False memory susceptibility is correlated with categorisation ability in humans

Hunt, Kathryn L.; Chittka, Lars

doi:10.12688/f1000research.4645.1

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…It is known that human memory utilizes the cognitive processes of categorization and generalization, in which a large number or items can be stored and recalled based on just a few exemplars, in order to economize and gain efficiency [22,23]. It has been proposed that memory errors caused by misattribution (one of which is the memory conjunction error) may therefore simply be inevitable byproducts of the adaptive cognitive ability to form general concepts [3,5,24]. Many non-human animal species, including bees, can categorize visual patterns by shared properties, and indeed, bees appear to have the ability to form simple spatial concepts [25][26][27][28][29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging of Long-Term Memories in an Insect

Hunt

Chittka

2015

Current Biology

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Research on comparative cognition has largely focused on successes and failures of animals to solve certain cognitive tasks, but in humans, memory errors can be more complex than simple failures to retrieve information [1, 2]. The existence of various types of "false memories," in which individuals remember events that they have never actually encountered, are now well established in humans [3, 4]. We hypothesize that such systematic memory errors may be widespread in animals whose natural lifestyle involves the processing and recollection of memories for multiple stimuli [5]. We predict that memory traces for various stimuli may "merge," such that features acquired in distinct bouts of training are combined in an animal's mind, so that stimuli that have never been viewed before, but are a combination of the features presented in training, may be chosen during recall. We tested this using bumblebees, Bombus terrestris. When individuals were first trained to a solid single-colored stimulus followed by a black and white (b/w)-patterned stimulus, a subsequent preference for the last entrained stimulus was found in both short-term- and long-term-memory tests. However, when bees were first trained to b/w-patterned stimuli followed by solid single-colored stimuli and were tested in long-term-memory tests 1 or 3 days later, they only initially preferred the most recently rewarded stimulus, and then switched their preference to stimuli that combined features from the previous color and pattern stimuli. The observed merging of long-term memories is thus similar to the memory conjunction error found in humans [6].

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging of Long-Term Memories in an Insect

Hunt

Chittka

2015

Current Biology

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“…F1000Research : Dataset 1. False memory susceptibility and categorisation ability, http://dx.doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.4645.d31516 ( Hunt & Chittka, 2014 ).…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

False memory susceptibility is correlated with categorisation ability in humans

Hunt

Chittka

2014

F1000Res

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Our memory is often surprisingly inaccurate, with errors ranging from misremembering minor details of events to generating illusory memories of entire episodes. The pervasiveness of such false memories generates a puzzle: in the face of selection pressure for accuracy of memory, how could such systematic failures have persisted over evolutionary time? It is possible that memory errors are an inevitable by-product of our adaptive memories and that semantic false memories are specifically connected to our ability to learn rules and concepts and to classify objects by category memberships. Here we test this possibility using a standard experimental false memory paradigm and inter-individual variation in verbal categorisation ability. Indeed it turns out that the error scores are significantly negatively correlated, with those individuals scoring fewer errors on the categorisation test being more susceptible to false memory intrusions in a free recall test. A similar trend, though not significant, was observed between individual categorisation ability and false memory susceptibility in a word recognition task. Our results therefore indicate that false memories, to some extent, might be a by-product of our ability to learn rules, categories and concepts.

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“…This suggestion establishes a point of contact between the DRM illusion and theories of category/context learning. In support of such process, the DRM illusion is correlated with the ability to identify words that share a common category (Hunt & Chittka, 2014); and manipulations like those used in the present study influence context learning in animals. For example, just as early list manipulations in the DRM protocol appear to reduce false lure memories by interfering with formation of the list category or context, exposure to an aversive event immediately upon placement in a distinctive chamber interferes with formation of a context representation in animal studies (Bae et al, 2015; Fanselow, 1986; Kiernan & Westbrook, 1993; Landeira-Fernandez et al, 2006; Lingawi et al, 2018, for evidence that a distractor can disrupt the semantic priming effect, see Dannenbring & Briand, 1982; Davelaar & Coltheart, 1975; Foss, 1982; Joordens & Besner, 1992; Masson, 1991; McNamara, 1992; Ratcliff & McKoon, 1988).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

The effect of early list manipulations on the DRM illusion

Fam

Huff

Westbrook

et al. 2021

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is widely used to study false memory in the laboratory. It tests memory for lists of semantically related words (correct list item memories) and their non-presented associates (false lure memories). Evidence suggests that early items in DRM lists could make an especially significant contribution to false memories of lures, as they may critically influence the underlying associative activation and/or gist extraction processes. The present study tested this suggestion by using two manipulations that were intended to affect processing of early DRM list items. The first was interpolation of a semantically unrelated distractor item among the list items (Experiments 1 and 2). The second was arranging for these items to be either the strongest or weakest associates of the lure (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a distractor item reduced both list item and lure recall when presented early in a DRM list, but selectively disrupted list item recall when presented late in the list. In Experiment 2, arranging for the early list items to be the weakest associates of the lure reduced false recall of the lure but had no effect on list item recall. The findings are discussed with respect to theories that explain false memory in the DRM protocol, including fuzzy trace theory (FTT) and activation monitoring theory (AMT). They are also discussed with respect to general theories of memory and the potential role of category/context information in generating false memories.

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False memory susceptibility is correlated with categorisation ability in humans

Cited by 4 publications

References 44 publications

Merging of Long-Term Memories in an Insect

Merging of Long-Term Memories in an Insect

False memory susceptibility is correlated with categorisation ability in humans

The effect of early list manipulations on the DRM illusion

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