Metacognitive inferences in source memory judgements: The role of perceived differences in item recognition

This research investigated the hypothesis that metacognitive inferences in source memory judgements are based on the recognition or nonrecognition of an event together with perceived or expected differences in the recognizability of events from different sources. The hypothesis was tested with a multinomial source-monitoring model that allowed separation of source-guessing tendencies for recognized and unrecognized items. Experiments 1A and 1B manipulated the number of item presentations as relevant source information and revealed differential guessing tendencies for recognized and unrecognized items, with a bias to attribute unrecognized items to the source associated with poor item recognition. Experiments 2A and 2B replicated the findings with a manipulation of presentation time and extended the analysis to subjective differences in item recognition. Experiments 3A and 3B used more natural source information by varying type of acoustic signal and demonstrated that subjective theories about differences in item recognition are sufficient to elicit differential source-guessing biases for recognized and unrecognized items. Together the findings provide new insights into the cognitive processes underlying source memory decisions, which involve episodic memory and reconstructive tendencies based on metacognitive beliefs and general world knowledge.

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Source attributions for detected new items: Persistent evidence for schematic guessing

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820911004 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (9) ◽

pp. 1407-1422 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Raoul Bell ◽

Laura Mieth ◽

Axel Buchner

Keyword(s):

Source Memory ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

Matching Theory ◽

World Knowledge ◽

Probability Matching ◽

Learning History ◽

Specific Item ◽

Apply Probability

Performance in source-monitoring tests is not only determined by source memory but also by source guessing. Source guessing is not random as it is informed by two distinct mechanisms. (1) People may show a schema-based guessing bias and rely on cross-situationally stable world knowledge. (2) They may apply probability matching and rely on the specific item-source contingency experienced at encoding. According to probability matching theory, source guessing is based on probability matching when a specific contingency representation is available. This conclusion is derived from a source-monitoring paradigm in which no source judgements for detected new items are required. Here, we extend this paradigm to examine source guessing not only for detected old items but also for detected new items. The results suggest that participants take the old–new recognition status of the items into account when making source attributions. Probability matching is used only for detected old items: Source guessing sensitively reflects the item-source contingency for these items. For detected new items, participants resort to schema-based guessing. Using schema-based guessing rather than probability matching when judging detected new items may have the advantage that a newly acquired contingency representation that may only be locally valid is not generalised too readily at the expense of a schematic expectation that reflects a larger and more comprehensive learning history.

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Comparing different types of source memory attributes in dementia of Alzheimer's type

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610211002274 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 666-673 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Nicola Mammarella ◽

Beth Fairfield ◽

Alberto Di Domenico

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

Memory Function ◽

Source Information ◽

Important Indicator ◽

Dementia Of Alzheimer’S Type ◽

Healthy Control ◽

Severity Of Dementia ◽

Different Sources

ABSTRACTBackground: Source monitoring (SM) refers to our ability to discriminate between memories from different sources.Methods: Twenty healthy high-cognitive functioning older adults, 20 healthy low-cognitive functioning older adults, and 20 older adults with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) were asked to perform a series of SM tasks that varied in terms of the to-be-remembered source attribute (perceptual, spatial, temporal, semantic, social, and affective details).Results: Results indicated that older DAT adults had greater difficulty in SM compared to the healthy control groups, especially with spatial and semantic details.Conclusions: Data are discussed in terms of the SM framework and suggest that poor memory for some types of source information may be considered as an important indicator of clinical memory function when assessing for the presence and severity of dementia.

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Memory for the source of solutions in remote associate tasks: The role of generation effect and the Aha!-experience

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University Psychology ◽

10.21638/spbu16.2021.105 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 72-88

Author(s):

Valeria Gershkovich ◽

◽

Nadezhda Moroshkina ◽

Victoria Fedosova ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Source Monitoring ◽

Generation Effect ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Monitoring Task ◽

Monitoring Accuracy ◽

Subsequent Recall ◽

Specific Source ◽

Different Sources

The aim of the current work is to study the role of the Aha!-experience in remembering the source of solutions, either self-generated or externally presented. In memory studies there are specific source-monitoring errors, which occur whenever a participant claims to have generated an idea that was derived from different sources (unconscious plagiarism). Several previous studies have shown that experiencing the feeling of Aha! during either problem-solving or the presentation of the correct solutions can have a beneficial relationship to the subsequent recall of the material with the processing of which it was associated. However, studies of the Aha!-experience on the source monitoring task (self-generated solutions vs presented solutions) have not been conducted. In the authors’ study, the hypothesis that the feeling of Aha!, associated with the task being solved, can affect source-monitoring accuracy. During the first stage of the experiment, participants (80 people) had to solve Compound Remote Associates Task items and to estimate whether they had a feeling of Aha!, when either generating the solution or being presented with it in case they failed to generate it. At the second stage, conducted a week later, participants had to recall if the solution was generated by themselves or just presented. The results confirm the generation effect, which manifests itself in successfully recalling problems for which a solution was found (sufficient generation) compared to problems with no-solutions found (fail-to-generate). Participants quite accurately recognized the source of the solution a week later, attributing generated solutions to themselves, while attributing fail-to-generate solutions to the presented ones. However, the authors did not find any additional impact of the Aha!-experience on the problem’s recognition, nor on the sourcemonitoring task performance. In the conclusion of the article, the contradictions of different experimental data concerning the influence of the Aha!-experience on long-term memory and further areas of research is discussed.

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A Reexamination of Source Monitoring Deficits in the Elderly: Evidence for Independent Age Deficits of Item and Source Memory

Brain Impairment ◽

10.1375/brim.5.2.138.58251 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 138-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J.J. Tree ◽

T.J. Perfect

Keyword(s):

Source Memory ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Correct Recall ◽

The Elderly ◽

Item Information ◽

Source Information ◽

Substantial Evidence ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Deficits

AbstractWithin the experimental literature there is substantial evidence of larger age-related deficits in retrieving source information relative to item-based information. However, this evidence is potentially subject to methodological criticism given that several studies have argued for the presence of source-monitoring deficits by examining source memory contingent on correct recall of item information but not the reverse. In order to address this potential shortcoming our study examines recall of both item information contingent on correct source judgement and source-based information contingent on correct recall of item information. We demonstrate that when this novel type of analysis is conducted, there are age deficits for both source and item information, and no evidence of a selectively greater source-monitoring deficit in the elderly. The results are discussed with reference to two overarching theoretical positions concerning age-related deficits in memory performance.

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Cognitive processes in auditory hallucinations: attributional biases and metacognition

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291798007314 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 28 (5) ◽

pp. 1199-1208 ◽

Cited By ~ 132

Author(s):

CAROLINE A. BAKER ◽

ANTHONY P. MORRISON

Keyword(s):

Source Monitoring ◽

Word Association ◽

External Source ◽

Auditory Hallucinations ◽

Monitoring Task ◽

Metacognitive Beliefs ◽

Attributional Biases ◽

Mental Events ◽

And Control

Background. Cognitive models suggest that auditory hallucinations are experienced when mental events are misattributed to an external source; therefore, this study was designed to examine attributional biases in patients experiencing auditory hallucinations. The study also examined the role of metacognitive beliefs in the experience of auditory hallucinations, as some theories have implicated metacognition in the development and maintenance of auditory hallucinations.Methods. Fifteen participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia experiencing auditory hallucinations were compared with 15 non-hallucinating schizophrenics and 15 non-psychiatric control subjects on several measures, including an immediate source monitoring task and a questionnaire assessing metacognitive beliefs.Results. Results indicated that patients experiencing hallucinations exhibited the predicted bias towards misattributing internal events to an external source, as measured by ratings of internality of responses in a word association task. All groups had lower perceived levels of internality and control for emotionally salient words, which provides further evidence for the importance of emotional content in hallucinations. Patients experiencing hallucinations were found to score higher than the other two groups on metacognitive beliefs about uncontrollability and danger and positive beliefs about worry. In addition, a logistic regression analysis showed that beliefs about uncontrollability and danger were predictive of whether subjects experienced auditory hallucinations or not.Conclusions. These results offer considerable support to cognitive bias models of auditory hallucinations, particularly those that implicate metacognition.

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Examining the relationship between processing fluency and memory for source information

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.190430 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Tina S.-T. Huang ◽

David R. Shanks

Keyword(s):

Recent Work ◽

Source Memory ◽

Response Times ◽

Item Recognition ◽

Processing Fluency ◽

Source Information ◽

Identification Task ◽

The Relationship ◽

Source Accuracy ◽

Confidence Ratings

Familiarity-based processes such as processing fluency can influence memory judgements in tests of item recognition. Many conventional accounts of source memory assume minimal influence of familiarity on source memory, but recent work has suggested that source memory judgements are affected when test stimuli are processed with greater fluency as a result of priming. The present experiments investigated the relationship between fluency and the accuracy of source memory decisions. Participants studied words presented with different source attributes. During test, they identified words that gradually clarified on screen through progressive demasking, made old/new and source memory judgements, and reported confidence ratings for those words. Response times (RTs) recorded from the item identification task formed the basis of a fluency measure, and identification RTs were compared across categories of item recognition, source accuracy and confidence. Identification RTs were faster in trials with correct retrieval of source information compared with trials for which source could not be accurately retrieved. These findings are consistent with the assumption that familiarity-based processes are related to source memory judgements.

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A Hierarchy of Multinomial Models for Multidimensional Source Monitoring

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-1881.1.1.2 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 2-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Thorsten Meiser

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processes ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

Source Information ◽

Model Comparisons ◽

Storage And Retrieval ◽

Multinomial Processing Tree ◽

Multinomial Models ◽

Hierarchical Relationship ◽

Statistical Framework ◽

Tree Models

Abstract. Several models have been proposed for the measurement of cognitive processes in source monitoring. They are specified within the statistical framework of multinomial processing tree models and differ in their assumptions on the storage and retrieval of multidimensional source information. In the present article, a hierarchical relationship is demonstrated between multinomial models for crossed source information ( Meiser & Bröder, 2002 ), for partial source memory ( Dodson, Holland, & Shimamura, 1998 ) and for several sources ( Batchelder, Hu, & Riefer, 1994 ). The hierarchical relationship allows model comparisons and facilitates the specification of identifiability conditions. Conditions for global identifiability are discussed, and model comparisons are illustrated by reanalyses and by a new experiment on the storage and retrieval of multidimensional source information.

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