Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.

Abstract

Two experiments (modeled after J. Deese's 1959 study) revealed remarkable levels of false recall and false recognition in a list learning paradigm. In Experiment 1, subjects studied lists of 12 words (e.g., bed, rest, awake); each list was composed of associates of 1 nonpresented word (e.g., sleep). On immediate free recall tests, the nonpresented associates were recalled 40% of the time and were later recognized with high confidence. In Experiment 2, a false recall rate of 55% was obtained with an expanded set of lists, and on a later recognition test, subjects produced false alarms to these items at a rate comparable to the hit rate. The act of recall enhanced later remembering of both studied and nonstudied material. The results reveal a powerful illusion of memory: People remember events that never happened.

Zeroing in on heroes: A prototype analysis of hero features.

“…These results provide support to the view that prototypicality is reflected in information-processing features of heroes, specifically in the memory system. The false recognition might imply that participants are engaging in a creative process of remembering critical non-presented features (Roediger & McDermott, 1995).…”

False memory susceptibility is correlated with categorisation ability in humans

“…Whilst the age range of the subjects tested was narrow (nineteen to twenty-one years old in the majority) many of the key studies using the DRM paradigm have used only participants also of average undergraduate college study age ( Roediger & McDermott, 1995; Stadler et al , 1999). Additionally the only significant difference in spontaneous false memory creation, caused by the DRM paradigm that is known to occur between participants of different ages, is between children and adults.…”

“…The general method for eliciting false memories was based on Roediger & McDermott (1995) and Stadler et al , (1999). The protocol for the visual presentation of the wordlists was adapted from Peters et al , (2008).…”

“…The wordlists were constructed using the first fifteen words listed in the Russell & Jenkins (1954) norms for the critical non-presented words (see Roediger & McDermott, 1995; Stadler et al , 1999 for full details of list construction). The eighteen wordlists were chosen for their known ability to elicit a high proportion of false memories during recall ( Stadler et al , 1999).…”

“…Episodic (and as such autobiographical) false memories are commonly elicited using the misinformation paradigm, in which information provided or questions asked after an event can bias memory ( Loftus, 2005). Conversely, semantic false memories can be elicited using the presentation of lists of semantically related words ( Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). The so called Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm has become widely used for exploring the malleability of memory.…”