Accurate and false recall in the Deese/Roediger and McDermott procedure: a methodological note on sex of participant

Research suggests that individuals may differ in their susceptibility to false memory in the Deese/Roediger and McDermott procedure. Prior studies of differences have focused on the effects of age, personality, personal past history of abuse, and neurological status on false memory susceptibility. This study examined whether sex might also differentially influence false memory. After listening to a series of word lists designed to elicit false recall of nonstudied associates, 50 male and 50 female college students free recalled the lists. Analysis showed no sex difference in accurate recall, false recall, or unrelated intrusions. A robust false memory effect was observed, but sex did not differentiate performance.     

Mood and the DRM paradigm: An investigation of the effects of valence and arousal on false memory

Recent studies regarding the effect of mood on the DRM (Deese–Roediger–McDermott) illusion have not been able to clearly establish yet whether valence or arousal is most critical in determining susceptibility to false memories, nor what the underlying processes are. In three experiments, both the valence and the level of arousal of participants' mood were manipulated. Six conditions were used: positive mood with high/low arousal, negative mood with high/low arousal, neutral mood, and a control condition. Memory was tested by means of immediate and delayed recognition and immediate free recall. The mood induction procedure was effective. For recognition memory, there was an effect of arousal on the endorsement of critical lures. Low-arousal moods elicited more false recognition than high-arousal moods, regardless of valence. Based on signal detection analyses, the effect was attributed to more liberal response criteria with low arousal, in combination with a tendency towards improved item-specific memory with high arousal.     

ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN FALSE RECALL AND FALSE RECOGNITION

Abstract— Studying a list of words associated to a critical nonpresented word results in high rates of false recall and false recognition for that nonpresented item (Roediger & McDermott, 1995) Two experiments examined the effect of manipulating the number of associates presented on false recall and later false recognition of a nonpresented item. In Experiment 1, associate lists of varying lengths were studied, in Experiment 2, list length was held constant and the number of associates within the list was manipulated. In both experiments, the rate of critical intrusions in recall increased steadily with increasing number of associates studied Most notably, the filler words used in Experiment 2 to equate the list lengths did not affect the rate of critical intrusions, although they did depress recall of studied words. False recall and false recognition appear to be tied to the total, not the mean, associative strength of items in the list.     

Norms for word lists that create false memories

Roediger and McDermott (1995) induced false recall and false recognition for words that were not presented in lists. They had subjects study 24 lists of 15 words that were associates of a common word (called the critical target or critical lure) that was not presented in the list. False recall and false recognition of the critical target occurred frequently in response to these lists. The purpose of the current work was to provide a set of normative data for the lists Roediger and McDermott used and for 12 others developed more recently. We tested false recall and false recognition for critical targets from 36 lists. Despite the fact that all lists were constructed to produce false remembering, the diversity in their effectiveness was large--60% or more of subjects falsely recalled window and sleep following the appropriate lists, and false recognition for these items was greater than 80%. However, the list generated from king led to 10% false recall and 27% false recognition. Possible reasons for these wide differences in effectiveness of the lists are discussed. These norms serve as a useful benchmark for designing experiments about false recall and false recognition in this paradigm.     

Work-related fear of AIDS and social-desirability response bias

The focus of the current research was on development of a short scale to measure work-related fear of AIDS for use in field research and on assessment of the extent to which its ability to predict managers' intentions to discriminate were free of social-desirability response-bias effects. Based upon a sample of 198 managers from southern US manufacturing, service, and government organizations, the study yielded a 5-item scale with particularly strong test-retest reliability of .88 and internal consistency indicated by Cronbach alpha of .92. While initial evidence was promising regarding predictive validity, social desirability was correlated with both fear of AIDS and one of the criterion variables but accounted for very little common variance. Techniques suggested by Ganster, Hennessey, and Luthans (1983) to detect social desirability response bias were employed and did not yield moderator, spurious, or suppression effects. Supplementary analysis showed that respondents in manufacturing exhibit significantly stronger fear of AIDS than either service or government managers. Significant but weak correlations of -.16 and -.20 were found between fear of AIDS and subject's sex and education. Males and the less well educated tend to express greater fear of AIDS. Implications are discussed regarding research and practice in management.     

Retrieval contexts and the concreteness effect: Dissociations in memory for concrete and abstract words

Decades of research on the concreteness effect, namely better memory for concrete as compared with abstract words, suggest it is a fairly robust phenomenon. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to limiting retrieval contexts. Two experiments evaluated intentional memory for concrete and abstract word lists in three retrieval contexts: free recall, explicit word-stem completion, and implicit word-stem completion. Concreteness effects were observed in free recall and in explicit word-stem completion, but not in implicit word-stem completion. These findings are consistent with both a bidirectional version of the relational-distinctiveness processing framework (Ruiz-Vargas, Cuevas, & Marschark, 1996) and a second framework combining insights from dual coding theory (Paivio, 1971, 1986) and the transfer appropriate processing framework (Roediger, Weldon, & Challis, 1989). Also, consistent with the relational-distinctiveness framework, the second experiment suggested that concreteness effects might depend on relational processing at encoding: Concreteness effects were observed in explicit memory for related word lists but not for unrelated word lists.     

The distinctiveness heuristic in false recognition and false recall

The effects of generative processing on false recognition and recall were examined in four experiments using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In each experiment, a Generate condition in which subjects generated studied words from audio anagrams was compared to a Control condition in which subjects simply listened to studied words presented normally. Rates of false recognition and false recall were lower for critical lures associated with generated lists, than for critical lures associated with control lists, but only in between-subjects designs. False recall and recognition did not differ when generate and control conditions were manipulated within-subjects. This pattern of results is consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic (Schacter, Israel, & Racine, 1999), a metamemorial decision-based strategy whereby global changes in decision criteria lead to reductions of false memories. This retrieval-based monitoring mechanism appears to operate in a similar fashion in reducing false recognition and false recall.     

Part-set cuing of false memories

Part-set cuing inhibition describes the common finding that re-presenting items from a word list can reduce subjects’ overall recall performance for studied items. Do part-set cuing effects occur for false memories as well? In the present experiments, subjects studied lists of words drawn from Roediger and McDermott (1995). After studying each list, subjects completed math problems and then recalled the list items either with or without accompanying list cues. In Experiment 1, the recall cues consisted of items drawn randomly from the original list. In Experiment 2, an additional type of cued recall task was added in which the even numbered list items were used as cues. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate robust part-set cuing effects for critical nonpresented items. In addition, they show that whereas recall of critical words is reduced by the presence of cues at test, retrieval cues do not affect critical words and studied words in exactly the same manner.     

False memories in individuals at risk for developing an eating disorder

In the present study, the authors used the Roediger and McDermott paradigm (H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) to examine the creation of false memories in individuals at risk for developing an eating disorder. Thirty-three controls and 34 individuals at risk for eating disorders studied 6 word lists taken from the paradigm. Three lists were food related (bread, fruit, sweet), and 3 were not food related (king, doctor, black). Both groups produced false memories (i.e., recalled or recollected words that were not presented in the lists), and controls actually produced more false memories than the at-risk individuals produced in the recall of the food-related items. Groups did not differ in their recall of items not related to food.     

Distinguishing between learning and motivation in behavioral tests of the reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality

According to Gray's (1973) Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST), a Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and a Behavioral Activation System (BAS) mediate effects of goal conflict and reward on behavior. BIS functioning has been linked with individual differences in trait anxiety and BAS functioning with individual differences in trait impulsivity. In this article, it is argued that behavioral outputs of the BIS and BAS can be distinguished in terms of learning and motivation processes and that these can be operationalized using the Signal Detection Theory measures of response-sensitivity and response-bias. In Experiment 1, two measures of BIS-reactivity predicted increased response-sensitivity under goal conflict, whereas one measure of BAS-reactivity predicted increased response-sensitivity under reward. In Experiment 2, two measures of BIS-reactivity predicted response-bias under goal conflict, whereas a measure of BAS-reactivity predicted motivation response-bias under reward. In both experiments, impulsivity measures did not predict criteria for BAS-reactivity as traditionally predicted by RST.     

Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias

The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modified Stroop task, anxious individuals recalled more threat-related words compared to low-anxious people. This difference was significant even when controlling for the false recall of items that had not been presented during study. These results support the view put forward by Russo, Fox, Bellinger, and Nguyen-Van-Tam (2001) that mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals can be observed if the target material is encoded at a relatively shallow level. Moreover, contrary to Dowens and Calvo (2003), the current results show that the memory advantage for threat-related information in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.     

Recall bias for stimulus and response anxiety words in spider phobics

Abstract

Experiments on memory bias in patients with anxiety disorders have produced inconsistent results. It is suggested that results may depend on whether the words studied relate to anxiety-inducing stimulus features or to the anxiety response. It was predicted, following previous results, that phobic subjects would show diminished recall of stimulus words, but that recall of response words might be enhanced. In fact, for both stimulus and response words, phobics showed better recall of phobia-related words than of control words. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that phobic anxiety is associated with a bias towards recall of phobia-related words. However, it seems likely that phobic anxiety has several potentially conflicting effects on recall, and that this accounts for the inconsistent results in literature.     

Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias

The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modified Stroop task, anxious individuals recalled more threat-related words compared to low-anxious people. This difference was significant even when controlling for the false recall of items that had not been presented during study. These results support the view put forward by Russo, Fox, Bellinger, and Nguyen-Van-Tam (2001) that mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals can be observed if the target material is encoded at a relatively shallow level. Moreover, contrary to Dowens and Calvo (2003), the current results show that the memory advantage for threat-related information in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.     

Are trauma victims susceptible to "false memories"?

Laboratory studies using word-list paradigms have provided evidence that nontraumatized individuals falsely recall or recognize events that never occurred. In the present study, H. L. Roediger and K. B. McDermott's false-memory paradigm (1995) was utilized to examine possible source monitoring deficits in individuals with PTSD. Traumatized individuals with PTSD were compared with traumatized individuals without PTSD and with nontraumatized control participants. Participants heard lists of related words (e.g., bed, night) that were associates of a critical nonpresented word (e.g., sleep) and were given immediate free recall and later recognition tests. Traumatized participants with and without PTSD generated more false recalls of critical nonpresented words than did nontraumatized participants. False recall was related to trait anxiety and PTSD severity. The results are consistent with a general source-monitoring deficit in trauma-exposed individuals.     

Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens

False memory creation was examined in people who reported having recovered memories of traumatic events that are unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. A variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese. 1959; H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to examine false recall and false recognition in 3 groups: people reporting recovered memories of alien abduction. people who believe they were abducted by aliens but have no memories, and people who deny having been abducted by aliens. Those reporting recovered and repressed memories of alien abduction were more prone than control participants to exhibit false recall and recognition. The groups did not differ in correct recall or recognition. Hypnotic suggestibility, depressive symptoms, and schizotypic features were significant predictors of false recall and false recognition.     

The Effects of Positive and Negative Placebos on Human Memory Performances

Two experiments investigated the possible effects of memory-enhancing and memory-impairing placebo capsules (which participants believed to contain active drugs) on participants' performance in a delayed free recall task. In both experiments participants were randomly assigned to either control, positive, or negative placebo conditions, and their memory performance was tested prior to (baseline trial) and after (test trial) the administration of the placebo. Different patterns of results emerged for positive and negative placebos for actual memory performance measures. Whereas negative placebo produces standard placebo effects by impairing both free recall and accuracy scores on test trial, positive placebo does not affect either of these measures (null placebo effect). On the other hand, both positive and negative placebos produce standard placebo effects with respect to participants' self-reports of perceived changes in memory performance: those in the positive placebo group tend to report that the “drug” improved their performance, and those in the negative group tend to report that it impaired it.     

Response bias in "remembering" emotional stimuli: a new perspective on age differences

Older adults sometimes show a recall advantage for emotionally positive, rather than neutral or negative, stimuli (S. T. Charles, M. Mather, & L. L. Carstensen, 2003). In contrast, younger adults respond "old" and "remember" more often to negative materials in recognition tests. For younger adults, both effects are due to response bias changes rather than to enhanced memory accuracy (S. Dougal & C. M. Rotello, 2007). We presented older and younger adults with emotional and neutral stimuli in a remember-know paradigm. Signal-detection and model-based analyses showed that memory accuracy did not differ for the neutral, negative, and positive stimuli, and that "remember" responses did not reflect the use of recollection. However, both age groups showed large and significant response bias effects of emotion: Younger adults tended to say "old" and "remember" more often in response to negative words than to positive and neutral words, whereas older adults responded "old" and "remember" more often to both positive and negative words than to neutral stimuli.     

False Memories in Individuals at Risk for Developing an Eating Disorder

In the present study, the authors used the Roediger and McDermott paradigm (H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) to examine the creation of false memories in individuals at risk for developing an eating disorder. Thirty-three controls and 34 individuals at risk for eating disorders studied 6 word lists taken from the paradigm. Three lists were food related (bread, fruit, sweet), and 3 were not food related (king, doctor, black). Both groups produced false memories (i.e., recalled or recollected words that were not presented in the lists), and controls actually produced more false memories than the at-risk individuals produced in the recall of the food-related items. Groups did not differ in their recall of items not related to food.     

False memories: young and older adults think of semantic associates at the same rate, but young adults are more successful at source monitoring

Two experiments explored whether the higher vulnerability to false memories in the DRM (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) paradigm in older compared to young adults reflects a deficit in source monitoring. In both experiments, adding together the number of falsely recalled critical lures and the number of critical lures produced on a post-recall test asking participants to report items that they had thought of but did not recall, indicated that the critical lures were activated during the experiment equally often in young and older adults. However, older adults were more likely than young adults to say that they had actually heard the lures. When strongly encouraged to examine the origin of memories (Experiment 2), the warning substantially reduced false recall in young but not older adults. These results are consistent with the idea that older adults have more difficulty later identifying the source of information that was activated as a consequence of intact semantic activation processes.     

Emotional mood and memory in young children

Two experiments examined affect-dependent memory with preschool/kindergarten and third-grade children. A two-list intentional learning procedure was used to assess the effects of the congruent versus incongruent relationship between affect (happy vs sad) during initial list learning and affect (happy vs sad) during a delayed recall test. When induction of emotional mood was preceded by relaxation exercises in Experiment 1, no evidence of affect dependence was observed. When the relaxation procedure was omitted in Experiment 2, the affect-dependent pattern was obtained in both free recall and cued recall for both age groups. The results of Experiment 2 show that affect-dependent memory is a reasonably robust phenomenon in children and that hypnosis is not necessary for its appearance. However, the phenomenon is apparently absent under conditions of relaxation, a result consistent with two-factor theories of emotion.