THE EFFECTS OF STUDY AND TEST VARIABLES ON MEMORY (original) (raw)
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The Rise and Fall of False Recall: The Impact of Presentation Duration
Journal of Memory and Language, 2001
The effect of presentation duration on false recall induced by presentation of semantically associated and phonologically associated word lists was examined. When 16-word lists comprised of semantically related words (e.g., bed, yawn) were presented at short durations (i.e., 20 or 250 ms/word), false recall of related but nonpresented words (e.g., sleep) increased with increasing duration. However, at longer presentation durations (i.e., 1000, 3000, or 5000 ms/word), false recall declined with increasing presentation duration. This pattern resolves discrepancies among previous experiments investigating the effects of presentation duration on associatively induced false recall. Further, these data constrain theoretical accounts of false recall in that single-process models cannot readily account for these effects. We propose a dual-process model that appears to account for these findings and much of the extant literature. Phonologically related lists (e.g., sweep, sleet) exhibited a very different pattern of results at the short presentation durations; specifically, false recall was exceedingly high at the fastest duration and declined as duration lengthened. Similarities and differences between the mechanisms underlying semantically and phonologically induced false recall are considered.
Eliciting and comparing false and recovered memories: an experimental approach
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2003
We describe an experimental paradigm designed to elicit both recovered and false memories in the laboratory. All participants saw, on a video screen, three critical categorized lists of words mixed in randomly with eighteen filler categorized lists. Those in the blocking condition then had several paper-and-pencil tasks that involved only the 18 non-critical filler lists. An uncued recall test was then given, asking participants to recall all the lists they originally saw on the video screen. Finally, there was a cued recall test that provided category cues for the three critical lists. Substantial memory blocking of critical lists on the uncued test and recovery on the cued recall test was observed in all three experiments. In Experiments 2 and 3, many false and recovered memories were elicited on the cued recall test by including cues for the three critical (forgotten) lists, plus cues for three lists that had never been presented. False memories were distinguishable from truly recovered memories in cued recall by 'know' versus 'remember' judgements, and by confidence ratings; accurately recovered memories were associated with higher confidence. False and recovered memories could not be discriminated based on recall latency. The results repeatedly show powerful effects of memory blocking and recovery. We also show that recovered and false memories can be elicited within a single experimental procedure, and there may be unique characteristics of each. Although we urge caution in generalizing to false and recovered memories of trauma, we suggest that variations of our comparative memory paradigm may be useful for learning about such phenomena.
The role of test structure in creating false memories
Memory & Cognition, 2006
In the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, studying lists of semantic associates results in high rates of false recognition of a nonpresented critical word. The present set of experiments was designed to measure the contribution of additional processing of list items at test to this false memory effect. The participants studied sets of lists and then performed a recognition task for each
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE FORMATION OF FALSE MEMORIES: IS SUGGESTIBILITY A PREDICTIVE FACTOR?
Individual differences in the formation of false memories using suggestibility as a predictive factor were investigated. Undergraduate males and females were administered two false memory paradigms: the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) (1995) word recognition task and the Kassin & Kiechel (KK) ALT key task (1996). Subsequently, participants were administered the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS) 2 to determine their suggestibility scores. As predicted, higher suggestibility scores were correlated with forming a false memory in the Kassin & Kiechel task. However, suggestibility was not correlated with the DRM task. These results provide evidence that suggestibility is a predictive factor for one false memory paradigm but not the other, indicating that perhaps different cognitive mechanisms underlie the two.
Two memory paradigms: Genuine and false memories in word lists and autobiographical recall
Trends in Experimental Psychology Research, 2005
Genuine and false memories were tested in a word list task and in an autobiographical memory task. In Part I we closely replicated finding that semantic associates of word lists are often falsely recalled and recognized. The false recall rate for critical lures was 44% and the false recognition rate was 52%. In Part II, the repeated interviewing procedure devised by Hyman, produced many rich genuine memories as well as some apparently false ones. Repeated interviewing resulted in richer and more elaborate memories in the second interview than in the first interview. Follow-up inquiries showed that several of the manufactured memories that had been accepted were similar to actual past experiences. For genuine memories, the correlations between recall of items presented in word lists and recall of true childhood events were all near zero. For false memories, the low incidence of false recall in autobiographical memory did not allow meaningful correlations across paradigms. The evidence presented here supports three conclusions. First, as has also been shown by others, the results of Deese (1959) and are readily replicable. Having seen lists of associates of a non-presented critical word, participants will often falsely "recall" and "recognize" that word in subsequent tests. Second, the method of can indeed result in participants' accepting a false childhood memory. But not all such cases can be taken at face value; one must guard against the possibility that the accepted memory happened to fit an actual experience and hence was not entirely false. Third and final, we underscored the need to examine the relationship between genuine and false memories across the two paradigms. While it is likely that one is driven by associations and the other by schemata and selfnarrative, research targeted at memory performance in word-list tasks and in episodic memory tasks should explore commonalities and differences in memory functioning and associated personality traits. We caution against drawing conclusions from word-list memory to memory for life events.
2020
Until recently, it was unclear whether there is an identifiable “trait” that represents a person’s vulnerability to developing false memories. Two articles in the current issue (Patihis, Frenda, & Loftus, this issue; Bernstein, Scoboria, Desjarlais, & Soucie, this issue) find scant evidence that performance on any one false memory task could reliably predict performance on another. Individual difference measures also were poor predictors of false memories, consistent with past research. I argue that these findings, and other converging evidence, suggest there is no false memory trait, that all people are susceptible to false memories, and that memory distortions likely arise from brain structures and mechanisms common to all people. Accepting the idea that all people are susceptible to false memories, and not just the 25 percent or so who typically report a false memory in any single study, has important implications for preventing memory distortions in psychotherapy and other setti...
Eliciting false memories on implicit and explicit memory tests after incidental learning
Japanese Psychological Research, 2005
In a false memory experiment, lists of semantic associates (e.g., newspaper, letter, book, etc.) were presented to three groups of participants to induce false memories for critical nonpresented (CN) words (e.g., read) in an incidental learning task. The control group simply estimated the frequency rate in everyday Japanese discourse of each word on a list. The imagery instruction group received an additional instruction to imagine a thematically related converging word from the target words on a list. Participants in the imagery plus writing group received the same instructions as those in the imagery instruction group, but were also required to write down the word they imagined for each list. The results from the implicit and explicit memory tests given after the incidental learning episode showed that the level of priming for CN words was equivalent to that for actually presented target words for all three groups on the implicit test, whereas explicit memory results showed that participants explicitly recognized more target words than CN words. The implications for implicit associative response and fuzzy-trace theories of false memory, as well as implicit priming, are discussed.
Recent advances in false memory research
South African Journal of Psychology, 2013
In the last few years, substantial gains have been made in our understanding of human memory errors and the phenomenon of false memory, wherein individuals remember entire events that did not happen at all. Research had established that false memories can be consequential and emotional, that they can last for long periods of time, and that they are not merely the product of demand characteristics or the recovery of extant but hidden memories. These recent advances are discussed as extensions of earlier foundational research.