Associative strength or gist extraction: Which matters when DRM lists have two critical lures?

The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm is often used in the study of false memories. This paradigm typically uses lists of words associated with one critical lure. The primary objective of our study was to understand the production of false memories using the DRM paradigm when lists of words are associated with two critical lures. Three experiments were performed, and it was observed that the critical lures associated with the first set were significantly more frequently recalled than the critical lures associated with the second set. This result was verified when the words were presented in descending order of association with the critical lure (Experiment 1), when the words of the second set were presented in ascending order of association with the critical lure (Experiment 2), and when all the words in the list had the same associative strength (Experiment 3). Results are explained by the activation/monitoring and fuzzy-trace theories.

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Questioning the Role of Forward Associative Strength in False Memories: Evidence From Deese-Roediger-McDermott Lists With Three Critical Lures

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724594 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Maria Soledad Beato ◽

Jason Arndt

Keyword(s):

False Memory ◽

Associative Strength ◽

False Recognition ◽

False Memories ◽

Free Association ◽

Strong Relationship ◽

Drm Paradigm ◽

Backward Associative Strength

We report an experiment examining the factors that produce false recognition in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. We selectively manipulated the probability that critical lures produce study items in free association, known as forward associative strength (FAS), while controlling the probability that study items produce critical lures in free association, known as backward associative strength (BAS). Results showed that false recognition of critical lures failed to differ between strong and weak FAS conditions. Follow-up correlational analyses further supported this outcome, showing that FAS was not correlated with false recognition, despite substantial variability in both variables across our stimulus sets. However, these correlational analyses did produce a significant and strong relationship between BAS and false recognition. These results support views that propose false memory is produced by activation spreading from study items to critical lures during encoding, which leads critical lures to be confused with episodically-experienced events.

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False Memories in the DRM Paradigm

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.56.5.354 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 56 (5) ◽

pp. 354-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Katrina Sugrue ◽

Deryn Strange ◽

Harlene Hayne

Keyword(s):

List Length ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

Age Groups ◽

False Memories ◽

Drm Paradigm ◽

Length Effect ◽

Critical Lure ◽

Recall Phase ◽

Word Lists ◽

List Length Effect

Prior research using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm has shown that participants are more likely to report the critical lures when long lists are presented. In this experiment, we evaluated two potential explanations for this list-length effect. Ten-year-old children and adults studied 7- or 14-word lists. After recalling each list, participants were then asked to report any other words that they had thought about, but had not reported, during the recall phase. We found that long lists were more likely to activate the critical lure and that short lists did not facilitate source monitoring. On the basis of our findings, we conclude that, for both age groups, the list-length effect was due primarily to list-related differences in activation of the critical lure.

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