Familiarity, recollection, and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves in recognition memory

Abstract

The Atkinson-Shiffrin theory describes and explains some of the processes involved in storing and retrieving information in human memory. Here we examine predictions of related models for search and decision processes in recognizing information in long-term memory. In some models, recognition is presumably based on a test item’s familiarity judgment, and subsequent decisions follow from the sensitivity and decision parameters of signal detection theory. Other models dispense with the continuous notion of familiarity and base recognition on discrete internal states such as relative certainty that an item has or has not been previously studied, with an intermediate state of uncertainty that produces guesses. Still others are hybrid models with two criteria located along a familiarity continuum defining areas for rapid decisions based on high or low familiarities. For intermediate familiarity values, the decision …

Adrián Muñoz García

Data Scientist and Statistics Professor

My research interests are Behavioral Economics, Cognition and Methods