The Roles of Cue and Target Familiarity in Making Feeling of Knowing Judgments

This study evaluated the effects of cue and target familiarity on metacognitive judgments by using a retroactive interference paradigm. Subjects studied 12 pairs of unrelated words. The first 6 pairs formed an A-B list, and the next 6 formed an A-B list (both elements repeated), a C-B list (only the target repeated), an A-D list (only the cue repeated), or a C-D list (neither element repeated). Following study, the six critical cues were presented and subjects made predictions of knowing. Predictions were highest when both elements were repeated and equally low when only the cue, only the target, or neither element was repeated. A subsequent cued recall test showed that significant retroactive interference effects were apparent. The findings suggest that neither cue nor target familiarity alone sufficiently explains knowing judgments.