The role of processing fluency in source memory

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Kurilla
1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Smith ◽  
Deborah R. Tindell ◽  
Todd R. Gilliland ◽  
Benton H. Pierce ◽  
Cynthia M. Sifonis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Garrido-Vásquez ◽  
Tanja Rock

People believe repeated statements more than new ones—the repetition-induced truth effect. It is prominently explained with processing fluency: The subjective ease of processing repeated versus new information. To date, the role of affective processes for the truth effect is rather unclear. From a theoretical perspective, people should rely more on fluency under positive than under negative affect. Here, we tested whether an affective picture presented before a statement influences the repetition-induced truth effect. Thirty-five participants took part in two sessions that were a week apart. In both sessions, they rated the truth status of statements. In session 2, repeated and new statements were intermixed, and each statement was preceded by a positive, negative, or neutral picture. We expected participants to rely more on fluency as a cue to truth in the positive than in the negative affective condition. However, although we replicated the repetition-induced truth effect, the interaction between affect and repetition was insignificant, but we observed a significant main effect of affect—statements were rated as truer after a positive rather than a negative or neutral picture. Our results suggest two independent mechanisms that enhance the subjective truth of statements: repetition and positive affect.


2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (7) ◽  
pp. 1015-1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Meiser ◽  
Christine Sattler ◽  
Ulrich Von Hecker

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.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmi Lee ◽  
Kyungmi Kim ◽  
Do-Joon Yi

Previous studies have reported contradictory findings regarding the effects of item repetition on the subsequent encoding of contextual details associated with items (i.e., source memory). Whereas some studies reported repetition-induced enhancement in source memory, other studies observed repetition-induced impairment. To resolve these conflicting results, we examined the modulatory role of pre-experimental stimulus familiarity in the relationship between item repetition and new source memory formation by orthogonally manipulating pre-experimental stimulus familiarity and intra-experimental item repetition. In a series of experiments consisting of three phases (item repetition, item-source association, and source memory test), we found that item repetition impaired source memory for pre-experimentally familiar items (famous faces or words), whereas the same manipulation improved source memory for pre-experimentally novel items (non-famous faces or pseudowords). Crucially, item repetition impaired, rather than improved, source memory for pre-experimentally novel items when these items had been pre-exposed to participants prior to the three-phase procedure. Collectively, these findings provide strong evidence that pre-experimental stimulus familiarity determines the relative costs and benefits of experimental item repetition on the encoding of new item-source associations. By demonstrating the interaction between different types of stimulus familiarity, the present findings advance our understanding of how prior experience affects the formation of new episodic memories. [Citation: Lee, H., Kim, K., & Yi, D-J. (in press). Pre-experimental stimulus familiarity modulates the effects of item repetition on source memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.]


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