Distinctiveness and the Recognition Mirror Effect Evidence for an Item-Based Criterion Placement Heuristic

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 1186 - 1198
• Main Authors: Dobbins, Ian G, Kroll, Neal E. A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-11-2005
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Cognitive Processes; Cues; Experiments; Face Perception; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heuristic; Heuristics; Human; Human Information Storage; Humans; Identification; Learning. Memory; Memory; Mirror Image; Psychological Studies; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Recall (Psychology); Recognition (Learning); Recognition (Psychology); Rejection (Psychology); Retention (Psychology); Signal Detection (Perception); Signal Detection, Psychological; Theories; Visual Perception; mirror effect; recognition; distinctiveness; criterion; signal detection theory; Human; Criterion; Memory; Cognition; Experimental study; Signal detection; Recognition
• ISSN: 0278-7393; 1939-1285
• DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.31.6.1186

Superior detection and rejection of 1 versus another class of items during recognition is called the
mirror effect
. Some mirror effects may involve strategic criterion adjustments based on item distinctiveness and its relation to memorability. Three experiments demonstrated mirror effects for known versus unknown scenes and 1 suggested a similar pattern for faces. In opposition to preexperimental familiarity, lures from known and frequently encountered locations were confidently rejected more often than unknown lures. Forgetting and speeding recognition reversed this lure response pattern, suggesting abandonment of strategic adjustment in favor of a single fixed criterion. With sufficient response time and recent encoding, observers demand more evidence for conceptually distinctive items, perhaps because such items typically foster vivid recollection during retrieval.