Comparison of activation level between true and false items in the DRM paradigm

The aim of the present study was to compare the activation levels of true and false memories in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. For this purpose, we used a lexical decision task (LDT) that can be considered a relative pure measure of activation. Participants had to study a list of words that were semantically associated to a critical non-presented word (CI), and afterwards had to classify the actually studied words, the CI and new words in the LDT. Results indicated that the classification latency of the CI was the same as actually studied words and shorter than new words. The results might be interpreted as evidence that the false and true memory items have the same activation level and that the false memory effect can be based on the indirect activation of the CI at the encoding.

[1]  J. Deese.  On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  K. McDermott,et al.  Factors that determine false recall: A multiple regression analysis , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[3]  H. Roediger,et al.  Associative Processes in False Recall and False Recognition , 1997 .

[4]  K. McDermott,et al.  Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. , 1995 .

[5]  H L Roediger,et al.  Associative false recognition occurs without strategic criterion shifts , 2001, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[6]  E. McKone,et al.  Distinguishing true from false memories via lexical decision as a perceptual implicit test , 2004 .

[7]  Henry L. Roediger,et al.  Spreading activation and arousal of false memories. , 2001 .

[8]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Source monitoring. , 1993, Psychological bulletin.

[9]  D. Pecher,et al.  False memories and lexical decision: even twelve primes do not cause long-term semantic priming. , 2002, Acta psychologica.

[10]  R. Marsh,et al.  Measuring the activation level of critical lures in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. , 2003, The American journal of psychology.

[11]  D. Balota,et al.  The roles of spreading activation and retrieval mode in producing false recognition in the DRM paradigm , 2007 .

[12]  S. Shapiro,et al.  An Analysis of Variance Test for Normality (Complete Samples) , 1965 .

[13]  Henry L. Roediger,et al.  Distortions of memory , 2000 .

[14]  H L Roediger,et al.  Norms for word lists that create false memories , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[15]  D. Gallo,et al.  Evidence that nonconscious processes are sufficient to produce false memories , 2008, Consciousness and Cognition.

[16]  John R. Anderson.  A Spreading Activation Theory of Memory , 1988 .

[17]  Kathleen B. McDermott,et al.  The Rise and Fall of False Recall: The Impact of Presentation Duration☆ , 2001 .

[18]  D. Schacter,et al.  A sensory signature that distinguishes true from false memories , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[19]  Craig Thorley,et al.  The roles of encoding and retrieval processes in associative and categorical memory illusions , 2009 .

[20]  Henry L. Roediger,et al.  Variability among word lists in eliciting memory illusions: evidence for associative activation and monitoring , 2002 .

[21]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[22]  F. Craik,et al.  The Oxford handbook of memory , 2006 .

[23]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  The cognitive neuroscience of implicit and false memories: Perspectives on processing specificity , 2007 .

[24]  J. S. Nairne,et al.  The nature of remembering : essays in honor of Robert G. Crowder , 2001 .

[25]  J. H. Neely,et al.  Assessing Activation without Source Monitoring in the DRM False Memory Paradigm. , 2005 .

[26]  D. Schacter,et al.  Can medial temporal lobe regions distinguish true from false? An event-related functional MRI study of veridical and illusory recognition memory , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  Reducing false recognition with criterial recollection tests: Distinctiveness heuristic versus criterion shifts , 2004 .