From humans to rats and back again: Bridging the divide between human and animal studies of recognition memory with receiver operating characteristics

Abstract

Receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) have been used extensively to study the processes underlying human recognition memory, and this method has recently been applied in studies of rats. However, the extent to which the results from human and animal studies converge is neither entirely clear, nor is it known how the different methods used to obtain ROCs in different species impact the results. A recent study used a response bias ROC manipulation with rats and demonstrated that speeding memory responses reduced the contribution of recollection, not familiarity. The current study confirms this finding in humans using a comparable response bias method. Moreover, a comparison of the response bias methods commonly used in animal studies and the confidence rating method typically employed in human studies produced similar ROC functions. The present results suggest that the analysis of recognition memory ROCs provides a fruitful method to bridge the human and animal memory literatures. © 2011 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.