Reporting Recollective Experiences: Direct Access to Memory Systems?

Abstract

It has been suggested that the use of different memory systems can be identified by asking subjects whether they remember or know a recognized stimulus (e g, Gardiner & Java, 1990, Tulving, 1985) In this view, remember responses indicate the use of episodic memory, and know responses the use of implicit memory (e g, Gardiner & Java, in press) or semantic memory (Tulving, 1993) We criticize this position on both conceptual and empirical grounds We argue that the concept of knowing and the instructions of the studies confound declarative knowledge (knowledge by description) and familiarity-based knowledge (knowledge by acquaintance) The two types of knowledge, however, seem to be associated with different psychological processes To test this notion, we conducted two recognition experiments in which the response criteria were either explicitly or implicitly manipulated The results clearly suggest that know responses are more likely than remember responses to be influenced by judgmental strategies that do not require a memorial presentation of the known stimulus Self-reports appear to be useful indicators of underlying mechanisms only to the extent that it is sufficiently understood how such reports are generated