Everyday amnesia: Residual memory for high confidence misses and implications for decision models of recognition

Despite studying a list of items only minutes earlier, when reencountered in a recognition memory test, undergraduate participants often say with total confidence that they have not studied some of the items before. Such high confidence miss (HCM) responses have been taken as evidence of rapid and complete forgetting and of everyday amnesia (Roediger & Tekin, 2020). We investigated (a) if memory for HCMs is completely lost or whether a residual memory effect exists and (b) whether dominant decision models predict the effect. Participants studied faces (Experiments 1a, 2, and 3) or words (Experiment 1b), then completed a single-item recognition memory task, followed by either (a) a two-alternative forced-choice recognition task, in which the studied and nonstudied alternatives on each trial were matched for their previous old/new decision and confidence rating (Experiments 1 and 2) or (b) a second single-item recognition task in which the targets and foils were HCMs and high confidence correct rejections, respectively (Experiment 3). In each experiment, participants reliably distinguished HCMs from high-confidence correct rejections. The unequal variance signal detection and dual-process signal detection models were fit to the single-item recognition data, and the parameter estimates were used to predict the memory effect for HCMs. The dual-process signal detection model predicted the residual memory effect (as did another popular model, the mixture signal detection theory model). However, the unequal variance signal detection model incorrectly predicted a negative, or no, effect, invalidating this model. The residual memory effect for HCMs demonstrates that everyday amnesia is not associated with complete memory loss and distinguishes between decision models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring open science practices in behavioural public policy research

In their book 'Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness', Thaler & Sunstein (2009) argue that choice architectures are promising public policy interventions. This research programme motivated the creation of 'nudge units', government agencies which aim to apply insights from behavioural science to improve public policy. We closely examine a meta-analysis of the evidence gathered by two of the largest and most influential nudge units (DellaVigna & Linos (2022 Econometrica 90, 81-116 (doi:10.3982/ECTA18709))) and use statistical techniques to detect reporting biases. Our analysis shows evidence suggestive of selective reporting. We additionally evaluate the public pre-analysis plans from one of the two nudge units (Office of Evaluation Sciences). We identify several instances of excellent practice; however, we also find that the analysis plans and reporting often lack sufficient detail to evaluate (unintentional) reporting biases. We highlight several improvements that would enhance the effectiveness of the pre-analysis plans and reports as a means to combat reporting biases. Our findings and suggestions can further improve the evidence base for policy decisions.

Conscious and unconscious memory and eye movements in context-guided visual search: A computational and experimental reassessment of Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019)

Are eye movements unconsciously guided towards target locations in familiar scenes? In a recent eyetracking study, Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019) measured eye-movement efficiency (scanpath ratio) and memory judgments when participants searched for targets in repeated and novel scenes. When trials judged new with high confidence were selected, scanpath ratio was lower for old scenes (misses) than for new scenes (correct rejections). In addition, familiarity as measured by recognition confidence did not significantly predict scanpath ratio. Ramey et al. attributed these results to unconscious learning guiding eye movements. In a re-assessment of Ramey et al.'s data, we show that their findings can be accounted for by a single-system computational model in which eye movements and memory judgments are driven by a common latent memory representation. In particular, (a) the scanpath ratio difference between high-confidence misses and correct rejections is a consequence of regression to the mean, while (b) the null correlation between familiarity and scanpath ratio, partly a natural consequence of the low reliability of the scanpath ratio measure, is also reproduced by the model. Two pre-registered experiments confirm a novel prediction of the alternative single-system model. This work offers a parsimonious account of Ramey et al.'s findings without recourse to unconscious guidance of eye movements.

Confidence ratings increase response thresholds in decision making

Many mental processes are reactive - they are altered as a result of introspection and monitoring. It has been documented that soliciting trial-by-trial confidence ratings (CRs) reactively improves decision accuracy and lengthens response times (RTs), but the cognitive mechanisms underlying CR reactivity in decision-making remain unknown. The current study conducted two experiments and employed the drift-diffusion model (DDM) to explore why reporting confidence reactively alters the decision-making process. The results showed that CRs led to enhanced decision accuracy, longer RTs, and higher response thresholds. The findings are consistent with an increased conservatism hypothesis which asserts that soliciting CRs provokes feelings of uncertainty and makes individuals more cautious in their decision making.

Meta-analyses in psychology often overestimate evidence for and size of effects

Adjusting for publication bias is essential when drawing meta-analytic inferences. However, most methods that adjust for publication bias do not perform well across a range of research conditions, such as the degree of heterogeneity in effect sizes across studies. Sladekova et al. 2022 (Estimating the change in meta-analytic effect size estimates after the application of publication bias adjustment methods. Psychol. Methods) tried to circumvent this complication by selecting the methods that are most appropriate for a given set of conditions, and concluded that publication bias on average causes only minimal over-estimation of effect sizes in psychology. However, this approach suffers from a 'Catch-22' problem-to know the underlying research conditions, one needs to have adjusted for publication bias correctly, but to correctly adjust for publication bias, one needs to know the underlying research conditions. To alleviate this problem, we conduct an alternative analysis, robust Bayesian meta-analysis (RoBMA), which is not based on model-selection but on model-averaging. In RoBMA, models that predict the observed results better are given correspondingly larger weights. A RoBMA reanalysis of Sladekova et al.'s dataset reveals that more than 60% of meta-analyses in psychology notably overestimate the evidence for the presence of the meta-analytic effect and more than 50% overestimate its magnitude.

Metamemory judgments have dissociable reactivity effects on item and interitem relational memory

Making metamemory judgments reactively changes item memory itself. Here we report the first investigation of reactive influences of making judgments of learning (JOLs) on interitem relational memory-specifically, temporal (serial) order memory. Experiment 1 found that making JOLs impaired order reconstruction. Experiment 2 observed minimal reactivity on free recall and negative reactivity on temporal clustering. Experiment 3 demonstrated a positive reactivity effect on recognition memory, and Experiment 4 detected dissociable effects of making JOLs on order reconstruction (negative) and forced-choice recognition (positive) by using the same participants and stimuli. Finally, a meta-analysis was conducted to explore reactivity effects on word list learning and to investigate whether test format moderates these effects. The results show a negative reactivity effect on interitem relational memory (order reconstruction), a modest positive effect on free recall, and a medium-to-large positive effect on recognition. Overall, these findings imply that even though making metacognitive judgments facilitates item-specific processing, it disrupts relational processing, supporting the item-order account of the reactivity effect on word list learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Do partial and distributed tests enhance new learning?

Testing facilitates subsequent learning of new information, a phenomenon known as the forward testing effect. The effect is often investigated in multilist procedures, where studied lists are followed by a retrieval test, or a control task such as restudying, and learning is compared on the final list. In most studies of the effect, tests include all material from the preceding list. We report four experiments, three of which were preregistered, to determine whether tests that are partial (not including all studied items) and distributed (including retrieval of items from earlier lists) are effective in enhancing new learning. The results show that testing of all studied material is not necessary to produce beneficial effects on new learning or to reduce intrusions. The beneficial effects of testing were substantially mediated by reduced proactive interference. Importantly, there was minimal evidence that the forward learning benefits of partial and distributed tests are offset by a cost to untested items via retrieval-induced forgetting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Publication bias casts doubt on implicit processing in inattentional blindness

Two recent meta-analyses on inattentional blindness (Kreitz, Pugnaghi, & Memmert, 2020; Nobre et al., 2020) concluded that objects can be processed implicitly even when attention is directed elsewhere. However, signs of publication bias are evident in both of these meta-analyses. Here, we employed multiple tools to correct for publication bias in the data aggregated in those meta-analyses. Analyses using the Precision-Effect Test (PET) and robust Bayesian meta-analysis (RoBMA) suggest that the estimates in the original meta-analyses were inflated, together with strong evidence of publication bias. Indeed, the data are consistent with no overall implicit effects. We suggest that more evidence, particularly from well-powered pre-registered experiments, is needed before solid conclusions can be drawn regarding implicit processing during inattentional blindness.

The Pervasive Problem of Post Hoc Data Selection in Studies on Unconscious Processing

Studies on unconscious mental processes typically require that participants are unaware of some information (e.g., a visual stimulus). An important methodological question in this field of research is how to deal with data from participants who become aware of the critical stimulus according to some measure of awareness. While it has previously been argued that the post hoc selection of participants dependent on an awareness measure may often result in regression-to-the-mean artifacts (Shanks, 2017), a recent article (Sklar et al., 2021) challenged this conclusion claiming that the consideration of this statistical artifact might lead to unjustified rejections of true unconscious influences. In this reply, we explain this pervasive statistical problem with a basic and concrete example, show that Sklar et al. fundamentally mischaracterize it, and then refute the argument that the influence of the artifact has previously been overestimated. We conclude that, without safeguards, the method of post hoc data selection should never be employed in studies on unconscious processing.

Heterogeneity and Publication Bias in Research on Test-Potentiated New Learning

Prior retrieval practice potentiates new learning. A recent meta-analysis of this test-potentiated new learning (TPNL) effect by Chan, Meissner, and Davis (2018) concluded that it is a robust and reliable finding (Hedges’ g = 0.44). Although Chan et al. discussed three different experimental designs that have been employed to study TPNL, we argue that their meta-analysis failed to adequately distinguish the findings from these different designs, acknowledge the significance of the substantial between-study heterogeneity across all pooled effects, and assess the degree of publication bias in the sample. We conducted a new meta-analysis that assessed the designs separately and applied appropriate corrections for publication bias. We found that studies using a standard design yield weak evidence of a TPNL effect, studies using pre-testing yield a small but reliable effect, and studies using interleaving designs yield weak evidence of a negative effect. Compared to Chan et al.’s conclusions, these reanalyses cast TPNL in a very different light and point to a pressing need for preregistered experiments to assess its reproducibility in the absence of publication bias.

Improving research quality: the view from the UK Reproducibility Network institutional leads for research improvement

The adoption and incentivisation of open and transparent research practices is critical in addressing issues around research reproducibility and research integrity. These practices will require training and funding. Individuals need to be incentivised to adopt open and transparent research practices (e.g., added as desirable criteria in hiring, probation, and promotion decisions, recognition that funded research should be conducted openly and transparently, the importance of publishers mandating the publication of research workflows and appropriately curated data associated with each research output). Similarly, institutions need to be incentivised to encourage the adoption of open and transparent practices by researchers. Research quality should be prioritised over research quantity. As research transparency will look different for different disciplines, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach. An outward looking and joined up UK research strategy is needed that places openness and transparency at the heart of research activity. This should involve key stakeholders (institutions, research organisations, funders, publishers, and Government) and crucially should be focused on action. Failure to do this will have negative consequences not just for UK research, but also for our ability to innovate and subsequently commercialise UK-led discovery.

When judging what you know changes what you really know: Soliciting metamemory judgments reactively enhances children's learning

Recent studies established that making concurrent judgments of learning (JOLs) can significantly alter (typically enhance) memory itself-a reactivity effect. The current study recruited 190 Chinese children (M_age  = 8.68 years; 101 female) in 2020 and 2021 to explore the reactivity effect on children's learning, its developmental trajectory and associated metacognitive awareness. The results showed that making JOLs significantly enhanced retention for students in Grades 1, 3, and 5, with Cohen's ds ranging from 0.40 to 1.33. Grade 5 students exhibited a larger reactivity effect than Grade 1 and 3 students. Children's metacognitive appreciation of the effect was weak. Firsthand experience of the reactivity effect, induced by taking a memory test, enhanced their awareness and calibrated their judgment accuracy.

Publication bias and low power in field studies on goal priming

Research on goal priming asks whether the subtle activation of an achievement goal can improve task performance. Studies in this domain employ a range of priming methods, such as surreptitiously displaying a photograph of an athlete winning a race, and a range of dependent variables including measures of creativity and workplace performance. Chen, Latham, Piccolo and Itzchakov (Chen et al. 2021 J. Appl. Psychol. 70, 216-253) recently undertook a meta-analysis of this research and reported positive overall effects in both laboratory and field studies, with field studies yielding a moderate-to-large effect that was significantly larger than that obtained in laboratory experiments. We highlight a number of issues with Chen et al.'s selection of field studies and then report a new meta-analysis (k = 13, N = 683) that corrects these. The new meta-analysis reveals suggestive evidence of publication bias and low power in goal priming field studies. We conclude that the available evidence falls short of demonstrating goal priming effects in the workplace, and offer proposals for how future research can provide stronger tests.

The Challenge of Inferring Unconscious Mental Processes

Studies of unconscious mental processes often compare a performance measure (e.g., some assessment of perception or memory) with a measure of awareness (e.g., a verbal report or forced-choice response) of the critical cue or contingency taken either concurrently or separately. The resulting patterns of bivariate data across participants lend themselves to several analytic approaches for inferring the existence of unconscious mental processes, but it is rare for researchers to consider the underlying generative processes that might cause these patterns. We show that bivariate data are generally insufficient to discriminate single-process models, with a unitary latent process determining both performance and awareness, from dual-process models, comprising distinct latent processes for performance and awareness. Future research attempting to isolate and investigate unconscious processes will need to employ richer types of data and analyses.

Testing potential mechanisms underlying test-potentiated new learning

An emerging body of studies demonstrates that practicing retrieval of studied information, by comparison with restudying or no treatment, can facilitate subsequent learning and retrieval of new information, a phenomenon termed the forward testing effect (FTE) or test-potentiated new learning. Several theoretical explanations have been proposed to account for the FTE. A release-from-PI theory proposes that interpolated testing induces context changes and enhances event segregation, which in turn protect new learning from proactive interference (PI). A strategy-change view hypothesizes that prior tests teach learners to adopt more effective/elaborative learning and retrieval strategies in subsequent study and test phases. Finally, a reset-of-encoding account proposes that interim testing on studied information reduces memory load, resets the subsequent encoding process, and enhances encoding of new information. The current study recruited a large sample (over 1,000 participants) and employed a multilist learning task and mediation analyses to test these theories. The results suggest that prior list intrusions (an index of PI) significantly mediated the FTE, supporting the release-from-PI theory. In addition, interim testing enhanced strategic processing of temporal information during new learning (reflected by increased clustering), and temporal clustering significantly mediated the FTE, supporting a role for strategy-change in the FTE. Lastly, a variety of indices were constructed to represent the benefit of reset-of-encoding, but none of them provided evidence supporting the reset-of-encoding view. The results shed new light on the complex mechanisms underlying the forward benefits of testing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Correlation analysis to investigate unconscious mental processes: A critical appraisal and mini-tutorial

As a method to investigate the scope of unconscious mental processes, researchers frequently obtain concurrent measures of task performance and stimulus awareness across participants. Even though both measures might be significantly greater than zero, the correlation between them might not, encouraging the inference that an unconscious process drives task performance. We highlight the pitfalls of this null-correlation approach and provide a mini-tutorial on ways to avoid them. As reference, we use a recent study by Salvador et al. (2018) reporting a non-significant correlation between the extent to which memory was suppressed by a Think/No-Think cue and an index of cue awareness. In the Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) framework, it is inappropriate to interpret failure to reject the null hypothesis (i.e., correlation = 0) as evidence for the null. Furthermore, psychological measures are often unreliable, which can dramatically attenuate the size of observed correlations. A Bayesian approach can circumvent both problems and compare the extent to which the data provide evidence for the null versus the alternative hypothesis (i.e., correlation > 0), while considering the usually low reliabilities of the variables. Applied to Salvador et al.'s data, this approach indicates no to moderate support for the claimed unconscious nature of participants' memory-suppression performance-depending on the model of the alternative hypothesis. Hence, more reliable data are needed. When analyzing correlational data, we recommend researchers to employ the Bayesian methods developed here (and made freely available as R scripts), rather than standard NHST methods, to take account of unreliability.

Examining the relationship between processing fluency and memory for source information

Familiarity-based processes such as processing fluency can influence memory judgements in tests of item recognition. Many conventional accounts of source memory assume minimal influence of familiarity on source memory, but recent work has suggested that source memory judgements are affected when test stimuli are processed with greater fluency as a result of priming. The present experiments investigated the relationship between fluency and the accuracy of source memory decisions. Participants studied words presented with different source attributes. During test, they identified words that gradually clarified on screen through progressive demasking, made old/new and source memory judgements, and reported confidence ratings for those words. Response times (RTs) recorded from the item identification task formed the basis of a fluency measure, and identification RTs were compared across categories of item recognition, source accuracy and confidence. Identification RTs were faster in trials with correct retrieval of source information compared with trials for which source could not be accurately retrieved. These findings are consistent with the assumption that familiarity-based processes are related to source memory judgements.

Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: A systematic and meta-analytic review

Over the last century hundreds of studies have demonstrated that testing is an effective intervention to enhance long-term retention of studied knowledge and facilitate mastery of new information, compared with restudying and many other learning strategies (e.g., concept mapping), a phenomenon termed the testing effect. How robust is this effect in applied settings beyond the laboratory? The current review integrated 48,478 students' data, extracted from 222 independent studies, to investigate the magnitude, boundary conditions, and psychological underpinnings of test-enhanced learning in the classroom. The results show that overall testing (quizzing) raises student academic achievement to a medium extent (g = 0.499). The magnitude of the effect is modulated by a variety of factors, including learning strategy in the control condition, test format consistency, material matching, provision of corrective feedback, number of test repetitions, test administration location and timepoint, treatment duration, and experimental design. The documented findings support 3 theories to account for the classroom testing effect: additional exposure, transfer-appropriate processing, and motivation. In addition to their implications for theory development, these results have practical significance for enhancing teaching practice and guiding education policy and highlight important directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

There is more to contextual cuing than meets the eye: Improving visual search without attentional guidance toward predictable target locations

It is usually easier to find objects in a visual scene as we gain familiarity with it. Two decades of research on contextual cuing of visual search show that repeated exposure to a search display can facilitate the detection of targets that appear at predictable locations in that display. Typical accounts for this effect attribute an essential role to learned associations between the target and other stimuli in the search display. These associations improve visual search either by driving attention toward the usual location of the target or by facilitating its recognition. Contrary to this view, we show that a robust contextual cuing effect can also be observed when repeated search displays do not allow the location of the target to be predicted. These results suggest that, in addition to the mechanisms already explored by previous research, participants learn to ignore the locations usually occupied by distractors, which in turn facilitates the detection of targets even when they appear in unpredictable locations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Probabilistic cuing of visual search: Neither implicit nor inflexible

In probabilistic cuing of visual search, participants search for a target object that appears more frequently in one region of the display. This task results in a search bias toward the rich quadrant compared with other quadrants. Previous research has suggested that this bias is inflexible (difficult to unlearn) and implicit (participants are unaware of the biased distribution of targets). We tested these hypotheses in two preregistered, high-powered experiments (Ns = 160 and 161). In an initial biased stage, participants performed a standard probabilistic cuing task. In a subsequent unbiased stage, the target appeared in all quadrants with equal probability. Awareness questions were included after the biased stage in one group of participants, and after the unbiased stage in a second group. Results showed that participants were aware of the rich area, and this effect was larger for the group whose awareness was assessed after the biased stage. In addition, analyses of visual search times indicated that the search bias toward the rich area (formed during the biased stage) was reduced during the unbiased stage. These results cast doubts on the characterization of probabilistic cuing as an implicit and inflexible search habit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Aging Predicts Decline in Explicit and Implicit Memory: A Life-Span Study

Explicit memory declines with age, but age effects on implicit memory are debated. This issue is important because if implicit memory is age invariant, it may support effective interventions in individuals experiencing memory decline. In this study, we overcame several methodological issues in past research to clarify age effects on implicit memory (priming) and their relationship to explicit memory (recognition, source memory). We (a) recruited a large life-span sample of participants (N = 1,072) during a residency at the Science Museum in London, (b) employed an implicit task that was unaffected by explicit contamination, and (c) systematically manipulated attention and depth of processing to assess their contribution to age effects. Participants witnessed a succession of overlapping colored objects, attending to one color stream and ignoring the other, and identified masked objects at test before judging whether they were previously attended, unattended, or new. Age significantly predicted decline in both explicit and implicit memory for attended items.

Do working memory capacity and test anxiety modulate the beneficial effects of testing on new learning?

Although testing has repeatedly been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for consolidating retention of studied information (the backward testing effect) and facilitating mastery of new information (the forward testing effect), few studies have explored individual differences in the beneficial effects of testing. The current study recruited a large sample (1,032 participants) to explore the potential roles of working memory capacity and test anxiety in the enhancing effects of testing on new learning, and the converse influence of testing on test anxiety. The results demonstrated that administering interim tests during learning appears to be an effective technique to potentiate new learning, regardless of working memory capacity and test anxiety. At a final test on all studied materials, individuals with low working memory capacity benefited more from interim testing than those with high working memory capacity. These testing effects are minimally modulated by levels of trait/state test anxiety, and low-stake interim testing neither reduced nor increased test anxiety. Overall, the results imply that low-stake interim tests can be administered to boost new learning irrespective of learners' level of WMC, test anxiety, and of possible reactive effects of testing on test anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A consensus-based transparency checklist

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

Procedural and declarative learning in dyslexia

The procedural deficit hypothesis claims that impaired procedural learning is at least partly responsible for the deficits in learning to read seen in children with developmental dyslexia. This study used a reading ability-matched design to examine group differences in both procedural and declarative learning. Both children with dyslexia and typically developing children demonstrated procedural learning on a serial reaction time task, although learning in the typically developing group increased at a greater rate towards the end of the task compared with children with dyslexia. However, these results do not provide strong evidence for the procedural deficit hypothesis, because poorer procedural learning in the group with dyslexia may reflect impairments in motor learning, rather than sequence specific procedural learning. In addition, neither group showed a relationship between procedural learning and reading ability.

Unconscious or underpowered? Probabilistic cuing of visual attention

Recent debate about the reliability of psychological research has raised concerns about the prevalence of false positives in our discipline. However, false negatives can be just as concerning in areas of research that depend on finding support for the absence of an effect. This risk is particularly high in unconscious learning experiments, where researchers commonly seek to demonstrate that people can learn to perform a task in the absence of any explicit knowledge of the information that drives performance. The fact that some unconscious learning effects are typically studied with small samples and unreliable awareness measures makes false negatives especially likely. In the present article we focus on a popular unconscious learning paradigm, probabilistic cuing of visual attention, as a case study. First, we show that, at the meta-analytic level, previous experiments reveal positive signs of participant awareness, although individual studies are severely underpowered to detect this. Second, we report the results of 2 empirical studies in which participants' awareness was tested with alternative and more sensitive dependent measures, both of which manifest positive evidence of awareness. We also show that, based on the predictions of a formal model of probabilistic cuing and given the reliabilities of the dependent measures collected in these experiments, any statistical test aimed at detecting a significant correlation between learning and awareness is doomed to return a nonsignificant result, even if at the latent level both constructs are actually related and participants' knowledge is completely explicit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Still no evidence that risk-taking and consumer choices can be primed by mating motives: Reply to Sundie, Beal, Neuberg, and Kenrick (2019)

Shanks et al. (2015) challenged the evidence that various forms of decision making can be influenced by romantic/mating primes. In their comment, Sundie, Beal, Neuberg, and Kenrick (2019) question both the meta-analysis and the 8 studies Shanks et al. reported, and describe an alternative p-curve analysis that they interpret as showing that romantic priming is a genuine phenomenon. In this reply, we comment on several contradictions in Sundie et al.'s article. First, they suggest that Shanks et al.'s replication experiments yielded different results from the original studies because we failed to appreciate the contextual sensitivity of romantic priming effects, but this argument rests largely on evidence from the very studies we were unable to replicate, and a wealth of other evidence suggests that social priming effects are largely invariant across samples and settings. Second, Sundie et al. criticize the selection rule by which Shanks et al. identified relevant priming studies, but then go on to include exactly the same set of studies in their p-curve analysis. Third, they criticize Shanks et al.'s selection of statistical results from these studies and propose a much wider selection, but then acknowledge that their selection process is poorly suited to assessing publication bias and p-hacking. Fourth, we show that their p-curve analysis, far from demonstrating that this literature is unaffected by p-hacking, in fact shows the exact opposite. Sundie et al. claim that Shanks et al.'s priming manipulation was demonstrably weak, but their argument is based on a confusion between different dependent measures. We conclude that romantic priming remains unproven, and urge researchers in this field to undertake high-powered preregistered replication studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Still no evidence that risk-taking and consumer choices can be primed by mating motives: Reply to Sundie, Beal, Neuberg, and Kenrick (2019)

Shanks et al. (2015) challenged the evidence that various forms of decision making can be influenced by romantic/mating primes. In their comment, Sundie, Beal, Neuberg, and Kenrick (2019) question both the meta-analysis and the 8 studies Shanks et al. reported, and describe an alternative p-curve analysis that they interpret as showing that romantic priming is a genuine phenomenon. In this reply, we comment on several contradictions in Sundie et al.'s article. First, they suggest that Shanks et al.'s replication experiments yielded different results from the original studies because we failed to appreciate the contextual sensitivity of romantic priming effects, but this argument rests largely on evidence from the very studies we were unable to replicate, and a wealth of other evidence suggests that social priming effects are largely invariant across samples and settings. Second, Sundie et al. criticize the selection rule by which Shanks et al. identified relevant priming studies, but then go on to include exactly the same set of studies in their p-curve analysis. Third, they criticize Shanks et al.'s selection of statistical results from these studies and propose a much wider selection, but then acknowledge that their selection process is poorly suited to assessing publication bias and p-hacking. Fourth, we show that their p-curve analysis, far from demonstrating that this literature is unaffected by p-hacking, in fact shows the exact opposite. Sundie et al. claim that Shanks et al.'s priming manipulation was demonstrably weak, but their argument is based on a confusion between different dependent measures. We conclude that romantic priming remains unproven, and urge researchers in this field to undertake high-powered preregistered replication studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The benefit of generating errors during learning: What is the locus of the effect?

Guessing translations of foreign words (hodei?), before viewing corrective feedback (hodei-cloud), leads to better subsequent memory for correct translations than studying intact pairs (hodei-cloud), even when guesses are always incorrect (Potts & Shanks, 2014), but the mechanism underlying this effect is unknown. Possible explanations fall into two broad classes. One puts the locus of the effect at retrieval: Items studied through a generation process have more potential retrieval cues associated with them, or a more distinctive context, and are therefore more accessible at final test. The other puts the locus at encoding and involves enhanced encoding of the correct answer following the generation of an error compared with passive studying (Potts & Shanks, 2014). In 6 experiments we found support for the proposal that generating errors benefits memory through stimulating curiosity to learn correct answers following an incorrect guess, leading to enhanced processing of targets following generation. In Experiment 1, generating possible translations after seeing correct answers did not produce better memory than studying without generating, suggesting that an element of surprise or anticipation is necessary for generating to benefit memory. Experiments 2a-2c found enhanced recognition memory for targets following generating, suggesting increased focus on targets following a guess. In Experiments 3 and 4, participants rated their curiosity to learn correct answers higher when ratings were given after generating than before, suggesting that the act of generation increases curiosity to learn the answers. These findings imply that enhanced processing of feedback is a key consequence of errorful generation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhancing learning and retrieval of new information: a review of the forward testing effect

In recent years evidence has accumulated showing that interim testing of studied information facilitates learning and retrieval of new information-the forward testing effect. In the current article, we review the empirical evidence and putative mechanisms underlying this effect. The possible negative effects of administering interim tests and how these negative effects can be mitigated are discussed. We also propose some important directions for future research to explore. Finally, we summarize the practical implications for optimizing learning and teaching in educational settings.

Overt attention in contextual cuing of visual search is driven by the attentional set, but not by the predictiveness of distractors

Two experiments examined biases in selective attention during contextual cuing of visual search. When participants were instructed to search for a target of a particular color, overt attention (as measured by the location of fixations) was biased strongly toward distractors presented in that same color. However, when participants searched for targets that could be presented in 1 of 2 possible colors, overt attention was not biased between the different distractors, regardless of whether these distractors predicted the location of the target (repeating) or did not (randomly arranged). These data suggest that selective attention in visual search is guided only by the demands of the target detection task (the attentional set) and not by the predictive validity of the distractor elements. (PsycINFO Database Record

Registered Replication Report: Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998)

Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998) reported that participants primed with a category associated with intelligence ("professor") subsequently performed 13% better on a trivia test than participants primed with a category associated with a lack of intelligence ("soccer hooligans"). In two unpublished replications of this study designed to verify the appropriate testing procedures, Dijksterhuis, van Knippenberg, and Holland observed a smaller difference between conditions (2%-3%) as well as a gender difference: Men showed the effect (9.3% and 7.6%), but women did not (0.3% and -0.3%). The procedure used in those replications served as the basis for this multilab Registered Replication Report. A total of 40 laboratories collected data for this project, and 23 of these laboratories met all inclusion criteria. Here we report the meta-analytic results for those 23 direct replications (total N = 4,493), which tested whether performance on a 30-item general-knowledge trivia task differed between these two priming conditions (results of supplementary analyses of the data from all 40 labs, N = 6,454, are also reported). We observed no overall difference in trivia performance between participants primed with the "professor" category and those primed with the "hooligan" category (0.14%) and no moderation by gender.

Forward and Backward Blocking in Human Contingency Judgement

Three experiments investigated whether a process akin to Kamin's (1969) blocking effect would occur with human contingency judgements in the context of a video game. Subjects were presented with sets of trials on each of which they could perform a particular action and observe whether the action produced a particular outcome in a situation in which there was an alternative potential cause of the outcome. In Experiment 1 it was found that prior observation of the relationship between the alternative cause and the outcome did indeed block or reduce learning about the subsequent action-outcome relationship. However, exposure to the relationship between the alternative cause and the outcome after observing the association between the action and the outcome also reduced judgements of the action–outcome contingency (backward blocking), a finding at variance with conditioning theory. In Experiment 2 it was found that, just as is the case with forward blocking, the degree of backward blocking depended on how good a predictor of the outcome the alternative cause was. Finally, in Experiment 3 it was shown that the backward blocking effect was not the result of greater forgetting about the action–outcome relationship in the experimental than in the control condition. These results cast doubt upon the applicability of contemporary theories of conditioning to human contingency judgement.

Short article: Conformity to the power PC theory of causal induction depends on the type of probe question

P. W. Cheng's (1997) power PC theory of causal induction proposes that causal estimates are based on the power ( P) of a potential cause, where P is the contingency between the cause and effect normalized by the base rate of the effect. Most previous research using a standard causal probe question has failed to support the predictions of the power PC model but recently Buehner, Cheng, and Clifford (2003) found that participants responded in terms of causal power when probed with a counterfactual test question, which they argued prompted participants to consider the base rate of the effect. However, Buehner et al. framed their counterfactual question in terms of frequency, a factor that has been demonstrated to decrease base rate neglect in judgements under uncertainty. In the experiment reported here, we sought to disentangle the influence of counterfactual and frequency framing of the probe question to determine which factor is responsible for encouraging responses in terms of causal power.

Evidence for Rule-Based Processes in the Inverse Base-Rate Effect

Three studies provide convergent evidence that the inverse base-rate effect (Medin & Edelson, 1988) is mediated by rule-based cognitive processes. Experiment 1 shows that, in contrast to adults, prior to the formal operational stage most children do not exhibit the inverse base-rate effect. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate that an adult sample is a mix of participants relying on associative processes who categorize according to the base-rate and participants relying on rule-based processes who exhibit a strong inverse base-rate effect. The distribution of the effect is bimodal, and removing participants independently classified as prone to rule-based processing effectively eliminates the inverse base-rate effect. The implications for current explanations of the inverse base-rate effect are discussed.

Associationism and cognition: Human contingency learning at 25

A major topic within human learning, the field of contingency judgement, began to emerge about 25 years ago following publication of an article on depressive realism by Alloy and Abramson (1979). Subsequently, associationism has been the dominant theoretical framework for understanding contingency learning but this has been challenged in recent years by an alternative cognitive or inferential approach. This article outlines the key conceptual differences between these approaches and summarizes some of the main methods that have been employed to distinguish between them.

The forward testing effect: Interim testing enhances inductive learning

Induction refers to the process in which people generalize their previous experience when making uncertain inferences about the environment that go beyond direct experience. Here we show that interim tests strongly enhance inductive learning. Participants studied the painting styles of eight famous artists across four lists, each comprising paintings by one pair of artists. In an interim test group participants' induction was tested after each list. In two control groups participants solved math problems (interim math group) or studied additional new paintings (interim study group) following each of Lists 1-3 and were asked to classify new paintings on List 4. In the List 4 interim test, the interim test group significantly outperformed the other two groups, indicating that interim testing enhances new inductive learning. In a final cumulative test, accuracy in the interim test group at classifying new paintings by studied artists was nearly double that of the other two groups, indicating the major importance of interim testing in inductive learning. This enhancing effect of interim testing on inductive learning was associated with metacognitive awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record

On Similarities between Causal Judgments in Experienced and Described Situations

Wasserman (1990a) has reported an experiment that shows that people's attributions of causality in circumstances where they have to make inferences from brief verbal descriptions correspond to the attributions they make in situations where they actually experience causal sequences, and on the basis of that result he has suggested that psychologists should search for general laws of learning that might account for correspondences such as this one. I briefly describe some further similarities that can be obtained between causal judgments in experienced and described situations. However, the suggestion that a common mechanism may be involved in the two cases is questioned. Instead, I suggest that the correspondence is little more than a coincidence: It does not arise from the operation of a common mechanism. Instead, I argue that people, along with other organisms, possess an associative learning mechanism that operates in experienced situations, but we also possess domain-specific causal beliefs and metabeliefs about causation. These latter two types of beliefs play little role in experienced causal situations, but can readily be applied in making causal attributions from descriptions.

The forward testing effect on self-regulated study time allocation and metamemory monitoring

The forward testing effect describes the finding that testing of previously studied information potentiates learning and retention of new information. Here we asked whether interim testing boosts self-regulated study time allocation when learning new information and explored its effect on metamemory monitoring. Participants had unlimited time to study five lists of Euskara-English word pairs (Experiment 1) or four lists of face-name pairs (Experiment 2). In a no interim test group, which was only tested on the final list, study time decreased across successive lists. In contrast, in an interim test group, which completed a recall test after each list, no such decrease was observed. Experiments 3 and 4 were designed to investigate the forward testing effect on metamemory monitoring and found that this effect is associated with metacognitive insight. Overall, the current study reveals that interim tests prevent the reduction of study time across lists and that people's metamemory monitoring is sensitive to the forward benefit of interim testing. Moreover, across all 4 experiments, the interim test group was less affected by proactive interference in the final list interim test than the no interim test group. The results suggest that variations in both encoding and retrieval processes contribute to the forward benefit of interim testing. (PsycINFO Database Record

The procedural learning deficit hypothesis of language learning disorders: we see some problems

Impaired procedural learning has been suggested as a possible cause of developmental dyslexia (DD) and specific language impairment (SLI). This study examined the relationship between measures of verbal and non-verbal implicit and explicit learning and measures of language, literacy and arithmetic attainment in a large sample of 7 to 8-year-old children. Measures of verbal explicit learning were correlated with measures of attainment. In contrast, no relationships between measures of implicit learning and attainment were found. Critically, the reliability of the implicit learning tasks was poor. Our results show that measures of procedural learning, as currently used, are typically unreliable and insensitive to individual differences. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvV-BvNWSo.

Metacognitive unawareness of the errorful generation benefit and its effects on self-regulated learning

Generating errors followed by corrective feedback enhances retention more effectively than does reading-the benefit of errorful generation-but people tend to be unaware of this benefit. The current research explored this metacognitive unawareness, its effect on self-regulated learning, and how to alleviate or reverse it. People's beliefs about the relative learning efficacy of generating errors followed by corrective feedback compared to reading, and the effects of generation fluency, are also explored. In Experiments 1 and 2, lower judgments of learning (JOLs) were consistently given to incorrectly generated word pairs than to studied (read) pairs and led participants to distribute more study resources to incorrectly generated pairs, even though superior recall of these pairs was exhibited in the final test. In Experiment 3, a survey revealed that people believe that generating errors followed by corrective feedback is inferior to reading. Experiment 4 was designed to alter participants' metacognition by informing them of the errorful generation benefit prior to study. Although metacognitive misalignment was partly countered, participants still tended to be unaware of this benefit when making item-by-item JOLs. In Experiment 5, in a delayed JOL condition, higher JOLs were given to incorrectly generated pairs and read pairs were more likely to be selected for restudy. The current research reveals that people tend to underestimate the learning efficiency of generating errors followed by corrective feedback relative to reading when making immediate item-by-item JOLs. Informing people of the errorful generation benefit prior to study and asking them to make delayed JOLs are effective ways to alleviate this metacognitive miscalibration. (PsycINFO Database Record

Testing the controllability of contextual cuing of visual search

Locating a target among distractors improves when the configuration of distractors consistently cues the target's location across search trials, an effect called contextual cuing of visual search (CC). The important issue of whether CC is automatic has previously been studied by asking whether it can occur implicitly (outside awareness). Here we ask the novel question: is CC of visual search controllable? In 3 experiments participants were exposed to a standard CC procedure during Phase 1. In Phase 2, they localized a new target, embedded in configurations (including the previous target) repeated from Phase 1. Despite robust contextual cuing, congruency effects - which would imply the orientation of attention towards the old target in repeated configurations - were found in none of the experiments. The results suggest that top-down control can be exerted over contextually-guided visual search.

Selection bias, vote counting, and money-priming effects: A comment on Rohrer, Pashler, and Harris (2015) and Vohs (2015)

When a series of studies fails to replicate a well-documented effect, researchers might be tempted to use a “vote counting” approach to decide whether the effect is reliable—that is, simply comparing the number of successful and unsuccessful replications. Vohs’s (2015) response to the absence of money priming effects reported by Rohrer, Pashler, and Harris (2015) provides an example of this approach. Unfortunately, vote counting is a poor strategy to assess the reliability of psychological findings because it neglects the impact of selection bias and questionable research practices. In the present comment, we show that a range of meta-analytic tools indicate irregularities in the money priming literature discussed by Rohrer et al. and Vohs, which all point to the conclusion that these effects are distorted by selection bias, reporting biases, or p-hacking. This could help to explain why money-priming effects have proven unreliable in a number of direct replication attempts in which biases have been minimized through preregistration or transparent reporting. Our major conclusion is that the simple proportion of significant findings is a poor guide to the reliability of research and that preregistered replications are an essential means to assess the reliability of money-priming effects.

Configural learning in contextual cuing of visual search

Two experiments were conducted to explore the role of configural representations in contextual cuing of visual search. Repeating patterns of distractors (contexts) were trained incidentally as predictive of the target location. Training participants with repeating contexts of consistent configurations led to stronger contextual cuing than when participants were trained with contexts of inconsistent configurations. Computational simulations with an elemental associative learning model of contextual cuing demonstrated that purely elemental representations could not account for the results. However, a configural model of associative learning was able to simulate the ordinal pattern of data. (PsycINFO Database Record

Romance, risk, and replication: Can consumer choices and risk-taking be primed by mating motives?

Interventions aimed at influencing spending behavior and risk-taking have considerable practical importance. A number of studies motivated by the costly signaling theory within evolutionary psychology have reported that priming inductions (such as looking at pictures of attractive opposite sex members) designed to trigger mating motives increase males' stated willingness to purchase conspicuous consumption items and to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and reduce loss aversion. However, a meta-analysis of this literature reveals strong evidence of either publication bias or p-hacking (or both). We then report 8 studies with a total sample of over 1,600 participants which sought to reproduce these effects. None of the studies, including one that was fully preregistered, was successful. The results question the claim that romantic primes can influence risk-taking and other potentially harmful behaviors.

Can lies be detected unconsciously?

People are typically poor at telling apart truthful and deceptive statements. Based on the Unconscious Thought Theory, it has been suggested that poor lie detection arises from the intrinsic limitations of conscious thinking and can be improved by facilitating the contribution of unconscious thought (UT). In support of this hypothesis, Reinhard et al. (2013) observed improved lie detection among participants engaging in UT. The present study aimed to replicate this UT advantage using a similar experimental procedure but with an important improvement in a key control condition. Specifically, participants judged the truthfulness of eight video recordings in three thinking modes: immediately after watching them or after a period of unconscious or conscious deliberation. Results from two experiments (combined N = 226) failed to reveal a significant difference in lie detection accuracy between the thinking modes, even after efforts were made to facilitate the occurrence of an UT advantage in Experiment 2. The results imply that the UT advantage in deception detection is not a robust phenomenon.