Memory for remembered events: An assessment of output monitoring in free recall

Abstract

This study describes an output monitoring phenomenon in free recall and establishes that subjects have accurate knowledge concerning their previous output performance. Following a series of immediate free recall trials subjects were given a "recall-recognition" test in which all the originally presented words were re-presented. The subjects were required to discriminate between those words they had initially recalled and those they had not. Signal detection methods were used to analyze the recall-recognition test scores. The main finding was the very much poorer knowledge of recall of recency items compared with that for items presented earlier in the free recall lists. The implications of this "memory for remembered events" phenomenon with respect to other known memory phenomena are discussed.