Conjoint recognition and phantom recollection

A new methodology for measuring illusory conscious experience of the "prese ntation" of unstudied material (phantom recollection) is evaluated that ext racts measurements directly from recognition responses, rather than indirec tly from introspective reports. Application of this methodology in the Dees e-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Experiments 1 and 2) and in a more con ventional paradigm (Experiment 3) showed that 2 processes (phantom recollec tion and familiarity) contribute to false recognition of semantically relat ed distractors. Phantom recollection was the larger contributor to false re cognition of critical distractors in the DRM paradigm, but surprisingly, it was also the larger contributor to false recognition of other types of dis tractors. Variability in false recognition was tied to variability in phant om recollection. Experimental control of phantom recollection was achieved with manipulations that were motivated by fuzzy-trace theory's hypothesis t hat the phenomenon is gist-based.