No abstract

In a false memory experiment, lists of semantic associates (e.g., newspaper, letter, book, etc.) were presented to three groups of participants to induce false memories for critical nonpresented (CN) words (e.g., read) in an incidental learning task. The control group simply estimated the frequency rate in everyday Japanese discourse of each word on a list. The imagery instruction group received an additional instruction to imagine a thematically related converging word from the target words on a list. Participants in the imagery plus writing group received the same instructions as those in the imagery instruction group, but were also required to write down the word they imagined for each list. The results from the implicit and explicit memory tests given after the incidental learning episode showed that the level of priming for CN words was equivalent to that for actually presented target words for all three groups on the implicit test, whereas explicit memory results showed that participants explicitly recognized more target words than CN words. The implications for implicit associative response and fuzzy-trace theories of false memory, as well as implicit priming, are discussed.

No abstract

False recognition can occur at high levels after participants study lists of associated words and are tested with semantically related lures. The present study attempted to determine the differences of young and elderly adults in retention interval on false recognition and remember-know judgments of critical lure. Young participants' mean age was 21.6 years (range 21-23 years). Elderly participants' mean age was 69.7 years (range 65-74 years). Participants engaged in estimating the frequency of usage of visually presented words, and they were tested both immediately and one week later after the study phase. We found that elderly adults were relatively more susceptible than young adults to this false recognition effect. Moreover, a reliable increase of false recognition for critical lures was observed across retention interval in young adults but not in elderly adults.

The present study attempts to investigate the e#ects of levels of processing on false memory. False recall and false recognition were induced by presenting participants with words closely associated with a critical lure, a nonpresented word. In the experiment reported here, participants engaged in either a deep processing task of estimating usage frequency or a shallow processing task of letter counting. The participants were tested in a recall test immediately after the study phase and in recognition tests both immediately and one week later. The results demonstrate that the participants who engaged in the deeper level of processing recalled and recognized significantly more list items, but not critical lures. Moreover, a reliable decrease in old or remember judgments for list items was obtained over the retention interval, but not for critical lures.