Abstract
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.
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Portions of the present study were conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree for the first author, who is presently at Washington University in St. Louis.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, when Colin M. MacLeod was Editor.
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Coane, J.H., McBride, D.M. The role of test structure in creating false memories. Memory & Cognition 34, 1026–1036 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193249
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193249