Karlos Luna

Regulation of Memory Accuracy With Multiple Answers: The Plurality Option

We report two experiments that investigated the regulation of memory accuracy with a new regulatory mechanism: the plurality option. This mechanism is closely related to the grain-size option but involves control over the number of alternatives contained in an answer rather than the quantitative boundaries of a single answer. Participants were presented with a slideshow depicting a robbery (Experiment 1) or a murder (Experiment 2), and their memory was tested with five-alternative multiple-choice questions. For each question, participants were asked to generate two answers: a single answer consisting of one alternative and a plural answer consisting of the single answer and two other alternatives. Each answer was rated for confidence (Experiment 1) or for the likelihood of being correct (Experiment 2), and one of the answers was selected for reporting. Results showed that participants used the plurality option to regulate accuracy, selecting single answers when their accuracy and confidence were high, but opting for plural answers when they were low. Although accuracy was higher for selected plural than for selected single answers, the opposite pattern was evident for confidence or likelihood ratings. This dissociation between confidence and accuracy for selected answers was the result of marked overconfidence in single answers coupled with underconfidence in plural answers. We hypothesize that these results can be attributed to overly dichotomous metacognitive beliefs about personal knowledge states that cause subjective confidence to be extreme.

Do Delayed Judgments of Learning Reduce Metamemory Illusions? A Meta-Analysis

Past research has shown that the perceptual characteristics of studied items (e.g., font size) lead to a metamemory illusion, and that delayed judgements of learning (JOLs) are better predictors of memory performance than immediate JOLs. Here, we tested whether delayed JOLs could reduce or eliminate the effect of perceptual characteristics on JOLs and restudy decisions. We adopted a meta-analytic approach and analysed the results of 28 experiments in which participants’ studied items were presented in either large or small font. JOLs and, sometimes, restudy decisions were collected either immediately or after a delay. Finally, participants completed a memory test. The results of the meta-analyses confirmed the effect of the font size on JOLs and restudy decisions. The delayed procedures reliably reduced the effect of perceptual characteristics on JOLs, but the effect was still significant after a delay. For restudy decisions, delayed procedures only reduced numerically the effect. Surprisingly, the meta-analysis also showed a very subtle memory advantage for items presented in large font over small font, although no individual study showed a significant difference and the overall effect size was small. One plausible explanation is that after a delay, information about font size is not available for some items, causing a reduction in the effect. Moreover, our results suggest that the dissociation between memory and metamemory reported previously may not be dissociation at all, but a mistmatched effect of font size on memory and metamemory.

Acciones y detalles en la aceptación de información postsuceso falsa y en la confianza

Resumen Recientes investigaciones han mostrado que hay diferencias en la recuperación de acciones y detalles en tareas de recuerdo y reconocimiento. Por ello nos hemos interesado por la aceptación de información falsa con ambos tipos de información utilizando el paradigma de la información postsuceso. Se expuso un vídeo sobre un robo a un banco y se introdujo información falsa mediante un cuestionario. Un día después se completó una prueba de reconocimiento Verdadero/Falso y se recogió la confianza en la respuesta. La información falsa se aceptó con mayor facilidad cuando fue presentada previamente. Hubo mejor rendimiento con acciones que detalles (más aciertos y mayor exactitud) posiblemente debido a su mejor procesamiento y a que representan la esencia del acontecimiento. Aunque hubo más falsas alarmas con detalles, las acciones falsas se aceptaron con mayor confianza. Las correlaciones entre la confianza y la exactitud fueron bajas, pero hubo mayor confianza en los aciertos que en las falsas alarmas, omisiones y rechazos correctos.

Are Regulatory Strategies Necessary in the Regulation of Accuracy? the Effect of Direct-Access Answers

Previous studies have shown that, when people asked to retrieve something from memory have the chance to regulate memory accuracy, the accuracy of their final report increases. Such regulation of accuracy can be made through one of several strategies: the report option, the grain-size option, or the plurality option. However, sometimes an answer can be directly accessed and reported without resorting to such strategies. The direct-access answers are expected to be fast, have high accuracy, and be rated with high probabilities of being correct. Thus, direct-access answers alone could explain the increase of accuracy that has been considered the outcome of regulatory strategies. If so, regulatory strategies may not be needed to explain the previous results. In two experiments, we disentangled the effects of direct-access answers and regulatory strategies in the increase of accuracy. We identified a subset of direct-access answers, and then examined the regulation of accuracy with the plurality option when they were removed. Participants answered questions with six (Exp. 1) or five (Exp. 2) alternatives. Their task was, first, to select as many alternatives as they wanted and, second, to select only two or four alternatives. The results showed that the direct-access answer affected the regulation of accuracy and made it easier. However, the results also showed that regulatory strategies, in this case the plurality option, are needed to explain why the accuracy of final report increases after successful regulation. This research highlighted the relevance of taking direct-access answers into account in the study of the regulation of accuracy.

Judgments of Learning for Words in Vertical Space

Close relationship between physical space and internal knowledge representations has received ample support in the literature. For example, location of visually perceived information in vertical space has been shown to affect different numerical judgments. In addition, physical dimensions, such as weight or font size, were shown to affect judgments of learning (JOLs, an estimation of the likelihood that an item will be remembered later, or its perceived memorability). In two experiments we tested the hypothesis that differences in positioning words in vertical space may affect their perceived memorability, i.e., JOLs. In both Experiments, the words were presented in lower or in upper screen locations. In Experiment 1, JOLs were collected in the centre of the screen following word presentation. In Experiment 2, JOLs were collected at the point of word presentation and in the same location. In both experiments participants completed a free recall test. JOLs were compared between different vertically displaced presentation locations. In general, Bayesian analyses showed evidence in support for the null effect of vertical location on JOLs. We interpret our results as indicating that the effects of physical dimensions on JOLs are mediated by subjective importance, information that vertical location alone fails to convey.

The influence of thematic congruency, typicality and divided attention on memory for radio advertisements

We examined the effects of the thematic congruence between ads and the programme in which they are embedded. We also studied the typicality of the to-be-remembered information (high- and low-typicality elements), and the effect of divided attention in the memory for radio ad contents. Participants listened to four radio programmes with thematically congruent and incongruent ads embedded, and completed a true/false recognition test indicating the level of confidence in their answer. Half of the sample performed an additional task (divided attention group) while listening to the radio excerpts. In general, recognition memory was better for incongruent ads and low-typicality statements. Confidence in hits was higher in the undivided attention group, although there were no differences in performance. Our results suggest that the widespread idea of embedding ads into thematic-congruent programmes negatively affects memory for ads. In addition, low-typicality features that are usually highlighted by advertisers were better remembered than typical contents. Finally, metamemory evaluations were influenced by the inference that memory should be worse if we do several things at the same time.

The subjective experience of retrieval-induced forgetting

The objective was to examine whether the lower accessibility of studied items (Rp−) that follows retrieval practice with studied items from the same category (Rp+; retrieval-induced forgetting) is correctly monitored by our cognitive system. If monitored, lower confidence for Rp− items would be expected which, in turn, would allow the control of the retrieval-induced forgetting through the report option. In Experiment 1 the standard retrieval-practice paradigm with categorised word lists was followed by a recognition test with confidence rating and the option to report or withhold the answer. Accuracy showed retrieval-induced forgetting, but there were no differences in confidence. The report option did not affect retrieval-induced forgetting. The confidence–accuracy dissociation could be due to a correct monitoring of the retrieval-induced forgetting joined with a factor that incorrectly increases confidence for Rp− items. Familiarity with the practised category was proposed as this factor and tested in Experiment 2. Despite presenting the categories more times during the retrieval-practice phase to increase their familiarity, confidence ratings were unaffected. In conclusion, this research suggests that retrieval-induced forgetting was not monitored, giving rise to a confidence–accuracy dissociation.

Memory for radio advertisements: the effect of program and typicality

We examined the influence of the type of radio program on the memory for radio advertisements. We also investigated the role in memory of the typicality (high or low) of the elements of the products advertised. Participants listened to three types of programs (interesting, boring, enjoyable) with two advertisements embedded in each. After completing a filler task, the participants performed a true/false recognition test. Hits and false alarm rates were higher for the interesting and enjoyable programs than for the boring one. There were also more hits and false alarms for the high-typicality elements. The response criterion for the advertisements embedded in the boring program was stricter than for the advertisements in other types of programs. We conclude that the type of program in which an advertisement is inserted and the nature of the elements of the advertisement affect both the number of hits and false alarms and the response criterion, but not the accuracy of the memory.

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.

Effects of postwarning specificity on memory performance and confidence in the eyewitness misinformation paradigm

The influence of postevent misinformation on memory is typically constrained by postwarnings, but little is known about the effectiveness of particular features of postwarnings, such as their specificity. Experiment 1 compared 2 levels of postwarning specificity: A general postwarning just stated the presence of misinformation, whereas a specific postwarning identified the test items for which misinformation had been presented earlier. The specific postwarning, but not the general postwarning, eliminated both the misinformation effect and its deleterious impact on memory monitoring (using a classic 2-alternative forced-choice recognition procedure). Experiment 2 ruled out an alternative interpretation of these findings and replicated this postwarning specificity pattern using a cued-recall test. We observed, in addition to the moderating influence of task representations on misinformation acceptance, 2 unexpected facilitative effects on event memory caused by misinformation. Misinformation facilitated event memory during narrative encoding if discrepancies between the event and the narrative were detected (Experiment 1) and during retrieval if a specific postwarning was combined with cued recall (Experiment 2). We interpret the facilitative effect of discrepancy detection within a recursive-remindings framework on noticing and recollecting change.