Examining Memory States for General Knowledge: A Non-Trivial Pursuit
Date
2018-01-05
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Abstract
According to the classic distinction between semantic and episodic memory, people answer general-knowledge questions by accessing their semantic memory. However, an appeal of trivia games is the variety of memory and metamemory experiences they arouse—which sometimes include recollection of episodic details. I report an in-depth exploration of subjective memory states for general knowledge. In two experiments, participants classified their answers for general-knowledge questions as learning memory or related memory forms of recollection, or as feels familiar, just know, or guess forms of non-recollection. Surprisingly, participants often reported recollection for their answers. Accuracy of answers assigned to the learning and related memory states, and to the just know state, were equally high. In contrast, accuracy was much lower for the feels familiar state (and was lowest for guesses). The accuracy difference between just know and feels familiar suggests these states are distinct, even though researchers often use them interchangeably. Reports of learning memories increased on an immediate retest. Recollection source judgments on the retest revealed that, in addition to recollecting the answer feedback provided on the initial test, pre-experimental recollections increased. Episodic memory is commonly experienced in semantic memory tasks and is diagnostic of accuracy.
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Keywords
recall, metamemory, general knowledge, accuracy, recollection
Citation
Pereverseff, R. S. (2018). Examining Memory States for General Knowledge: A Non-Trivial Pursuit (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.