Response bias in recognition memory as a cognitive trait

According to signal detection theory, old–new recognition decisions can be affected by response bias, a general proclivity to respond either “old” or “new.” In recognition experiments, response bias is usually analyzed at a group level, but substantial individual differences in bias can underlie group means. These differences suggest that, independent of any experimental manipulation, some people require more memory evidence than do others before they are willing to call an item “old.” In four experiments, we investigated the possibility that recognition response bias is a partial function of a trait-like predisposition. Bias was highly correlated across two recognition study–test cycles separated by 10 min (Experiment 1 ). A nearly identical correlation was observed when the tasks were separated by one week (Experiment 2 ). Bias correlations remained significant even when the stimuli differed sharply between the first and second study–test cycles (Experiment 3 ). No relationship was detected between bias and response strategies in two general knowledge tests (Experiments 2 and 4 ), but bias did weakly predict frequency of false recall in the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Experiment 4 ). This evidence of trait-like stability suggests an entirely different aspect of response bias than that studied by examining its modulation by task variables, one for which complete theories of recognition memory may need to account.