Input and output monitoring in implicit and explicit memory tests

During the past few years researchers have become more and more interested in the nature of the relationship between consciousness and memory performance. Although remembering has traditionally been supposed to involve the conscious retrieval of previously experienced events, many studies have demonstrated the existence of various, and often independent, forms of remembering on priming tests of implicit memory. In recent years, attempts have been made to determine if an implicit test is contaminated by intentional retrieval strategies. Some of the techniques that have been proposed to solve this problem are described. Further, we report some studies that analyzed input and output monitoring in implicit and explicit test conditions, respectively. These studies have revealed that compared to explicit tests subjects are less aware of the fact that some of their productions are related to previous experiences in implicit tests. Moreover, they are experientially less aware of the fact that they are retrieving information from their memories. However, a similar state of nonawareness may also occur in some explicit tests of memory.