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Article
The Testing Effect in Recognition Memory: A Dual Process Account
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (2007)
  • Jason C.K. Chan, Washington University in St Louis
  • Kathleen B. McDermott, Washington University in St Louis
Abstract

The testing effect, or the finding that taking an initial test improves subsequent memory performance, is a robust and reliable phenomenon--as long as the final test involves recall. Few studies have examined the effects of taking an initial recall test on final recognition performance, and results from these studies are equivocal. In 3 experiments, we attempt to demonstrate that initial testing can change the ways in which later recognition decisions are executed even when no difference can be detected in the recognition hit rates. Specifically, initial testing was shown to enhance later recollection but leave familiarity unchanged. This conclusion emerged from three dependent measures: source memory, exclusion performance, and remember/know judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Publication Date
March, 2007
Publisher Statement
This is a manuscript of an article from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 33 (2007): 431, doi:10.1037/0278-7393.33.2.431. Posted with permission. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
Citation Information
Jason C.K. Chan and Kathleen B. McDermott. "The Testing Effect in Recognition Memory: A Dual Process Account" Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition Vol. 33 Iss. 2 (2007)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jason_chan/7/