On the recollection of specific- and partial-source information

Abstract

Memory judgments can be based on information that is more or less specific with respect to the source of an item. The authors introduce a procedure and multinomial model for measuring specific- and partial-source information. In 2 experiments, participants heard words spoken by 4 different voices: 2 male voices and 2 female voices. During the test, participants were required to remember who spoke the test items (e.g., Male 1, Male 2, Female 1, Female 2, or new word). Participants often remembered information about the gender of the source (i.e., partial-source information) when they did not remember information that identified the source itself (i.e., specific-source information). Dividing attention during retrieval impaired participants' memory for specific-source information (i.e., voice information) but did not affect memory for partial-source information (i.e., gender information).