Altering the balance of recollection and familiarity influences the revelation effect.

The revelation effect occurs when recognition test probes are more likely to be called "old" if they are preceded by a verbal processing task. Two experiments examined the role of familiarity and recollection in producing this effect. Each experiment tested the hypothesis that decreasing recollection would heighten the magnitude of the revelation effect. In Experiment 1, the revelation effect increased by delaying the recognition test. In Experiment 2, the revelation effect increased when the presentation rate of the study words was reduced. These results are discussed in terms of the variables that produce the revelation effect in episodic and nonepisodic memory judgments.