Test formats change source-monitoring decision processes

The authors manipulated in 4 experiments how participants made source-monitoring decisions (SMDs). In Experiments 1 and 2, asking whether items were encountered from specific sources produced asymmetries that depended on the source that was queried. Such testing also differed from a standard source test in which all potential sources were considered simultaneously. Across the 2 experiments, the results were also a function of the combination of sources tested. This pattern of findings persisted in Experiments 3 and 4 when relative source judgments were made from pairs of items presented at test from which participants were asked to pick the item from a particular source. The results are discussed in terms of how specific queries focus SMD processes toward or away from particular qualitative characteristics that vary in diagnosticity concerning the origin of a memory.