Abstract
We propose that correct rejections are based on information that contradicts the study set, rather than on insufficient familiarity. Using two-dimensional stimuli, we varied the featural overlap between lures and the study set so that one feature of the lure had occurred during study and the second feature of the lure had not occurred. Familiarity varied with the number of times the studied feature had occurred, whereas detectability of the extralist feature varied with the number of studied alternatives on the same dimension. Lures increased in difficulty with familiarity only when familiarity of the studied feature was confounded with the number of alternatives to the extralist feature. Hence, the difficulty in rejecting the lure was controlled by the number of alternatives to the extralist feature, not by the familiarity of the lure. Current theory requires additional representation assumptions and a new comparison process to accommodate these data.
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The research was supported by a grant to the second author from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Some of the data were reported in a paper read at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Dallas, November, 1998.
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Johns, E.E., Mewhort, D.J.K. What information underlies correct rejections in short-term recognition memory?. Mem Cogn 30, 46–59 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195264
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195264