TOWARD A PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF VIOLATIONS OF THE INDEPENDENCE ASSUMPTION IN-PROCESS DISSOCIATION

The authors outline a psychometric analysis of effects of violating th e independence assumption underlying the process-dissociation procedur e. That analysis distinguishes between process dependence and aggregat ion bias. Process dependence results when subjects rely on a strategy that makes recollection dependent on automatic influences of memory an d is reflected by a correlation that can only be imagined, not observe d. Aggregation bias results when parameters from a subject-item specif ic psychometric model are estimated by aggregating across observed sub ject and item data. Quantifying the magnitude of aggregation bias also requires speculation about a correlation that is not directly observe d. Easily observed correlations calculated from aggregated estimates o f automatic and recollective processes over subjects or items cannot b e used to diagnose process dependence and are of limited utility for d iagnosing aggregation bias. A postscript responds to T. Curran and D. L. Hintzman's (1997) reply.