Subjective theories about encoding may influence recognition: Judgmental regulation in human memory

Author(s): Strack, F.

Journal/Book: Soc Cognition. 1998; 16: 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. Guilford Publications Inc. 78-92.

Abstract: In this present article, we demonstrate that the mechanisms of judgmental correction apply to situations of social judgments as well as to psychological tasks in which judgmental components are not apparent. Particularly, it has been shown in previous experiments (Strack & Bless, 1994) that in a basic recognition task, subjects were more likely to use the absence of a recollective experience to decide if a test stimulus was new if they had reason to believe that they would have had such an experience had the stimulus been presented. In our study, subjective theories about the memorability of different stimuli were experimentally induced. Before subjects had to study word lists with and without music, they were told that background music may facilitate or inhibit their learning. The results of a subsequent recognition task revealed that subjects who were led to believe that music would inhibit their learning more often rejected items of the learning list associated with music, in contrast to the learning list not associated with music. These findings suggest that subjective theories about one's own psychological functioning may be used to regulate or correct judgments in basic psychological domains such as memory.

Note: Article Forster J, Univ Wurzburg, Inst Psychol, Lehrstuhl Psychol 2, Rontgenring 10, D-97070 Wurzburg, GERMANY

Keyword(s): FLEXIBLE CORRECTION PROCESSES; SOCIAL JUDGMENT; CONTRAST; ASSIMILATION; INFORMATION; COMPONENTS

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