The influence of recollection-driven factors on the magnitude of feeling-of-knowing judgments: A non-criterial recollection perspective

In the last decade, non-criterial recollection (NCR) hypothesis (Brewer, Marsh, Clark-Foos, & Meeks, 2010) extended the accessibility account (Koriat, 1993) and demonstrated that in addition to retrieval of target-related partial information, retrieval of contextual information can also increase FOK judgments. However, contrary to accessibility account, NCR hypothesis argued that correct retrieval led to higher FOK compared to incorrect retrieval. The present thesis further tested the NCR account by investigating how presence and accuracy of a memory about the semantic relationship between cue and target words impact FOK. Participants studied a list made up of strongly associated (e.g., PROTEIN-MEAT), weakly associated (e.g., PROTEIN-NUTRIENT) and unrelated cue-target pairs (e.g., PROTEIN-BRUSH). Following the FOK phase, they reported the cue-target association strength or gave "don't know" response when they did not remember it. They indicated their recollective experience after recognition by choosing either the Remember, Know, or Guess options. As we expected, participants gave higher FOK ratings when they also reported the nature of the cue-target relationship instead of "don't know". There was no difference between FOKs of correct and incorrect retrievals, in line with expectations drawn from the accessibility account. Further analyses revealed an interaction between the association strength and recollective experience, which affected FOK magnitude. Implications of the results are discussed to suggest that the FOK might be a product of simultaneous and interactive trade-off between recollective experience and other stimuli-related factors.