Slotnick Scott D, Jeye Brittany M, Dodson Chad S
a Department of Psychology , Boston College , Chestnut Hill , MA , USA.
b Department of Psychology , University of Virginia , Charlottesville , VA , USA.
Memory. 2016;24(1):2-11. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.971033. Epub 2014 Oct 29.
Is recollection a continuous/graded process or a threshold/all-or-none process? Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis can answer this question as the continuous model and the threshold model predict curved and linear recollection ROCs, respectively. As memory for plurality, an item's previous singular or plural form, is assumed to rely on recollection, the nature of recollection can be investigated by evaluating plurality memory ROCs. The present study consisted of four experiments. During encoding, words (singular or plural) or objects (single/singular or duplicate/plural) were presented. During retrieval, old items with the same plurality or different plurality were presented. For each item, participants made a confidence rating ranging from "very sure old", which was correct for same plurality items, to "very sure new", which was correct for different plurality items. Each plurality memory ROC was the proportion of same versus different plurality items classified as "old" (i.e., hits versus false alarms). Chi-squared analysis revealed that all of the plurality memory ROCs were adequately fit by the continuous unequal variance model, whereas none of the ROCs were adequately fit by the two-high threshold model. These plurality memory ROC results indicate recollection is a continuous process, which complements previous source memory and associative memory ROC findings.
回忆是一个连续/渐变的过程还是一个阈值/全或无的过程？接受者操作特征（ROC）分析可以回答这个问题，因为连续模型和阈值模型分别预测出曲线形和线性的回忆ROC。由于对复数形式（一个项目之前的单数或复数形式）的记忆被认为依赖于回忆，因此可以通过评估复数形式记忆的ROC来研究回忆的本质。本研究包括四个实验。在编码阶段，呈现单词（单数或复数）或物体（单个/单数或成对/复数）。在检索阶段，呈现具有相同复数形式或不同复数形式的旧项目。对于每个项目，参与者给出一个信心评级，范围从“非常确定是旧的”（对于复数形式相同的项目是正确的）到“非常确定是新的”（对于复数形式不同的项目是正确的）。每个复数形式记忆的ROC是被归类为“旧的”相同复数形式项目与不同复数形式项目的比例（即击中率与误报率）。卡方分析表明，所有复数形式记忆的ROC都能被连续不等方差模型充分拟合，而没有一个ROC能被双高阈值模型充分拟合。这些复数形式记忆的ROC结果表明回忆是一个连续的过程，这补充了先前关于源记忆和联想记忆的ROC研究结果。
