Congruency effect of presentation modality on false recognition of haptic and visual objects

Studying a list of items related to an item that is not presented (lure item) produces a false memory. We investigated whether a haptic study/test results in false recognition and, if so, whether congruency of presentation modality between study and test reduces the false recognition. After haptic or visual study of lists of real objects that are related to a lure object, participants were asked to recognise whether the objects were presented haptically or visually. We obtained false recognition results with haptic study and/or test. False recognition was reduced when presentation and study modalities were congruent. After haptic study, false recognition was reduced in the haptic test, as compared to the visual test. In contrast, visual study always reduced visual false recognition. These results indicate that there is a general effect of retrieval cues that will reduce false recognition.