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The mirror effect is a regularity in recognition memory that requires reexamination of current views of memory. Five experiments that further support and extended the generality of the mirror effect are reported. The first two experiments vary word frequency. The third and fourth vary both word frequency and concreteness. The fifth experiment varies word frequency, concreteness, and the subject's operations on the words. The experiments furnish data on the stability of the effect, its relation to response times, its extension to multiple mirror effects, and its extension beyond stimulus variables to operation variables. A theory of the effect and predictions that derive from the theory are presented.

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Two proposals concerning the slope of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) in recognition memory were tested-the constancy-of-slopes generalization (R. Ratcliff, C.-F. Sheu, & S. D. Gronlund, 1992) and the dual-process hypothesis (A. P. Yonelinas, 1994). The constancy-of-slopes generalization states that changes in accuracy leave ROC slopes unchanged. The dual-process hypothesis states that ROC slopes are less than 1.00 because they are produced by two independent memory factors: recollection and familiarity. Four experiments tested the constancy-of-slopes generalization. The results contradicted the generalization. Slopes changed when accuracy was changed by varying study time, word frequency, and encoding task. A survey of the literature showed slope changes produced by those variables and also by other variables. Analyses of the shapes of ROCs were used to test the dual-process hypothesis. The results contradicted that hypothesis.

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