Test modality affects source monitoring and event-related potentials

Two experiments investigated the effect of test modality (visual or auditory) on source memory and event-related potentials (ERPs). Test modality influenced source monitoring such that source memory was better when the source and test modalities were congruent. Test modality had less of an influence when alternative information (i.e., cognitive operations) could be used to inform source judgments in Experiment 2. Test modality also affected ERP activity. Variation in parietal ERPs suggested that this activity reflects activation of sensory information, which can be attenuated when the sensory information is misleading. Changes in frontal ERPs support the hypothesis that frontal systems are used to evaluate source-specifying information present in the memory trace.     

The role of recollection and partial information in source monitoring

Two experiments were conducted to assess the degree to which source monitoring required recollective details or could be based on vaguer partial information. Source judgments were followed by remember-know judgments during testing. On the authors' assumption that remember judgments are highly correlated with the presence of recollective details, the results showed that accurate source monitoring did not necessarily require such recollective details. Rather, the high proportion of correct source judgments that were associated with know responses suggests that source-monitoring processes can successfully use the partial information that is recorded in vaguer memories. Consequently, source monitoring can be based on recollection but can also effectively use qualitative characteristics that lack clarity and sufficient amounts of details to give rise to the subjective feeling of remembering.     

How focus at encoding affects children’s source monitoring

Retention of source information is enhanced by focus on speakers’ feelings about statements even though recognition is reduced for both adults and children. However, does any focus on another person lead to enhanced source monitoring, or is a particular kind of focus required? Does other-focus enhance source monitoring, or does self-focus detract from it? In Experiment 1, 4- and 6-year-olds watched two speakers make statements in a no-focus control or with focus directed on how they (or a speaker) felt about the statements or on perceptual features about themselves (or the speaker). Source monitoring decisions were enhanced by other-focus in both the perceptual and emotional conditions. However, the effect was larger for the emotional condition, and source monitoring exceeded no-focus controls only for this condition. Experiment 2 showed no effect of other-focus versus self-focus on source monitoring when questions were semantic.     

How generation affects source memory

Generation effects (better memory for self-produced items than for provided items) typically occur in item memory. Jurica and Shimamura (1999) reported a negative generation effect in source memory, but their procedure did not test participants on the items they had generated. In Experiment 1, participants answered questions and read statements made by a face on a computer screen. The target word was unscrambled, or letters were filled in. Generation effects were found for target recall and source recognition (which person did which task). Experiment 2 extended these findings to a condition in which the external sources were two different faces. Generation had a positive effect on source memory, supporting an overlap in the underlying mechanisms of item and source memory.     

The role of individual differences in visual\verbal information processing preferences in visual\verbal source monitoring

Researchers have long sought to understand individual differences in false memory susceptibility. One particularly interesting direction in this area looks at individual differences in visual versus verbal styles of information processing. Prior work linking individual differences in these cognitive styles with false memory susceptibility has been mixed, likely due to a lack of research that distinguishes between visual and verbal styles as independent factors. The current study addresses this issue by linking independent visual and verbal scores on the Style of Processing scale with performance on a Picture-Word source-monitoring task in which 82 participants indicated if various objects were previously presented to them as words or images. The results of this study show that higher visual style of processing preferences are associated with improved levels of visual source-monitoring ability as indexed by a reduced number of source-monitoring errors involving the misattribution of verbally presented items to a visual source.     

Monitoring the source monitoring

The hypothesis that the retrieval of correct source memory cues, those leading to a correct source attribution, increases confidence, whereas the retrieval of incorrect source memory cues, those leading to a source misattribution, decreases confidence was tested. Four predictions were derived from this hypothesis: (1) confidence should be higher for correct than incorrect source attribution except; (2) when no source cues are retrieved; (3) only the source misattributions inferred from the retrieval of incorrect source cues will be rated with low confidence; and (4) the number of source cues retrieved, either correct or incorrect, will affect the confidence in the source attributions. To test these predictions, participants read two narratives from two witnesses to a bank robbery, a customer and a teller. Then, participants completed a source monitoring test with four alternatives, customer, teller, both, or neither, and rated their confidence in their source attribution. Results supported the first three predictions, but they also suggested that the number of correct source monitoring cues retrieved did not play a role in the monitoring of the accuracy of the source attributions. Attributions made from the recovery of incorrect source cues could be tagged as dubious or uncertain, thus leading to lowered confidence irrespective of the number of incorrect source cues or whether another correct source cue was also recovered. This research has potential applications for eyewitness memory because it shows that confidence can be an indicator of the accuracy of a source attribution.     

Perceptual processing affects the reactivation of a sensory dimension during a categorization task

According to grounded theories of cognition, knowledge is grounded in its sensory-motor features. Therefore, perceptual and conceptual processing should be based on the same distributed system so that conceptual and perceptual processes should interact. The present study assesses whether gustatory stimulation (participants tasted a sweet or a nonsweet yoghurt) could influence performance on a categorization task that involves the reactivation of the same sensory dimension. The results indicate that participants were slower (Experiment 1) or faster (Experiment 2), respectively, at categorizing pictures as representing edible sweet stimuli when they either simultaneously or had previously tasted a sweet yoghurt as compared to a nonsweet yoghurt. These results confirm the significant overlap between perceptual and memory mechanisms and suggest the functional equivalence between perceptually present and perceptually absent (memory reactivated) dimensions.     

Comparisons of target output monitoring and source input monitoring

Five experiments were conducted to compare source memory to target memory. For the current purposes, source memory was defined as information that was learned from two sources (i.e. information input) whereas target memory was defined as information that was delivered to two sources (i.e. information output). The paradigm that we developed involved receiving concrete objects from two people in the source‐monitoring conditions or giving away these same objects to two people in the target‐monitoring conditions. This procedure allowed a direct comparison of source monitoring to target monitoring holding all other experimental variables constant. Target‐monitoring performance exceeded source monitoring except when the decision component of target monitoring was eliminated and incorporated into source monitoring. Commonalities and differences between source and target monitoring are discussed as are the real‐world implications of target memory for social behavior and facilitating communication. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The use of schematic knowledge about sources in source monitoring

Source monitoring refers to mental processes leading to attributions regarding the origin of information. We tested Johnson, Hashtroudi, and Lindsay's (1993) assumption that prior source-relevant knowledge is used in some source-monitoring tasks. In two experiments using different domains of schematic knowledge, two sources presented information that was expected for one source and somewhat unexpected for the other. In a later source-monitoring test, participants decided whether items had been presented by Source A, by Source B, or were new. The results of both experiments show that source identification is better for expected items than for somewhat unexpected items. Multinomial modeling analyses revealed that when participants do not remember the source of information, they guess that it was presented by the expected source. These results provide evidence for the claim that source monitoring can be based on prior knowledge and support a guessing hypothesis.     

The format in which uncertainty information is presented affects decision biases

We examined how the format in which uncertainty information is presented affects two biases in humans' choice behavior. In a computer task, participants were given four common-ratio effect and four common-consequence effect problems in each of four different formats. In these problems, uncertainty information was described, as percentages (e.g., 80%) or as frequencies (e.g., 16/20), or was experienced, either serially (20 outcomes shown one at a time) or simultaneously (20 outcomes all shown at once). Presenting information as percentages attenuated the common-ratio effect and augmented the common-consequence effect, which suggests that these biases have different underlying mechanisms. Participants' percentage estimates of outcome likelihoods did not differ according to the format in which the information was presented; however, participants' nonverbal estimates of outcome likelihoods differed across formats. The results suggest that uncertainty information presented as percentages is processed differently than the same uncertainty information presented in other formats.     

Wishful thinking and source monitoring

Memory distortions sometimes serve a purpose: It may be in our interest to misremember some details of an event or to forget others altogether. The present work examines whether a similar phenomenon occurs for source attribution. Given that the source of a memory provides information about the accuracy of its content, people may be biased toward source attributions that are consistent with desired accuracy. In Experiment 1, participants read desirable and undesirable predictions made by sources differing in their a priori reliability and showed a wishful thinking bias--that is, a bias to attribute desirable predictions to the reliable source and undesirable predictions to the unreliable source. Experiment 2 showed that this wishful thinking effect depends on retrieval processes. Experiment 3 showed that under some circumstances, wishes concerning one event can produce systematic source memory errors for others.     

Process dissociation as source monitoring

A 2-high-threshold model source-monitoring model (U. J. Bayen, K. Murnane, & E. Erdfelder, 1996) was applied to both source-monitoring and process-dissociation data collected varying source and distracter similarity. The model fit both sets of data using identical parameter values. The values of the detection parameter, D, and the source-discrimination parameter, d, varied in the manner expected. Also, neither the process-dissociation (L. L. Jacoby, 1991) nor the extended process-dissociation model (A. Buchner, E. Erdfelder, & B. Vaterrodt-Plünnecke, 1995) fit either type of data. The memory processes involved in recognition judgments are the same when using the process-dissociation or the source-monitoring procedure. The 4 cognitive processes in both procedures can be interpreted as item detection, source identification, recognition guessing, and source guessing. The potential role of unconscious memory influences via the 2 guessing processes is discussed.     

Memory for multidimensional source information

Source memory may comprise recollection of multiple features of the encoding episode. To analyze the simultaneous representation and retrieval of those multiple features, a multinomial memory model is presented that measures memory for crossed dimensions of source information. The first experiment investigated the validity of the new model. The model showed an excellent statistical fit to empirical data, and the parameters of multidimensional source memory were sensitive to manipulations of source similarity on distinct dimensions. The second experiment used the model to test the hypothesis that source memory for individual context attributes is stochastically related in the case of conscious recollection but independent in the case of familiarity-based recognition judgments. The prediction was supported by the introduction of a "remember"-"know" distinction in a multidimensional source memory test.     

The effects of emotional content on source monitoring in fibromyalgia patients

Source confusion refers to a person’s failure to distinguish whether an event has been actually seen or simply imagined. Nevertheless, prior research has demonstrated a reduction of source confusion for negative arousing information. According to the emotional-congruence effect, this emotional benefit is likely observed in patients suffering from chronic pain. This hypothesis was tested on 15 patients suffering of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and 15 healthy women. In a source-monitoring task, participants had to decide whether positive, negative, and neutral words were imagined or seen with a picture. The results showed recognition deficits and more source confusion for FMS patients compared to controls. Contrary to the hypothesis of negativity bias in fibromyalgia, patients exhibited enhanced recognition for both positive and negative words. Moreover, they showed better source memory for the imagined items than for those seen with a picture. Overall, these results indicate that FMS affects episodic memory.     

Accessing source information in analogical problem-solving

Several studies showed that people presented with source information fail to apply it to an analogous target problem unless they are instructed to use the source. Seven experiments were carried out to assess whether such a lack of spontaneous transfer occurs because individuals do not activate the source during the target task or because they do not realize the source-target relationship. Experiment 1 compared a condition in which the source was activated with no cue about the source-target connection to conditions in which subjects were informed about this connection. Results suggested that the lack of spontaneous transfer does not depend on failure in activating source information. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 were devised to falsify this finding by activating the source closer and closer to the target and by focusing participants' attention toward the relevant aspects of the source. Experiments 5, 6, and 7 were aimed at stressing source-target correspondences by introducing surface similarities. All experiments showed that the mere activation of the source does not facilitate analogical transfer. Results suggested that two processes should be distinguished in the access phase of analogical problem-solving: Source retrieval and identification of the source-target connection.     

Suprasegmental information affects processing of talking faces at birth

From birth, newborns show a preference for faces talking a native language compared to silent faces. The present study addresses two questions that remained unanswered by previous research: (a) Does the familiarity with the language play a role in this process and (b) Are all the linguistic and paralinguistic cues necessary in this case? Experiment 1 extended newborns’ preference for native speakers to non-native ones. Given that fetuses and newborns are sensitive to the prosodic characteristics of speech, Experiments 2 and 3 presented faces talking native and nonnative languages with the speech stream being low-pass filtered. Results showed that newborns preferred looking at a person who talked to them even when only the prosodic cues were provided for both languages. Nonetheless, a familiarity preference for the previously talking face is observed in the “normal speech” condition (i.e., Experiment 1) and a novelty preference in the “filtered speech” condition (Experiments 2 and 3). This asymmetry reveals that newborns process these two types of stimuli differently and that they may already be sensitive to a mismatch between the articulatory movements of the face and the corresponding speech sounds.     

Speaker information affects false recognition of unstudied lexical-semantic associates

Recognition of and memory for a spoken word can be facilitated by a prior presentation of that word spoken by the same talker. However, it is less clear whether this speaker congruency advantage generalizes to facilitate recognition of unheard related words. The present investigation employed a false memory paradigm to examine whether information about a speaker’s identity in items heard by listeners could influence the recognition of novel items (critical intruders) phonologically or semantically related to the studied items. In Experiment 1, false recognition of semantically associated critical intruders was sensitive to speaker information, though only when subjects attended to talker identity during encoding. Results from Experiment 2 also provide some evidence that talker information affects the false recognition of critical intruders. Taken together, the present findings indicate that indexical information is able to contact the lexical-semantic network to affect the processing of unheard words.     

The effect of self-referencing on memory for different kinds of source information

ABSTRACT

Self-referential processing has been proven to be effective in improving source memory. However, it is unclear whether different types of source information would be consistently enhanced when an item is self-referentially processed. In two experiments, the authors examined the influence of the self (compared with other-referencing and semantic processing) as well as learning intention (incidental/intentional learning) on memory for two types of source information (spatial location and colour) that differ in the amount of cognitive resources they require to be encoded in memory. Results show that self-referencing has enhanced memory for spatial location of words whatever this information is learned intentionally or incidentally, whereas it cannot facilitate memory for the colour of words under the intentional learning condition, nor can it under the incidental condition. These findings suggest that self-referential processing is beneficial in memory improvement but not all-powerful, a source self-reference effect is subject to source information type.     

The effects of cognitive activity and perceptual details on speech source monitoring

Our purpose in this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive operations and perceptual details on speech source monitoring. In Phase 1, correctly spelled words and anagrams were presented in Expt 1. Words were read aloud by participants, by a same‐sex voice, or by an opposite‐sex voice. Immediately after Phase 1, in Phase 2, participants were asked whether each word had been read aloud by the participants themselves, by a same‐sex voice, or by an opposite‐sex voice. Source discrimination between own speech and that produced by a same‐sex voice was poorer than between own speech and an opposite‐sex voice. In addition, misattribution of the speech of another to one's self increased as the level of cognitive effort required for the task increased. In Expt 2, misattributions to same‐sex voice were assigned ‘know’ responses more frequently and misattributions to one's self were assigned ‘remember’ responses more frequently. These results suggest that qualitative characteristics such as perceptual detail and cognitive operations are differentially influencing misattributions to the self and those to same‐sex voices.