Comparing Recollection and Nonrecollection Memory States for Recall of General Knowledge: A Nontrivial Pursuit

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2020-11, Vol.46 (11), p.2207-2225
• Main Authors: Pereverseff, Rosemary S, Bodner, Glen E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Episodic Memory; Experimental psychology; Familiarity; Female; Foreign Countries; Human; Human Information Storage; Knowledge (General); Knowledge Level; Learning Processes; Male; Memory; Prior Learning; Recall; Recall (Learning); Recall (Psychology); Recognition (Psychology); Semantic Memory; Semantics; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0278-7393; 1939-1285
• DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000941

Based on the classic distinction between semantic and episodic memory, people answer general-knowledge questions by querying their semantic memory. And yet, an appeal of trivia games is the variety of memory experiences they arouse-including the recollection of episodic details. We report the first in-depth exploration of the memory states that arise for recalled answers to general-knowledge questions. In 2 experiments, participants classified their answers as learning memory or related memory forms of recollection, as feels familiar or just know forms of nonrecollection, or as a guess. A recollection state was reported for nearly half of the correct answers. Learning memory, related memory, and just know states showed similarly high accuracy and confidence-whereas the feels familiar state was much lower. The differences between familiarity and knowing highlight the importance of distinguishing these oft-conflated states. Our study establishes that episodic memory often contributes to retrieval of general-knowledge, and that the memory states arising during retrieval can be diagnostic of accuracy.