An alternative conceptualization to memory "strength" in reality monitoring

Recently, H. G. Hoffman (1997) has proposed that reality-monitoring judgmen ts can be made using average differences in the strength of 2 classes of st udied items. The support for this claim was that the inferred recognition h it rate differed for the 2 classes of items. Hoffman argued that misattribu tions of new items to an old source were more frequent to the source that w as weaker in memory strength. The authors of the present study have demonst rated chat source misattribution biases of this sort can arise when the inf erred recognition hit rate does not differ between classes of items. Their argument is that different source-monitoring situations may require differe nt weightings of source-monitoring decision criteria and that these can pro vide a valid account of both their own and Hoffman's data. Arguments concer ning when strength might and might not be used in tasks involving source mo nitoring versus unconscious plagiarism are clarified.