Hilford Andrew, Maloney Laurence T, Glanzer Murray, Kim Kisok
Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2015 Dec;22(6):1646-64. doi: 10.3758/s13423-015-0829-0.
A basic assumption of Signal Detection Theory is that decisions are made on the basis of likelihood ratios. In a preceding paper, Glanzer, Hilford, and Maloney (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 431-455, 2009) showed that the likelihood ratio assumption implies that three regularities will occur in recognition memory: (1) the Mirror Effect, (2) the Variance Effect, (3) the normalized Receiver Operating Characteristic (z-ROC) Length Effect. The paper offered formal proofs and computational demonstrations that decisions based on likelihood ratios produce the three regularities. A survey of data based on group ROCs from 36 studies validated the likelihood ratio assumption by showing that its three implied regularities are ubiquitous. The study noted, however, that bias, another basic factor in Signal Detection Theory, can obscure the Mirror Effect. In this paper we examine how bias affects the regularities at the theoretical level. The theoretical analysis shows: (1) how bias obscures the Mirror Effect, not the other two regularities, and (2) four ways to counter that obscuring. We then report the results of five experiments that support the theoretical analysis. The analyses and the experimental results also demonstrate: (1) that the three regularities govern individual, as well as group, performance, (2) alternative explanations of the regularities are ruled out, and (3) that Signal Detection Theory, correctly applied, gives a simple and unified explanation of recognition memory data.
信号检测理论的一个基本假设是，决策是基于似然比做出的。在之前的一篇论文中，格兰泽、希尔福德和马洛尼（《心理onomic通报与评论》，第16卷，第431 - 455页，2009年）表明，似然比假设意味着在识别记忆中会出现三种规律：（1）镜像效应，（2）方差效应，（3）归一化的接收者操作特征（z - ROC）长度效应。该论文提供了形式证明和计算演示，表明基于似然比的决策会产生这三种规律。一项基于36项研究的组ROC数据调查通过表明其隐含的三种规律普遍存在，验证了似然比假设。然而，该研究指出，偏差作为信号检测理论中的另一个基本因素，可能会掩盖镜像效应。在本文中，我们在理论层面研究偏差如何影响这些规律。理论分析表明：（1）偏差如何掩盖镜像效应，而不是其他两种规律，以及（2）四种应对这种掩盖的方法。然后我们报告了支持理论分析的五项实验结果。这些分析和实验结果还表明：（1）这三种规律支配个体以及群体的表现，（2）排除了对这些规律的其他解释，以及（3）正确应用信号检测理论能够对识别记忆数据给出简单统一的解释。
