California State University, Northridge, USA.
Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2019 Feb;47(2):195-211. doi: 10.3758/s13421-018-0859-8.
Recognition memory tests typically consist of randomly intermixed studied and nonstudied items that subjects classify as old or new, often while indicating their confidence in these classifications. Under most decision theories, confidence ratings index an item's memory strength-the extent to which it elicits evidence of prior occurrence. Because the test probes are randomly ordered, these theories predict that confidence judgments should be sequentially independent: confidence on trial n should not predict confidence on n + 1. However, analysis of two extant data sets demonstrated reliable serial correlations in recognition memory confidence (confidence carryover). In a new experiment, we examined the domain specificity of confidence carryover by serially interleaving recognition and perceptual classification judgments. Analysis revealed domain-general and domain-specific confidence carryover effects: The confidence of a current recognition judgment was shown to reflect both the confidence of an immediately preceding perceptual gender judgment (domain-general carryover at Lag 1) and also the confidence of the recognition judgment prior to that (domain-specific carryover at Lag 2). Moreover, the domain-specific effect was sensitive to response consistency: Confidence carryover was highest when old-new classifications repeated across trials. Whereas the domain-general effect may reflect metacognitive monitoring of internal factors such as alertness, the domain-specific effect was easily simulated by assuming that evidence within domains is "sticky," such that current memory or perceptual evidence is pulled toward prior evidence representations.
再认记忆测试通常由随机混合的学习过的和未学习过的项目组成，被试将其归类为旧的或新的，通常同时表示他们对这些分类的信心。根据大多数决策理论，信心评级指数表示项目的记忆强度——它引起先前发生的证据的程度。由于测试探针是随机排序的，这些理论预测信心判断应该是顺序独立的：第 n 次试验的信心不应预测第 n+1 次试验的信心。然而，对两个现有数据集的分析表明，再认记忆信心中存在可靠的序列相关性（信心传递）。在一项新的实验中，我们通过连续交错识别和感知分类判断来检查信心传递的领域特异性。分析揭示了领域一般和领域特定的信心传递效应：当前识别判断的信心反映了紧接在前的感知性别判断的信心（第 1 个滞后的领域一般传递），也反映了之前的识别判断的信心（第 2 个滞后的领域特定传递）。此外，领域特异性效应对反应一致性敏感：当新旧分类在试验中重复时，信心传递最高。虽然领域一般效应可能反映了对内部因素（如警觉性）的元认知监控，但假设域内的证据是“粘性的”，即当前的记忆或感知证据被拉向先前的证据表示，那么领域特异性效应很容易被模拟。
