One of the primary tools in the investigation of perception and memory is the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), which is a plot of hits ('yes' responses on target trials) vs. false alarms ('yes' responses on non-target trials). Researchers commonly claim that the details of these curves provide insight into cognitive phenomena of interest. It is not clear, however, that ROCs are sufficiently rich so as to allow differentiation of processes. The basic idea to be explored is whether ROCs collected across disparate domains have the same pattern, that is, can all be explained by common processing, or have different patterns, that is, can support rich theories of processing. Based on our observations, we will develop flexible, nonparametric, model-free tests of ROC pattern equivalence. These tests will allow us to assess whether ROCs can be used to make detailed inferences about processing.
Understanding human memory has many practical consequences in education, professional training, health delivery, and even in legal settings. Memory researchers have posited many two-process models to account for their results, including 'remember-know', 'automatic-controlled', and 'unconscious-conscious'. Unfortunately, direct tests of these models have often lacked rigor, because they have used statistical tests such as ROCs in a confirmatory mode. This project will allow perception and memory researchers to understand how to use ROCs in a more principled way.
