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How are false memories distinguishable from true memories in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm? A review of the findings

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Abstract

This article reviewed the literature comparing true and false memories. Although false memory experience is typically characterized as compellingly similar to true memory experience, research also indicates many distinctions between these two types of memory. The primary focus of this article was on comparing these two types of memory in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm on a number of independent and dependent measures. Studies that compared true and false memories in recall and recognition rates over retention intervals, as a function of list word presentation duration, list presentation repetition, in recall and recognition latencies, output serial position, phenomenological experiences (conscious and unconscious discrimination between these two types of memories), and neurophysiological processes were reviewed. The conclusion is that the degree to which false memory is experienced and observed as similar to or the same as true memory is a function of a number of variables in the process of acquiring and measuring the memory.

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Notes

  1. Although these two articles (Reed, 1996; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) were often cited in the literature as evidence of subjects having high confidence for CNPWs, a close reading of the two articles showed that subjects’ confidence levels for the CNPWs were slightly but significantly lower than their confidence levels for the studied words.

  2. Other variables on which true and false memories were compared were encoding condition (e.g., deep versus shallow study) and modality (e.g., visual versus auditory presentation). Elaborate or deeper levels of processing normally increase performance for true memory. On the other hand, the findings on the effects of elaborate processing on false memory have been inconsistent. Many procedural and contextual factors at encoding seem to interact with the levels-of-processing factor and can substantially affect the results of the experiments. See Goodwin (2007) for a summary of the inconsistent findings on the effects of encoding factors on false memory. The effects of encoding modality on false memory have also been quiet mixed and seemed very much dependent on the contextual and procedural factors, although typically, visual encoding tends to lower false memory, and to slightly boost true memory relative to auditory encoding. For a review of the encoding modality effects on false memory, see Smith, Hunt, and Gallagher (2008).

  3. False memory can be derived from a compelling memory illusion that is generated during encoding by the mechanism of implicit associative responses (Underwood, 1965) or during testing through an inferential (Lampinen et al., 1997) or a constructive process (Jou, 2008). We did not differentiate these two potentially different types of false memories in this article. However, we believe that the effect of the retention interval on these two sub-types of false memory may likely be the same since they both rely on the gist memory traces.

  4. The signal detection principle that changes in confidence (a criterion shift) have no effect on sensitivity (d′) is true under the assumption that new/old distributions have equal variance. A more conservative criterion (higher confidence) may increase sensitivity when the equal variance assumption is not met (J. Wixted, personal communication, September 2012).

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Acknowledgments

We wish to sincerely thank Henry Roediger, Gezinus Wolters and an anonymous reviewer for their very helpful critiques which greatly improved this paper, and John Wixted for clarifying an issue in the signal detection theory. Correspondence concerning this paper should be sent to Jerwen Jou, Department of Psychology, University of Texas—Pan American, 1201 West University Dr., Edinburg, TX 78539-2999, USA.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 West University Dr, Edinburg, TX, 78539-2999, USA

    Jerwen Jou

  2. Washington University, St. Louis, USA

    Shaney Flores

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Correspondence to Jerwen Jou.

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Jou, J., Flores, S. How are false memories distinguishable from true memories in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm? A review of the findings. Psychological Research 77, 671–686 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0472-6

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