Story contexts increase susceptibility to the DRM illusion in 5-year-olds

False recognition in children aged 5, 8, and 11 years was investigated using the standard version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure and an alternative version in which the DRM stimuli were embedded in stories designed to emphasize their overall theme. Relative to the 8- and 11-year-olds, the 5-year-olds falsely recognized fewer critical lures when the DRM stimuli were presented in lists, but falsely recognized more critical lures when the stimuli were presented in stories. Levels of false recognition in the 8- and 11-year-olds were not affected by study format. We argue that the story context enhanced the ability of the 5-year-olds to make inferences based on the theme of the DRM stimuli. The 5-year-olds then showed higher levels of false recognition than the older children owing to their inability to reject lure words consistent with the stories.     

Using story contexts to bias children’s true and false memories

The effects of embedding standard Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists into stories whose context biased interpretation either toward or away from the overall themes of the DRM lists on both true and false recognition were investigated with 7- and 11-year-olds. These biased story contexts were compared with the same children’s susceptibility to false memory illusions using the standard DRM list presentation paradigm. The results showed the usual age effects for true and false memories in the standard DRM list paradigm, where 11-year-olds exhibited higher rates of both true and false recognition compared with the 7-year-olds. Importantly, when DRM lists were embedded in stories, these age effects disappeared for true recognition. For false recognition, although developmental differences were attenuated, older children were still more susceptible to false memory illusions than younger children. These findings are discussed in terms of current theories of children’s false memories as well as the role of themes and elaboration in children’s memory development.     

False memory in a short-term memory task

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) paradigm reliably elicits false memories for critical nonpresented words in recognition tasks. The present studies used a Sternberg (1966) task with DRM lists to determine whether false memories occur in short-term memory tasks and to assess the contribution of latency data in the measurement of false memories. Subjects studied three, five, or seven items from DRM lists and responded to a single probe (studied or nonstudied). In both experiments, critical lures were falsely recognized more often than nonpresented weak associates. Latency data indicated that correct rejections of critical lures were slower than correct rejections of weakly related items at all set sizes. False alarms to critical lures were slower than hits to list items. Latency data can distinguish veridical and false memories in a short-term memory task. Results are discussed in terms of activation-monitoring models of false memory.     

The role of test structure in creating false memories

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 set. In three experiments, using this paradigm, we investigated false recognition when the number of studied list items presented at test (0, 6, or 12) was manipulated. In Experiments 2 and 3, false recognition of critical lures associated to both studied and nonstudied lists increased significantly as the number of list items included in the test increased. These results indicate that processes occurring at retrieval contribute to false memory effects found with the DRM paradigm.     

强大的错误记忆效应:词表呈现时间与呈现方式的影响

本研究采用DRM范式(Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm),考察了词表项目的呈现时间与呈现方式对错误记忆效应的影响。结果发现,被试对关键诱饵的错误再认受到学习阶段词表项目的呈现方式的影响,表现为所有项目随机呈现条件下的错误再认明显低于分组呈现条件,尤其是在20ms的随机呈现条件下,观察到了对关键诱饵的最低错误再认率。说明在对词表项目的编码阶段产生了对关键诱饵的连续激活,而对关键诱饵的错误记忆则是基于连续激活的不断累积的结果,当词表项目的随机呈现阻断了连续激活过程时,便会有效降低错误记忆效应。而且,在所有实验条件下均发现了错误记忆效应产生中所伴随的强烈主观体验,证实了错误记忆是一种强大的效应。     

Test-induced priming of false memories

Of interest was whether prior testing of related words primes false memories in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. After studying lists of related words, subjects made old-new judgments about zero, three, or six related items before being tested on critical nonpresented lures. When the recognition test was self-paced, prior testing of list items led to faster false recognition judgments, but did not increase the rate of false alarms to lures from studied lists. Critically, this pattern changed when decision making at test was speeded. When forced to respond quickly—presumably precluding the use of monitoring processes—clear test-induced priming effects were observed in the rate of false memories. The results are consistent with an activation-monitoring explanation of false memories and support that retrieving veridical memories can be a source of memory error.     

Encoding context and false recognition memories

False recognition of an extralist word that is thematically related to all words of a study list may reflect internal activation of the theme word during encoding followed by impaired source monitoring at retrieval, that is, difficulty in determining whether the word had actually been experienced or merely thought of. To assist source monitoring, distinctive visual or verbal contexts were added to study words at input. Both types of context produced similar effects: False alarms to theme‐word (critical) lures were reduced; remember judgements of critical lures called old were lower; and if contextual information had been added to lists, subjects indicated as much for list items and associated critical foils identified as old. The visual and verbal contexts used in the present studies were held to disrupt semantic categorisation of list words at input and to facilitate source monitoring at output.     

False memory across languages: implicit associative response vs fuzzy trace views

We investigated false recognition across languages using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. A group of English-French bilinguals studied lists of converging associates, some lists in English and some in French, and then performed a recognition test containing studied list items and nonstudied critical lures whose language matched or mismatched the language at study. Participants were instructed to answer old only if the test cue was in the same language as the studied word. The results yielded a robust false memory rate both within-language and across-languages. The effect of the study-test language shift was much larger for list items than for critical lures. This finding suggests that memory representations for critical lures contain primarily semantic gist traces and little surface information, and hence is more consistent with the fuzzy trace view than with the implicit associative response view. In sum, the study demonstrates the existence of false memory across languages, and provides information about the memory traces underlying veridical and illusory recognition.     

Encoding context and false recognition memories

False recognition of an extralist word that is thematically related to all words of a study list may reflect internal activation of the theme word during encoding followed by impaired source monitoring at retrieval, that is, difficulty in determining whether the word had actually been experienced or merely thought of. To assist source monitoring, distinctive visual or verbal contexts were added to study words at input. Both types of context produced similar effects: False alarms to theme-word (critical) lures were reduced; remember judgements of critical lures called old were lower; and if contextual information had been added to lists, subjects indicated as much for list items and associated critical foils identified as old. The visual and verbal contexts used in the present studies were held to disrupt semantic categorisation of list words at input and to facilitate source monitoring at output.     

汉字字形关联对错误记忆的影响

采用DRM范式,研究汉字字形关联对错误记忆的影响。实验以占汉字主体的形声字为材料。学习阶段使用了两类字表:在一半字表中,各字表内汉字及相应的关键诱饵具有相同形旁;另一半字表中,各字表内汉字及相应关键诱饵具有相同声旁。再认测试中,被试对两类关键诱饵均表现出了明显的错误记忆,并且其效应大小与字表汉字相似度成正比。这些结果说明,汉字的字形关联可以诱发错误记忆现象,并且这种错误记忆效应由汉字间字形相似度决定。     

项目特异性加工和关系加工对非熟练中-英双语者跨语言错误记忆的影响

采用DRM范式进行跨语言错误记忆的研究较为鲜见, 而且得出了许多不同的结果, 关于错误记忆跨语言产生的理论解释也是各执己见。研究以非熟练中-英双语大学生为被试, 采用DRM范式对非熟练中-英双语者的跨语言错误记忆进行了研究。在2个实验中, 分别探讨了项目特异性加工和关系加工条件下, 语义激活的不同水平对跨语言错误记忆的影响。结果发现：1)非熟练中-英双语者也存在跨语言的错误记忆; 2)在项目特异性加工和关系加工条件下, 相同语言内与不同语言间发生关键诱词的错误再认的结果是不同的; 3)只在项目特异性加工条件下, 长词表比短词表会诱发更多的对关键诱词的错误再认。研究结果支持了激活-监测理论。     

Repetition effects in associative false recognition: Theme-based criterion shifts are the exception, not the rule

Previous reports have demonstrated that false memory for the critical items of associative lists decreases when lists are studied multiple times (Benjamin, 2001). In three experiments, we explored two hypotheses that might account for false memory reductions with repetition. Under an identification hypothesis, repetition decreases false memory because participants realise that critical items are absent from the list at encoding and thus reject them at test. Under a criterion shift hypothesis, repetition decreases false memory because it increases the discriminability of studied words from lures, causing participants to set a higher response criterion for positive recognition responses. Results uniquely supported the criterion shift hypothesis. Furthermore, results showed that participants only changed their criterion on separate recognition tests, not on an item-by-item basis within a single recognition test. The failure to establish separate criteria within a test increased false memory for repeated lists.     

Effects of repetition and response deadline on item recognition in young and older adults

In the present study, we examined the joint effects of aging, repetition, and response deadline in a plurality discrimination task. Young and older adults studied lists of unrelated singular and plural nouns, with half presented once (weak items) and half presented five times (strong items). Test lists contained old (same) nouns, plurality-reversed nouns (changed lures), and unstudied nouns (new lures), and the participants were asked to respond old only to same items. In Experiment 1, the participants were tested with both short and long deadlines. In Experiment 2, the tests were unpaced. In both experiments, repetition increased hit rates for young and older adults. Young adults tested with a long deadline or no deadline showed invariant (Experiment 1) or reduced (Experiment 2) false alarms to changed lures when the nouns were studied more often. Young adults tested with a short deadline and older adults tested with both long and short deadlines had increased false alarm rates for strong changed lures; without time pressure to respond, older adults did not have a significant increase in false alarms for changed lures. Implications of these results for theories of cognitive aging are explored.     

Test-induced priming increases false recognition in older but not younger children

The effect of test-induced priming on false recognition was investigated in children aged 5, 7, 9, and 11 years using lists of semantic associates, category exemplars, and phonological associates. In line with effects previously observed in adults, nine- and eleven-year-olds showed increased levels of false recognition when critical lures were preceded by four studied items. This pattern was present with all three list types. In contrast, no effects of test-induced priming were observed in five- or seven-year-olds with any list type. The results also support those of previous studies in showing a developmental shift from phonological to semantic false memories. The findings are discussed in terms of current theories of children's false memories.     

Categorical <Emphasis Type="Italic">and</Emphasis> associative relations increase false memory relative to purely associative relations

The goal of the present study was to examine the contributions of associative strength and similarity in terms of shared features to the production of false memories in the Deese/Roediger–McDermott list-learning paradigm. Whereas the activation/monitoring account suggests that false memories are driven by automatic associative activation from list items to nonpresented lures, combined with errors in source monitoring, other accounts (e.g., fuzzy trace theory, global-matching models) emphasize the importance of semantic-level similarity, and thus predict that shared features between list and lure items will increase false memory. Participants studied lists of nine items related to a nonpresented lure. Half of the lists consisted of items that were associated but did not share features with the lure, and the other half included items that were equally associated but also shared features with the lure (in many cases, these were taxonomically related items). The two types of lists were carefully matched in terms of a variety of lexical and semantic factors, and the same lures were used across list types. In two experiments, false recognition of the critical lures was greater following the study of lists that shared features with the critical lure, suggesting that similarity at a categorical or taxonomic level contributes to false memory above and beyond associative strength. We refer to this phenomenon as a “feature boost” that reflects additive effects of shared meaning and association strength and is generally consistent with accounts of false memory that have emphasized thematic or feature-level similarity among studied and nonstudied representations.     

An item gains and losses analysis of false memories suggests critical items receive more item-specific processing than list items

In a repeated testing paradigm, list items receiving item-specific processing are more likely to be recovered across successive tests (item gains), whereas items receiving relational processing are likely to be forgotten progressively less on successive tests. Moreover, analysis of cumulative-recall curves has shown that item-specific processing produces a slower, but steadier rate of recall than relational processing. The authors relied on these findings to determine the type of processing that both list items and critical lures receive in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory procedure. The first 2 experiments revealed that critical lures produced more item gains, but only the list items resulted in a decrease in item losses across successive tests. The critical lures also produced slower but steadier cumulative recall. In Experiments 3 and 4, the critical items were physically presented during study, which resulted in the lures producing progressively fewer losses across successive tests. The authors concluded that critical items receive more item-specific processing than list items but that unless they are presented in the list, they do not become part of participants' organized retrieval scheme.     

The difference between implicit and explicit associative processes at study in creating false memory in the DRM paradigm

The effects of implicit and explicit associative processes for false recognition were examined by manipulating exposure duration of studied items; 20 ms or 2000 ms. Participants studied lists of words that were high associates to a nonpresented word (critical lure) in either condition. After learning each list, they took a recognition test and remember/know judgements immediately (Experiment 1) or 1 minute later (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, know responses for critical lures were more in the 20 ms than in the 2000 ms conditions, while remember responses for them were more in the 2000 ms condition. Implicit associative processes create familiarity of critical lures, and explicit associative processes create details of false memories. Comparing the results of Experiment 1 with those of Experiment 2, remember responses for critical lures were increased with the prolonged time only in the 20 ms condition. Characteristics of false memory made by implicit associative processes could be changed by prolonged time.     

The difference between implicit and explicit associative processes at study in creating false memory in the DRM paradigm

The effects of implicit and explicit associative processes for false recognition were examined by manipulating exposure duration of studied items; 20 ms or 2000 ms. Participants studied lists of words that were high associates to a nonpresented word (critical lure) in either condition. After learning each list, they took a recognition test and remember/know judgements immediately (Experiment 1) or 1 minute later (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, know responses for critical lures were more in the 20 ms than in the 2000 ms conditions, while remember responses for them were more in the 2000 ms condition. Implicit associative processes create familiarity of critical lures, and explicit associative processes create details of false memories. Comparing the results of Experiment 1 with those of Experiment 2, remember responses for critical lures were increased with the prolonged time only in the 20 ms condition. Characteristics of false memory made by implicit associative processes could be changed by prolonged time.     

False recognition following study of semantically related lists presented in jumbled word form

Three experiments explored a jumbled word effect in false recognition. Lists of theme-related items were presented in word or nonword form. Results indicated that critical lures semantically related to studied items were falsely recognised regardless of whether they were presented as words or nonwords. High false recognition rates to either SLEEP or SELEP following study of an appropriate theme list of items in nonword form should only occur if nonwords are recoded at study. With study conditions conducive to recoding, jumbled words induced false recognitions based on semantic associations among their respective base words. Disrupting a recoding process by creating "difficult" letter rearrangements for jumbled words (Experiment 2) appeared to eliminate the false recognition effect. In Experiment 3, presentation durations ranged from 110 ms to 880 ms. Although there was little evidence of a semantic false recognition effect at the fastest presentation rate, the brief durations appeared to be effective in eliminating the effect when items were studied in nonword form. These results appear to be consistent with an encoding activation/retrieval monitoring model.     

False recognition following study of semantically related lists presented in jumbled word form

Three experiments explored a jumbled word effect in false recognition. Lists of theme-related items were presented in word or nonword form. Results indicated that critical lures semantically related to studied items were falsely recognised regardless of whether they were presented as words or nonwords. High false recognition rates to either SLEEP or SELEP following study of an appropriate theme list of items in nonword form should only occur if nonwords are recoded at study. With study conditions conducive to recoding, jumbled words induced false recognitions based on semantic associations among their respective base words. Disrupting a recoding process by creating “difficult” letter rearrangements for jumbled words (Experiment 2) appeared to eliminate the false recognition effect. In Experiment 3, presentation durations ranged from 110 ms to 880 ms. Although there was little evidence of a semantic false recognition effect at the fastest presentation rate, the brief durations appeared to be effective in eliminating the effect when items were studied in nonword form. These results appear to be consistent with an encoding activation/retrieval monitoring model.