Some problems with the process-dissociation approach to memory.

Abstract

The process-dissociation framework (L. L. Jacoby, 1991) is a technique for deriving estimates of controlled (e.g., recollection) and automatic (e.g., familiarity) memory processes. The authors examined 3 assumptions of this framework. In Experiment 1, estimates of familiarity were affected by varying the proportion of old targets to old nontargets on the inclusion and exclusion tests and whether or not the tests were completed with full or divided attention, violating the assumption that familiarity's influence is automatic. In Experiment 2, the similarity of old targets and old nontargets was manipulated to show that source confusions (i.e., misrecollections) violate the assumption that the process of recollection is all-or-none. Source confusions also create an imbalance in the influence of recollection on the inclusion and exclusion tests, violating the consistency assumption. The source-monitoring framework is consistent with the present findings.