False recall and false memory: the effects of instructions on memory errors

Abstract

An experiment is reported using a list‐learning paradigm in which all the words have a common associate, which is known to be frequently but erroneously recalled. Four experimental conditions were used. One group was instructed to think about the meanings of the words, another to relate them to personal experience, another to create images of the words, and another to chain the words into a sentence. Both thinking about the meaning and chaining increased recall of the words actually presented, but in none of the conditions was there any effect on false recall. The implications and relevance of these findings to the controversy over false memories are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Imagination and False Memories

“…Marmurek and Hamilton (2000) concluded that accurate and false memories are governed by a common process. Furthermore, the absence of effects for the previous instructional manipulations relative to standard condition is difficult to interpret (Marmurek & Hamilton, 2000;Newstead & Newstead, 1998). Overall, these studies did not evidence that imaginal encoding increase false recall and false recognition.…”

Effects of Free and Forced Retrieval Instructions on False Recall and Recognition

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Encoding strategy affects false recall and recognition: Evidence from categorical study material

“…This implies that the imagery strategy might not be the best for everyone in maximizing accuracy. This may be caused by individual differences in participants' visualization abilities as well as by the reasons listed by Newstead and Newstead (1998), who pointed out that imagery might be efficient only when highly distinctive images are created or when used systematically as part of a more general strategy.…”