Enhanced source memory for emotionally valenced sources: does an affective orienting task make the difference?

Previous research on whether source memory is enhanced for emotionally valenced sources yielded inconclusive results. To identify potential boundary conditions, we tested whether encoding instructions that promote affective versus different types of non-affective item-source-processing foster versus hamper source-valence effects. In both experiments, we used neutral words as items superimposed on emotional (positive & negative) or neutral pictures as sources. Source pictures were selected based on valence and arousal ratings collected in a pre-study such that only valence varied across sources. Source memory was measured via multinomial modelling. In Experiment 1, we applied an affective, item-focused orienting task (OT; i.e. word-pleasantness ratings) during item-source encoding and found enhanced source memory for emotionally valenced (positive & negative) compared to neutral sources. In Experiment 2, we systematically manipulated encoding instructions and again found enhanced source memory for emotionally valenced sources with an affective OT. No such effects occurred in the non-affective conditions, where participants were instructed to integrate item and source (item-source-fit judgments), to focus on the item (living-non-living judgments), or to encode the items only, respectively. With intentional item encoding, however, source memory was surprisingly better for positive than negative sources. We conclude that source-valence effects might unfold only under affective processing.

The temporal development of memory processes in source monitoring: An investigation with mouse tracking

The present study investigated whether we first remember an item (e.g., a word itself) and then its source (e.g., position on the screen) or whether the retrieval of item and source information can (partially) overlap. Participants were tested on the source either in immediate sequence to item recognition (as standard in source-monitoring research) or following as a separate block after full completion of the item recognition test to separate these processes in time, providing a baseline. Using the mouse-tracking procedure during the item and source tests, we analyzed how item and source decisions unfolded qualitatively over time. Despite no significant difference in the aggregated trajectory curvatures, more thorough analyses based on the individual trajectories revealed differences across the test formats. In the standard format, trajectories were less curved in the source than in the item test. In contrast, in the blocked format, this difference was in the other direction with source showing more curved trajectories than item. Alternative interpretations of mouse-trajectory curvatures on the source-monitoring paradigm and what their difference may imply for item and source processing are discussed.

Is there an emotionality effect in older adults' source memory?

The goal of our research was to investigate whether older adults show a source memory enhancement for emotionally valenced sources. Additionally, building on research on the socioemotional selectivity theory and the age-related positivity effect, we tested whether older adults show a larger enhancement for positive compared to negative (and neutral) sources than younger adults. In Experiment 1 (nold = 25, nyoung = 27), we used one positive, one negative, and one neutral picture to manipulate source valence (many-to-one mapping of items to sources), whereas, in Experiment 2 (nold = 62, nyoung = 62), we used multiple pictures per source valence category (one-to-one mapping of items to sources) to counteract potential habituation effects. In both experiments, sources had medium and matching arousal levels. Items were neutral words superimposed on the source pictures. To support an implicit, natural information processing, participants rated the words in terms of pleasantness. We analyzed memory data with a multinomial processing tree model to disentangle memory processes from guessing bias. Across both experiments, an age-related positivity effect occurred in participants' pleasantness ratings. This effect, however, did not carry over to older adults' source memory. That is, in source memory, we found a general emotionality effect for younger but not for older adults and no age-related positivity effect. We propose that due to older adults' pronounced difficulties in remembering the item-to-source link (i.e., associative deficit), even a greater focus on an inherently emotional source might be insufficient to boost source memory.

Metacognitive differentiation of item memory and source memory in schema-based source monitoring

Item memory and source memory are different aspects of episodic remembering. To investigate metamemory differences between them, the authors assessed systematic differences between predictions of item memory via Judgments of Learning (JOLs) and source memory via Judgments of Source (JOSs). Schema-based expectations affect JOLs and JOSs differently: Judgments are higher for expected source-item pairs (e.g., "nightstand in the bedroom") than unexpected pairs (e.g., "bed in the bathroom"), but this expectancy effect is stronger on JOSs than JOLs (Schaper et al., 2019b). The current study tested theoretical underpinnings of this difference. Due to semantic priming, JOLs should be influenced by the consistency between an item and any of the schemas activated at study. JOSs, however, should be influenced by the (in)consistency between an item and its actual source. In three experiments, source-item pairs varied in strength of consistency and inconsistency. Participants provided item-wise JOLs and JOSs. Regardless of an items' actual source, JOLs were higher the more consistent an item was with any of the source schemas, but only if that schema was activated by occurring as a source at study. JOLs were also biased by the actual source: JOLs were lower the more inconsistent an item was with its actual source. By contrast, JOSs were primarily influenced by an item's (in)consistency with its actual source (positively for consistency, negatively for inconsistency). Thus, participants metacognitively differentiated item memory and source memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of school education in time-dependent changes of cognitive abilities in cohorts from midlife to old age

OBJECTIVES

It is examined whether older adults' cognitive ability in terms of delayed recall and verbal fluency is improving over time, whether this occurs over all educational levels and both sexes, and whether these changes are due to increasing proportions of individuals with higher education.

METHODS

Analyses are based on the German samples of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (waves 2004 and 2013).

RESULTS

Achievement levels increased over time and in all age groups. Improvements over educational levels occurred in parallel, differences between educational levels in the earlier survey were later reproduced at higher levels. Increasing proportions of individuals with higher education did not explain improvements of cognitive ability. No sex differences emerged.

CONCLUSION

Improved cognitive abilities could not be explained by upward shifts of educational levels. Improvements in higher age groups may foster improved health status and prolonged self-determined life in the older population.

Secular Improvements in Cognitive Aging: Contribution of Education, Health, and Routine Activities

Objectives

Limited evidence exists regarding the reasons for secular changes in cognitive functioning over historical time. Thus, we examined potential explanatory factors for changes in cognitive speed, a central dimension of cognitive functioning.

Methods

Population-based data of middle-aged and older adults from Germany (N = 5443) was used with baseline participants from 2002 to 2014, comparing the time periods 2002–2014.

Results

Cognitive speed improved in middle-aged adults (40–65) and older adults (66+). In both age groups, increases were partly explained by education, employment status, volunteering status, routine activities, and physical functioning. Changes in education were more important in explaining increases in older than in middle-aged adults, whereas changes in health were more important for explaining increases in middle-aged adults.

Conclusions

Cognitive speed increased in both age groups over historical time. Education, employment, volunteering, routine activities, and health were all important in explaining these changes, but their importance differed between age groups.

Better memory for emotional sources? A systematic evaluation of source valence and arousal in source memory

Emotion-enhanced memory (EEM) describes the robust memory advantage of emotional over non-emotional stimuli. While extensively investigated with emotional items, it is unclear whether the EEM effect extends to source memory for a neutral item's emotional context. In two pre-registered studies, we systematically manipulated source valence (positive, negative) between participants and source arousal (high, low, neutral-low) within participants. In Experiment 1 (lab study, N = 80), we used emotional sound sources and presented them together with neutral pictures as items. In Experiment 2 (online study, N = 172), we used emotional background pictures with superimposed neutral item words to similarly manipulate source emotionality. Multinomial model-based analysis showed no general effects of valence or arousal on source memory across both experiments. Source memory was impaired for the negative high-arousing source in Experiment 1 but this did not replicate in Experiment 2. Altogether, we conclude that there are no memory-enhancing effects of source emotionality (valence, arousal, or any specific combination thereof) on source memory, dissociating emotionality effects between source and item memory. Additionally, we propose that material-dependent influences carry more weight if the used emotional material is limited in number, as is the case in the standard source-monitoring paradigm employing few sources only.

A novel paradigm to assess storage of sources in memory: the source recognition test with reinstatement

The present research aimed to devise a test of source recognition that facilitates access to source information stored in memory. Therefore, we extended the standard source-monitoring paradigm, in which items are presented in a source-neutral manner during test, by a second, subsequent test with source reinstatement. In this second test, items (i.e., words) were presented with both study sources (i.e., two speakers) consecutively such that for originally studied words, one test presentation was the exact reinstatement of the original source. To validate our assumption that the test with reinstatement primarily assesses source storage, we manipulated source storage by varying encoding frequency between-participants (repetition vs. no repetition of each item-source-pair). Additionally, we varied source similarity between-participants (similar vs. dissimilar speakers). Data analyses (N = 146) based on multinomial and signal detection models showed a source memory enhancement in the second test with reinstatement compared to the first standard test, especially for similar sources. Additionally, repetition selectively benefited source memory in the second test, validating our interpretation of the second test as a measure for source storage. Altogether, our novel source recognition test offers a promising method for investigating various well-known source memory phenomena more comprehensively.

Guess what? Different source-guessing strategies for old versus new information

The probability-matching account states that learned specific episodic contingencies of item types and source dominate over general schematic expectations in source guessing. However, recent evidence from Bell et al. [(2020). Source attributions for detected new items: Persistent evidence for schematic guessing. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(9), 1407-1422] suggest that this only applies to source guessing for information that is recognised as belonging to a previously encoded episode. When information was detected as being new, participants persisted in applying schematic knowledge about the sources' profession. This dissociation in source guessing for detected-old and detected-new information may have been fostered by the specific source-monitoring paradigm by Bell et al. (2020) in which sources were a group of individuals in a certain profession rather than fixed persons from that profession for whom episodic contingencies are more likely to persist also for new information. The aim of the present study was to test whether source guessing for detected-old versus detected-new information also dissociates in a more typical source-monitoring task, the doctor-lawyer paradigm, in which one individual doctor and one lawyer present profession-related information. Despite this change in paradigm, source guessing was based on the item-source contingency only for detected-old information, whereas schematic knowledge persisted for detected-new information. The present study thus adds evidence for persistent schema-based source guessing for new information.

Longer resistance of associative versus item memory to interference-based forgetting, even in older adults

Few studies have compared interference-based forgetting between item versus associative memory. The memory-system dependent forgetting hypothesis (Hardt, Nader, & Nadel, 2013) predicts that effects of interference on associative memory should be minimal because its hippocampal representation allows pattern separation even of highly similar information. In contrast, there should be strong interference effects on extra-hippocampally represented item memory. We tested this prediction in behavioral data from 3 experiments using continuous recognition paradigms. Given older adults' greater deficits in associative than item memory, we also compared younger and older adults to test whether this associative deficit extends to greater interference susceptibility in older adults' associative memory. Experiment 1 examined item-item associative memory with participants studying unrelated word pairs continuously intermixed with item (single words) and associative (intact vs. recombined pairs) recognition tests across interference-filled lags. Experiments 2 and 3 examined item-context (i.e., source) associative memory with participants studying words in different spatial positions continuously intermixed with source-monitoring tests (presented on top vs. on bottom vs. new?) across interference-filled lags (Experiment 3 controlling for delay/decay-based effects). In all experiments, item memory declined from the first lag on. In contrast, associative memory initially remained stable, with strong evidence for null effects of interference even in older adults, but showed some declines at later lags. The data supports Hardt et al.'s proposal of differential interference-based forgetting in item versus associative memory. The results further show that the age-related associative memory deficit does not extend to greater interference-based forgetting in older adults' associative memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Louder = Larger = Clearer

Abstract. Past research found robust metamemory illusions about the effects of font type, word-pair identity, volume, and font size on memory that are assumed to share a common cause, such as fluency. The current study simultaneously assessed all four metamemory illusions from vignettes alongside items assessing the belief that fluency benefits memory and that more is generally better. The typical metamemory illusions replicated in all samples. Confirmatory factor and structural equation modeling confirmed that at least the perceptual metamemory illusions (font type, volume, font size) can be explained by one latent factor, which was, however, not related to latent factors capturing the belief that fluency benefits memory or that more is better.

Testing Interactions in Multinomial Processing Tree Models

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models allow testing hypotheses on latent psychological processes that underlie human behavior. However, past applications of this model class have mainly been restricted to the analysis of main effects. In this paper, we adopt the interaction concept as defined in log-linear models and show why it is appropriate for MPT models. We then explain how to implement and test ordinal and disordinal two-way interaction hypotheses in MPT models. We also show how our method generalizes to higher-order interactions involving three or more factors. An empirical example from source memory and aging demonstrates the applicability of this method and allows for directly testing the associative deficit theory that age differences are larger in associative (e.g., source) memory as opposed to item memory. Throughout the paper, we explain how most analytic steps can be easily implemented in the freely available software multiTree.

The Origin of Illusory Correlations

If the distributions of two binary variables are skewed, people erroneously perceive a correlation even if the variables are actually uncorrelated. Specifically, people perceive a correlation between the variables' infrequent (vs. frequent) levels. While such systematic Illusory Correlations (ICs) can account for important phenomena, including erroneous stereotypes linking minority groups with infrequent attributes, the theoretical explanation is still a matter of debate. As proposed in the distinctiveness-based account, ICs arise due to a memory advantage for infrequent events. Alternatively, it has been proposed that ICs reflect ad hoc inferences from univariate base rates. In two experiments, we tested the accounts' predictions using a standard IC paradigm followed by (1) a contingency judgment task, asking participants to directly report contingencies, and (2) a trial-by-trial source assignment task of group membership and attribute. Bayesian-hierarchical model analysis revealed that ICs in contingency judgments were positively correlated to ad hoc inferences, but uncorrelated to exemplar memory in participants' source assignments. Moreover, inducing a focus on infrequent events improved memory for distinct events, but did not result in stronger ICs. Thus, our results support the explanation of ICs as ad hoc inferences from base rates, rather than a memory advantage for distinctive item combinations.

Topical Issue on Strategy Contributions to Cognitive Aging

Although some cognitive decline with healthy aging appears inevitable, previous research on strategy instruction and training has repeatedly demonstrated that older adults can substantially improve their cognitive performance through effective strategies. At the same time, age-related changes in strategy repertoire, distribution, execution, and selection have also been documented and, in part, been shown to contribute to the observed age-related deficits in cognitive performance. Authored by researchers from France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S., the nine articles of this Topical Issue on Strategy Contributions to Cognitive Aging provide novel insights on age-related differences (and similarities) in strategies across a variety of cognitive domains (episodic [item, source, event] memory, metamemory, decision making, and numeracy), ranging from new insights on traditional memory-encoding strategies such as self-generation to the discovery of novel strategies involved in event memory, metamemory, and numerosity comparison. Further, a review of event segmentation training and two novel training studies demonstrate much potential for the improvement of older adults’ cognitive performance, transferring beyond the trained task—but also identify for whom cognitive strategy training may be less beneficial, necessitating a more intensive or different training approach. All in all, this Topical Issue provides a comprehensive picture of age-related changes in cognitive strategies and means to improve older adults’ strategic approach to cognitive tasks.

Is all metamemory monitoring spared from aging? A dual-process examination

Although recollection-based memory declines with age, relative metamemory monitoring is reported to be spared from aging. Based on a dual-process perspective on memory, we tested whether it is specifically the monitoring of automatic influences of memory (familiarity), but not of recollection, that is spared. In Experiment 1, we used the process-dissociation procedure (PDP) task from Undorf, Böhm, and Cüpper (2016) requiring modality-based exclusions and found older (61-83 years) adults' judgments of learning (JOLs) to predict both recollection and familiarity estimates. Comparisons to Undorf et al.'s younger-adult (18-34 years) data revealed fully spared familiarity monitoring but provided some evidence for impaired recollection monitoring, especially after study-test experience. We replicated aging-spared familiarity monitoring but impaired recollection monitoring in a second experiment, comparing the predictive value of younger (18-30 years) and older (60-87 years) adults' JOLs on a different PDP task that required recollection of the words' spatial positions. Furthermore, Experiment 2 found no evidence that mediator-based strategy use improved recollection monitoring in either age group, albeit significantly improving recollection. Taken together, the results suggest that not all metamemory monitoring is spared from aging. Instead, metamemory monitoring mirrored older adults' specific deficit in recollection whereas familiarity monitoring was fully spared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Metamemory expectancy illusion and schema-consistent guessing in source monitoring

Source monitoring involves attributing information to one of several sources. Schemas are known to influence source-monitoring processes, with enhanced memory for schematically unexpected sources (inconsistency effect) and biased schema-consistent source guessing. The authors investigated whether this guessing bias reflects a compensatory guessing strategy based on metacognitive awareness of the inconsistency effect, or reflects other strategies as proposed by the probability-matching account. To determine people's awareness of the inconsistency effect, the authors investigated metamemory predictions in a source-monitoring task. In four experiments, participants studied object word items that were presented with one of two scene labels as sources. Items were either presented with their schematically expected source (e.g., kitchen-oven) or with their schematically unexpected source (e.g., kitchen-toothpaste). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants predicted their item memory and their source memory after each source-item presentation. In Experiment 1, people incorrectly predicted both their item memory and, even more so, their source memory to be better for expected than for unexpected source-item pairs. In Experiment 2, this effect replicated with different types of judgment probes. Crucially, item-wise memory predictions did not predict source guessing. In Experiment 3, metacognitive awareness of the inconsistency effect on source memory changed during the test phase. However, metamemory convictions never predicted source guessing. In Experiment 4, the authors manipulated participants' convictions concerning the impact of schematic expectations on source memory. These convictions also did not predict source guessing. Thus, the results show that schema-consistent source guessing does not reflect a compensatory strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A meta-analysis of inhibitory-control deficits in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia

OBJECTIVE

The authors conducted meta-analyses to determine the magnitude of performance impairments in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia (AD) compared with healthy aging (HA) controls on eight tasks commonly used to measure inhibitory control.

METHOD

Response time (RT) and error rates from a total of 64 studies were analyzed with random-effects models (overall effects) and mixed-effects models (moderator analyses).

RESULTS

Large differences between AD patients and HA controls emerged in the basic inhibition conditions of many of the tasks with AD patients often performing slower, overall d = 1.17, 95% CI [0.88-1.45], and making more errors, d = 0.83 [0.63-1.03]. However, comparably large differences were also present in performance on many of the baseline control-conditions, d = 1.01 [0.83-1.19] for RTs and d = 0.44 [0.19-0.69] for error rates. A standardized derived inhibition score (i.e., control-condition score - inhibition-condition score) suggested no significant mean group difference for RTs, d = -0.07 [-0.22-0.08], and only a small difference for errors, d = 0.24 [-0.12-0.60]. Effects systematically varied across tasks and with AD severity.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the error rate results suggest a specific deterioration of inhibitory-control abilities in AD, further processes beyond inhibitory control (e.g., a general reduction in processing speed and other, task-specific attentional processes) appear to contribute to AD patients' performance deficits observed on a variety of inhibitory-control tasks. Nonetheless, the inhibition conditions of many of these tasks well discriminate between AD patients and HA controls. (PsycINFO Database Record

Multidimensionality of Younger and Older Adults' Age Stereotypes: The Interaction of Life Domain and Adjective Dimension

Objectives

The authors investigated the sources of age-stereotype multidimensionality with the help of personal everyday statements that differed with respect to life domain (e.g., family and partnership vs financial matters) and the adjective dimension reflected in the behavior (e.g., autonomous vs instrumental behavior).

Method

A total of 368 statements reflecting autonomy-, instrumentality-, or integrity-related behaviors in five different life domains were generated. Sixty-nine younger (18-26 years) and 74 older (60-84 years) participants rated the typicality of each statement for either a "young adult" or an "old adult."

Results

Occurrence and direction of age stereotypes varied by life domain and adjective dimension and ultimately depended on the specific combination of both factors (i.e., a significant interaction). For example, old adults were expected to be optimistic about religious aspects but not about their health, fitness, and appearance.

Discussion

The findings highlight the multidimensionality and complexity of age stereotypes based on a wide array of personal everyday statements.

The impact of age stereotypes on source monitoring in younger and older adults

In 2 experiments, we examined reliance on age stereotypes when reconstructing the sources of statements. Two sources presented statements (half typical for a young adult, half for an old adult). Afterward, the sources' ages-23 and 70 years-were revealed and participants completed a source-monitoring task requiring attribution of statements to the sources. Multinomial model-based analyses revealed no age-typicality effect on source memory; however, age-typicality biased source-guessing: When not remembering the source, participants predominantly guessed the source for whose age the statement was typical. Thereby, people retrospectively described the sources as having made more statements that fit with stereotypes about their age group than they had truly made. In Experiment 1, older (60-84 years) participants' guessing bias was stronger than younger (17-26 years) participants', but they also had poorer source memory. Furthermore, older adults with better source memory were less biased than those with poorer source memory. Similarly, younger adults' age-stereotype reliance was larger when source memory was impaired in Experiment 2. Thus, age stereotypes bias source attributions, and individuals with poor source memory are particularly prone to this bias, which may contribute to the maintenance of age stereotypes over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

Investigating storage and retrieval processes of directed forgetting: A model-based approach

Intentional forgetting of previously learned information is an adaptive cognitive capability of humans but its cognitive underpinnings are not yet well understood. It has been argued that it strongly depends on the presentation method whether forgetting instructions alter storage or retrieval stages (Basden, Basden, & Gargano, 1993). In Experiment 1, we compared the processes underlying the directed-forgetting effect in 2 mosts widely used presentation methods, namely the list-method and the item-method, and also differentiated between costs (i.e., poorer memory for to-be-forgotten information) and benefits (i.e., better memory for to-be-remembered information) of directed forgetting within both methods. Using a multinomial modeling approach (Riefer & Rouder, 1992; Rouder & Batchelder, 1998), our results showed that directed-forgetting benefits were due to better storage of to-be-remembered information in both methods. In line with current theorizing, list-method directed-forgetting costs occurred due to reduced retrieval of to-be-forgotten information. Item-method costs, however, occurred not only due to reduced storage, which is the dominant current view, but also due to reduced retrieval. In Experiment 2, we replicated the novel finding that retrieval processes contribute to item-method directed forgetting independent of recall-output order. Implications of these findings for current directed-forgetting theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Aging, source memory, and the experience of "remembering"

In a previous study, we found source memory for perceptual features to differentiate between younger but not older adults' reports of recollective ("remember"; R) and "know" (K) experiences. In two experiments with younger (17-30 years) and older (64-81 years) participants, we examined whether memory for meaningful speaker sources would accompany older adults' recollective experience. Indeed, memory for male and female speakers (but not partial memory for gender; Experiment 1) as well as bound memory for speakers and their facial expressions (Experiment 2) distinguished between both younger and older adults' RK reports. Thus, memory for some sources forms a common basis for younger and older adults' retrieval experience. Nonetheless, older adults still showed lower objective source memory and lower subjective source-attribution confidence than younger adults when reporting recollective experiences, suggesting that source memory is less relevant to their retrieval experience than for younger adults.

Mediator-based encoding strategies in source monitoring in young and older adults

Past research has examined the contribution of mediator-based encoding strategies (interactive imagery and sentence generation) to individual (particularly age-related) differences in associative memory exclusively in the paired-associates paradigm. In the present study, we examined young and older adults' mediator-based strategy use on source-monitoring tasks. Participants spontaneously used mediator-based strategies to encode about 30% to 40% of word-source pairs and were able to follow instructions to use the specific mediator-based strategy of interactive imagery; mediator-based strategy use was associated with higher source memory and explained variance in source memory. There were no age-related differences in the patterns of mediator-based strategy production and utilization. Age-related differences in source memory were explained by age-related declines in the ability to bind information in memory (incidental memory for digit-symbol associations) but not by encoding strategy production. Results underscore the importance of assessing encoding strategy use for understanding individual differences in source memory.

The role of source memory in older adults' recollective experience

Younger adults' "remember" judgments are accompanied by better memory for the source of an item than "know" judgments. Furthermore, remember judgments are not merely associated with better memory for individual source features but also with bound memory for multiple source features. However, older adults, independent of their subjective memory experience, are generally less likely to "bind" source features to an item and to each other in memory (i.e., the associative deficit). In two experiments, we tested whether memory for perceptual source features, independently or bound, is also the basis for older adults' remember responses or if their associative deficit leads them to base their responses on other types of information. The results suggest that retrieval of perceptual source features, individually or bound, forms the basis for younger but not for older adults' remember judgments even when the overall level of memory for perceptual sources is closely equated (Experiment 1) and when attention is explicitly directed to the source information at encoding (Experiment 2).

Influences of Source - Item Contingency and Schematic Knowledge on Source Monitoring: Tests of the Probability-Matching Account

The authors investigated conditions under which judgments in source-monitoring tasks are influenced by prior schematic knowledge. According to a probability-matching account of source guessing (Spaniol & Bayen, 2002), when people do not remember the source of information, they match source guessing probabilities to the perceived contingency between sources and item types. When they do not have a representation of a contingency, they base their guesses on prior schematic knowledge. The authors provide support for this account in two experiments with sources presenting information that was expected for one source and somewhat unexpected for another. Schema-relevant information about the sources was provided at the time of encoding. When contingency perception was impeded by dividing attention, participants showed schema-based guessing (Experiment 1). Manipulating source - item contingency also affected guessing (Experiment 2). When this contingency was schema-inconsistent, it superseded schema-based expectations and led to schema-inconsistent guessing.