Abstract
In two experiments, the number of times subjects saw and generated words was varied, and then half the subjects were asked to judge presentation frequency and half were asked to judge generation frequency. People were more sensitive to the relative frequency of internally generated, compared with externally generated, events. Also, judgments of internal events were less affected by whether or not the subjects were given a restricted range of numbers for their judgments, and internally generated events produced more confusion in estimating external event frequency than vice versa. The results are discussed in terms of potential differences in the characteristics of memory representations originating in external, compared with internal, events and the way these might interact with the judgment process.
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1. Johnson, M. K., & Raye, C. L. Reality monitoring. Manuscript submitted for publication, 1980.
2. Raye, C. L., Johnson, M. K., & Wang, A. Y. Event variability and judgments of relative frequency. Manuscript in preparation.
3. Johnson, M. K., & Raye, C. L. A working model of reality monitoring. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, San Antonio, Texas, 1978.
4. Taylor, T. H., Johnson, M. K., Birnbaum, I. M., & Raye, C. L. Alcohol and reality monitoring. Manuscript submitted for publication, 1980.
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This research has received support from Grant BNS-7813054 from the National Science Foundation. Part of these results were initially presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, March 1978.
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Raye, C.L., Johnson, M.K. & Taylor, T.H. Is there something special about memory for internally generated information?. Mem Cogn 8, 141–148 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213417
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213417