The dud-alternative effect in memory for associations: putting confidence into local context

Hanczakowski, M., Zawadzka, K. and Higham, P. A. (2014) The dud-alternative effect in memory for associations: putting confidence into local context. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 543-548. (doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0497-x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

When participants are asked to provide confidence judgments for each provided alternative in a multiple-choice memory task, such judgments are inflated if assessed alternatives are accompanied by an implausible (dud) alternative. This finding, termed the dud-alternative effect, has been recently documented in a memory setting with a line-up procedure (Charman, Wells, & Joy, 2011). In the present study we develop a novel paradigm to investigate the dud-alternative effect in memory. The paradigm utilizes a multiple-choice associative recognition task in which dud alternatives can be rejected on the basis of their unfamiliarity. In two experiments we demonstrate a reliable dud-alternative effect with our novel procedure. The results demonstrate that the dud-alternative effect in episodic memory is not limited to tasks based on perceptual factors but is a general phenomenon concerning confidence judgments.

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