Study Time Effects in Recognition Memory

We empirically tested the assumption that study time increases recognition accuracy because the storage of information is better when study time is longer as Shiffrin and colleagues have reported, an assumption common to parallel models of recognition. In the present study with 123 subjects, we examined the effect of item strength on four measures: hit rate, false alarm rate, d', and beta, for a single-word recognition task with longer study times than those usually used in the literature. Analysis indicated significant increase for hit rate and d' and a decrease in false alarm rate, as one goes from weak to stronger study conditions, and a change in ln(beta) when study time is greater than 1 sec. These results suggest that familiarization is one, but not the only, factor underlying the strength-mirror effect.