The functions of processing on states of awareness in the Remember/Know paradigm: A study of using verbal materials

Abstract

The nature of recollective experience was investigated in two recognition memory tasks. Subjects gave "Remember" judgments to recognized items that were accompanied by conscious recollection and "Know" judgments to recognized items that were familiarity of events without recollection on recognition. High-familiarity words that are based on conceptual and semantic information enhanced "Remember" judgments. In contrast, compared with high-familiarity words low-familiarity words that are caused perceptual fluency enhanced "Know" judgments (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, spacing effect, an advantage in memory for information repeated at separate points of time over information repeated in massed fashion was found for "Remember" judgments. However, spacing effect disappeared for "Remember" judgments when memory load was high at study. These findings are interpreted as providing further support for the idea that recognition memory entails two distinct components, one based on elaborative information, the other based on perceptual fluency.