The role of revelation in the revelation effect in episodic recognition

Solving a task right before a memory decision tends to elicit a "yes" response in recognition tests, and the underlying mechanism of this so-called revelation effect is still not clear. We suggest that an "aha" moment experienced while solving the task may be an integral factor in promoting the effect, and test this idea in two experiments. Participants solved an anagram of the test item (Experiment 1) or of an item unrelated to the memory test (Experiment 2), or copied the intended word before each recognition decision. They also reported whether the solution of each anagram had been accompanied by an aha moment or not. A revelation effect emerged in both experiments in that items following solving anagrams were judged to have been recognized more often than those following copying of intended words - there was a shift to a more liberal decision criterion. However, this was true only when anagram solutions had been accompanied by an aha moment. We discuss the critical role of the phenomenological experience of an aha moment in eliciting the revelation effect.