Stephen Lindsay

Presenter: Stephen Lindsay (UVic)

Title: Recognition Memory Response Bias: Individual, Cultural, and Materials-based Differences

Abstract:
In an old/new recognition task, participants study a set of items and are later shown those studied items randomly intermixed with otherwise comparable non-studied items. They are to say, for each test probe, whether it was or was not studied. Response bias in old/new recognition memory is defined operationally as different rates of Misses (saying no to studied items) versus False Alarms (saying yes to non-studied items): More False Alarms than Misses defines liberal bias, whereas more Misses than False Alarms describes conservative bias. My students and I have discovered evidence of three interesting things about this: (a) There are stable individual differences in recognition response bias; (b) there may be cultural differences in recognition memory response bias; and (c) response bias can be affected by the nature of the stimulus materials.

Link for Slides: https://osf.io/c6g9t