The effects of source presentation and test format on recognition memory for item and source


Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology, Turkey

Approval Date: 2019

Thesis Language: English

Student: HİLAL TANYAŞ

Supervisor: Mine Mısırlısoy

Abstract:

Source monitoring is a cognitive process through which memory records are attributed to their origins. In the literature, source monitoring tasks are used to examine the old/new recognition decisions, as well as decisions for source. However, there is not an agreed on standard for test formats and the way in which source information is presented. In fact, these different methods are used interchangeably despite words of caution from several researchers regarding the confounds they may give rise to when making source attributions. Thus, in order to shed light on the concerns having to do with the measurement of source monitoring processes, the current study aimed to investigate source monitoring test formats and source presentation within the same experimental design. More false alarms for new items and fewer source misattributions were expected for the simultaneous source monitoring test format compared to the sequential source monitoring test format. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that fewer source misattributions and better item recognition would be seen in the blocked source presentation condition relative to the mixed source presentation condition. The results of our planned analyses did not show any significant differences between the conditions. However, when the data was analyzed separately for each test cycle, analyses for the second cycle showed more false alarms for new items in the simultaneous source monitoring test format compared to the sequential source monitoring test format. Findings were discussed in relation to the use of encoding strategies and source cues as well as criterion shifts.