Citation

Johns, Brendan T., Jones, Michael N., & Mewhort, Douglas J. K. (2021). A continuous source reinstatement model of true and false recollection. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1037/cep0000237.

Abstract

In studies of false recognition, subjects not only endorse items that they have never seen, but they also make subjective judgments that they remember consciously experiencing them. This is a difficult problem for most models of recognition memory, as they propose that false memories should be based on familiarity, not recollection. We present a new computational model of recollection, based on the Recognition through Semantic Synchronization (RSS) model of Johns, Jones, & Mewhort (Cognitive Psychology, 2012, 65, 486), and fuzzy trace theory (Brainerd & Reyna, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2002, 11, 164), that offers a solution to this problem. In addition to standard true and false recognition results, the model successfully extends to explain multiple studies on both true and false recollection. This work suggests that recollection does not have to be thought of as a separate process from recognition, but instead as one that is reliant upon different information sources.