognition is more complex than a simple subjective ease judgment.
- Potential mechanisms include attentional shifts associated with item repetition, rather than solely ease of processing.