Explaining the persistence of false memories: a proposal based on associative activation and thematic extraction

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the effect of retention intervals on associative and thematic false memories. Two experiments, using two types of critical items that were either associatively or thematically related to studied material, were conducted. In both experiments, one group of participants performed a recognition test immediately after the presentation of lists, and another group performed the task one week later. In Experiment 1, the recognition test consisted of pairs of items with four response alternatives (both items had been presented, only the left item had been presented, only the right item had been presented or none of the items had been presented). Critical items were also manipulated so that they were either presented in or absent from the list. In Experiment 2, a standard recognition test that differed in the mode of presentation was used: self-paced or speeded response. Both experiments showed that associative critical items were more recognised than thematic critical items in the immediate condition. However, whereas associative critical items decayed after a oneweek delay, thematic critical items were similarly recognised at both retention intervals. The findings of the present study suggest that each type of processassociative and thematicbehave differently over time.

Evidence for adult age-invariance in associative false recognition

“…More detailed specification of these dimensions of gist may help explain why a variable like aging might impact one and not another. For example, dissociations of memory effects due to similarity and association would be consistent with the more fundamental proposal that semantic memory is based on both categorical and thematic relations, which are represented differently in the brain (Carneiro et al, 2017;Mirman, Landrigan, & Britt, 2017). Future studies should address these possibilities directly.…”

“…Monitoring Theory. Several studies point to effects of conceptual relations on memory over and above effects of associative relations, suggesting that an associative activation account is insufficient (Cann et al, 2011;Carneiro et al, 2017;Coane et al, 2015;Montefinese et al, 2014). Fuzzy Trace theory also explicitly accommodates contributions of multiple different semantic relations to gist effects in memory, in the sense that the relevant gist shared by studied items and lures depends on the stimuli used and how they are related: for example, while some may share a category, others share a situational theme (Cann et al, 2011), or a narrative (Reyna, Corbin, Weldon, & Brainerd, 2016).…”

“…It remains in question whether semantic gist or associative representation is more fundamental to memory illusions (e.g., Brainerd, Yang, Reyna, Howe, & Mills, 2008;Cann, McRae, & Katz, 2011;Huff & Hutchison, 2011;Hutchison & Balota, 2005;Roediger et al, 2001). If age-related recognition errors depend on whether the relation between the studied item set and the lure is predominantly semantic or only associative, this would support the idea that multiple kinds of relation contribute (Carneiro, Garcia-Marques, Lapa, & Fernandez, 2017;Coane, McBride, Termonen, & Cutting, 2015;Montefinese, Zannino, & Ambrosini, 2014), contrary to Activation Monitoring Theory's fully associative account. However, such a result would suggest that the idea of semantic gist in memory requires additional specification (Brainerd et al, 2008).…”

Imagination Reduces False Memories for Everyday Action Sentences: Evidence From Pragmatic Inferences

“…A total of 120 participants (87 females; M age =25.63±7.76) voluntarily agreed to participate in a laboratory experiment and were rewarded with 10€ gift vouchers for their time. For both experiments, the sample size was determined based on the number of participants used in previous studies with similar designs ( Carneiro et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Soro et al, 2017 ) and depending on the availability of resources. Participants were randomly assigned to one out of three conditions based on the encoding instructions: imagine, memorize, or pay attention.…”