The relation between recognition memory and classification learning

Two experiments investigated the relation between recognition memory and classification learning. The subjects were instructed that they would see a series of random-dot patterns and later would be asked to classify or to recognize the patterns. Following study, the subjects performed a classification task, a recognition-memory task, or both. It was found that classification-learning instructions were superior to recognition-memory instructions for the classification task, but that there was little or no effect of instructions on the recognition task. When subjects performed both recognition and classification tasks, there was no relation between saying “old” to a probe and correctly classifying it, except with old exemplars, and then only when the initial instructions had been to expect a recognition-memory test. Overall, the data show that classification and recognition can be experimentally separated. In addition, classification is often statistically independent of recognizing that items are old. These observed relations provide some constraints for the further development of models of classification learning and recognition memory.