Revelation without presentation: Counterfeit study list yields robust revelation effect

This study explores the revelation effect, a recognition memory phenomenon that occurs when test items (or related items) are specially processed befo re recognition judgment. These revealed items, whether targets or lures, re ceive a positive response bias. Although the effect occurs across various c onditions, it has not been shown to occur when participants make judgments unrelated to episodic memory. We investigated whether the effect would occu r when a recognition decision was nominally one of episodic memory, but whe n a complete episodic event had not occurred. Specifically, participants li stened to noise that allegedly masked a List of words (in fact, no words ex isted). A revelation effect occurred with this pseudo-subliminal procedure, suggesting that the revelation effect need not rely on stimuli recalled th rough episodic memory but only a specific event to recall. The effect did n ot occur when participants simply guessed whether words were on an unheard List or made semantic judgments.