REMEMBERING MISTAKEN FOR KNOWING - EASE OF RETRIEVAL AS A BASIS FOR CONFIDENCE IN ANSWERS TO GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS

We propose that confidence in potential answers to general knowledge questions is based, in part, on the ease with which those answers come to mind. Consistent with this hypothesis, prior exposure to correct and to related but incorrect answers to general knowledge questions increased the speed, frequency, and confidence with which subjects gave those answers on a subsequent test of general knowledge. Similar effects were obtained even when subjects were warned that the list included incorrect answers (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 3 indicated that the effects do not rely on deliberate search of memory for the list: Subjects who read a list with correct answers to half of the questions on a subsequent test gained full benefit of exposure to correct answers relative to subjects who read a list with correct answers to all of the questions, yet showed no cost on questions for which answers were not in the list relative to subjects who read a list of unrelated fillers. Finally, Experiments 4a and 4b demonstrated that prior exposure to incorrect answers can give rise to illusions of knowing even when subjects know that all of the answers on the study list were incorrect. In those studies, subjects were correctly informed that all of the answers on the list were incorrect, yet those who had studied the list with divided attention nonetheless tended to give the studied incorrect answers as responses to the knowledge questions. We discuss these findings in terms of Jacoby, Kelley. and Dywans (1989) attributional approach to subjective experience. © 1993 Academic Press, Inc.