Bias effects in a two-stage recognition paradigm: A challenge for "pure" threshold and signal detection models.

We explored a two-stage recognition memory paradigm in which people first make single-item "studied"/"not studied" decisions and then have a chance to correct their errors in forced-choice trials. Each forced-choice trial included one studied word ("target") and one nonstudied word ("lure") that received the same previous single-item response. For example, a studied-studied trial would have a target that was correctly called "studied" and a lure that was incorrectly called "studied." The two-high-threshold (2HT) model and the unequal-variance signal detection (UVSD) model predict opposite effects of biasing the initial single-item responses on subsequent forced-choice accuracy. Results from two experiments showed that the bias effect is actually near zero and well out of the range of effects predicted by either model. Follow-up analyses suggested that the model failures were not a function of experiment artifacts like changing memory states between the two types of recognition trials. Follow-up analyses also showed that the dual process signal detection model made better predictions for the forced-choice data than 2HT and UVSD models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Response biases in simple decision making: Faster decision making, faster response execution, or both?

When people are biased to use one response more often than an alternative response in a decision task, they also make the preferred response more quickly. Sequential sampling models can accommodate this difference in response time (RT) by changing the relative amount of evidence that must accumulate to decide in favor of one versus the other response, but nondecision processes might also play a role, such as the amount of time between selecting and executing a response. We investigated the influence of decision and nondecision processes in two experiments. In Experiments 1a and 1b, arrows appeared on the screen, and participants were asked to move a joystick in the direction of the arrow or make a keypress as quickly as possible. Results showed that motor execution times were faster for expected directions than unexpected directions. In Experiments 2a and 2b, participants decided whether a high or low number of asterisks was displayed on the screen. Decision times were faster for the stimulus class that was more likely to appear, and this effect was larger when participants could anticipate both the likely stimulus class and the motor response needed to identify it than when they knew the likely stimulus class but the associated motor response changed probabilistically from trial to trial. These results show that both decision and nondecision factors contribute to bias effects on RT.

Guessing versus misremembering in recognition: A comparison of continuous, two-high-threshold, and low-threshold models.

The two-high-threshold (2HT) model of recognition memory assumes that people make memory errors because they fail to retrieve information from memory and make a guess, whereas the continuous unequal-variance (UV) model and the low-threshold (LT) model assume that people make memory errors because they retrieve misleading information from memory. We explored the nature of memory errors by comparing guessing and memory performance. In 2 experiments, participants studied lists of words followed by a test in which each trial was preceded by a cue indicating the probability that the trial would have a studied word. Participants first guessed whether or not the word would be studied, and then they saw the word and responded again. When the response that was more likely according to the cue was the correct response, participants made more errors after attempting to remember the word than in their initial guesses. This suggests that participants made errors because they retrieved misleading information even when they could guess the correct response on the basis of the probability cue. We also compared the models in terms of their ability to fit ROC functions using parametric bootstrap procedures to correct for model mimicry. These analyses supported both the UV and LT models over the 2HT model. (PsycINFO Database Record