SEPARATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCES OF MEMORY - MEASURINGRECOLLECTION

How can conscious and unconscious influences of memory be measured? In this article, a process-dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1991) w as used to separate automatic (unconscious) and consciously controlled influences within a task. For recall cued with word stems, automatic influences of memory (a) remained invariant across manipulations of at tention that substantially reduced conscious recollection and (b) were highly dependent on perceptual similarity from study to test. Compari sons with results obtained through an indirect test show the advantage s of the process-dissociation procedure as a means of measuring uncons cious influences. The measure of recollection derived from this proced ure is superior to measures gained from classic test theory and signal -detection theory. The process-dissociation procedure combines assumpt ions from these 2 traditional approaches to measuring memory.