Contextual information influences the feeling of knowing in episodic memory

• Published in: Consciousness and cognition Vol. 29; pp. 96 - 104
• Main Authors: Schwartz, Bennett L., Pillot, Mathieu, Bacon, Elisabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01-10-2014; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Accessibility hypothesis; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Feeling of knowing; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Learning. Memory; Male; Memory; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall - physiology; Metamemory; Noncriterial-recollection hypothesis; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Social psychology; Young Adult; Metamemory; Accessibility hypothesis; Noncriterial-recollection hypothesis; Feeling of knowing; Memory; Context; Human; Accessibility; Recollection; Cognition; Experimental study; Episodic memory
• ISSN: 1053-8100; 1090-2376
• DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.018

•FOK predicts the likelihood of recognizing currently unrecalled items.•We controlled contextual information presented to participants.•FOK was higher in those conditions in which more related information was presented.•This study supports the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis of feeling of knowing.
The feeling of knowing (FOK) predicts the likelihood of eventually recognizing currently unrecalled items. Koriat (1993, 1995) showed that retrieval of partial target information influences FOK ratings. Building on Koriat’s view, the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis contends that contextual information influences FOKs (Brewer, Marsh, Clark-Foos, & Meeks, 2010). Our study assessed the validity of the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis by controlling the amount of potentially-retrievable contextual information presented to participants. We varied the amount of contextual information accompanying the name and image of imaginary animals. There were three information conditions: minimum (name and image), medium (name, image, and country), and maximum (name, image, country, diet and weight). Information condition did not affect recall accuracy. The minimum condition resulted in greater response output (recall and commission errors together). FOKs for unrecalled items were lower in the minimum condition than the other conditions. Consistent with the noncriterial-recollection hypothesis, FOKs were positively correlated with the retrieval of contextual information.