Source cuing: Memory for melodies

Abstract

Source cuing is a source-monitoring process in which the retrieval of a memory trace is aided by the use of a memory probe that includes information that is indicative of the original source. This is in contrast to source discrimination, where people need to retrieve the identity of the source of information. Thus, in source cuing, the source information is given, and in source discrimination, the source information is to be retrieved. The operation of source cuing was demonstrated in two experiments in which people had to identify which of two melodies had been heard earlier. Source cuing was present for information that was more indicative of the source (i.e., timbre), but not for information that was less indicative of the source (i.e., pitch). A third experiment demonstrated that the use of source cuing can be influenced by the retrieval context.