Adult Egocentrism: Subjective Experience versus Analytic Bases for Judgment

The influence of memory on the subjective experience of later problem solving was investigated in two experiments. Study of the solution words to anagrams in the first phase of the experiments lead to faster solution of those anagrams in a second phase. Participants interpreted their easy solution of old anagrams as due to characteristics of the anagrams and judged them as easier for others to solve, relative to new anagrams. When participants were deprived of the subjective experience of solving the anagrams by presenting the solution with the anagram, they switched to an alternative basis for judgment such as a theory or rules, which lead to a different ordering of items according to judged difficulty (Experiment 1). Requiring participants to recognize whether solution words had been presented in the first phase did not eliminate the effect of prior presentation on judged difficulty, but requiring recognition judgments and warning participants of the nature of the effect did eliminate it (Experiment 2). We discuss the usefulness of the distinction between judgments based on subjective experience versus theory, introduce ways to diagnose when different bases for judgments are used, and discuss how memory spoils subjective experience as a basis for judgment. q 1996 Academic Press, Inc.