RECOGNITION MEMORY AND MODALITY JUDGMENTS - A COMPARISON OF RETRIEVALDYNAMICS

The response-signal method was used to compare speed-accuracy trade-of f retrieval curves in the recognition-memory and modality-judgment tas ks. In both tasks, words were studied either auditorily or visually, a nd were tested visually. Recognition accuracy for auditorily and visua lly studied words rose above chance at about the same point in the ret rieval episode, and modality-judgment accuracy rose above chance signi ficantly later. In two experiments, words were studied either one or t hree times in the same modality. Repetition shortened the minimal retr ieval time for the modality-judgment task and slowed the rate of appro ach to asymptote. Neither effect was seen in retrieval curves for reco gnition. A two-process model is proposed which assumes that recognitio n is based on global familiarity, while modality judgments are mediate d by the sequential recall of individual traces. (C) 1997 Academic Pre ss.