Johnson & Raye (1981)

Reality monitoring.

Psychological Review, 88(1), 67-85

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DOI

Abstract

People remember information from 2 basic sources: external (perceptual processes) and internal (processes such as reasoning, imagination, and thought). Of particular interest are the processes people use in deciding whether information initially had an external or an internal source, i.e., "reality monitoring." A working model of reality monitoring is proposed to account for both discrimination and confusion between memories for thoughts and memories for perceptions. Examples of questions the model addresses are: What types of information are more likely to be represented in memories of external events than in memories of internal events?; What assumptions do individuals have about their memory for their thoughts compared to their memory for their perceptions?; and How accurate are these assumptions? Research that demonstrates the usefulness of the model is summarized. (100 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Reference

Johnson, M. K., & Raye, C. L. (1981). Reality monitoring. Psychological review, 88(1), 67.

What Rests on This

2 mechanisms cite this source. Each finding below is quoted as it appears on that mechanism's own page.

Source Monitoring Metacognition

Definition

Reality monitoring is the subtype that separates internally generated experiences (imagined, thought or inferred) from externally perceived ones, whereas external source monitoring discriminates between two outside sources, such as two speakers

Reality Monitoring Metacognition

Definition

Reality monitoring is the set of judgment processes people use to decide whether a memory came from the outside world (something perceived) or from their own minds (something thought, imagined or planned). It is an attribution made at remembering, not a separate memory store