CORRELATIONS AMONG MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE ON STERNBERGS ITEM-RECOGNITION TASK

Examination of the correlations among Measures of performance on Stern berg's item-recognition task by 136 students showed a low correlation of .38 between the slopes of the functions relating response latency t o set size for positive and negative responses. The correlation betwee n the mean latency of positive and negative responses was substantiall y higher (r = .91) than that of the slopes. The low correlation betwee n the slopes suggests a mechanism such as an adjustable response crite rion that results in a tradeoff between response latency on positive a nd negative trials.