Assessing activation of true and false memory traces: A study using the DRM Paradigm

Ida Sergi,Maria Pisani,Giovanna Nigro,Vincenzo Paolo Senese

doi:10.5334/pb.ak

Ida Sergi, Maria Pisani + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.ak

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Abstract

<p class="p1">This paper compares the activation of false memory traces with true memory traces and control items. An incidental learning version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (DRM) is used in conjunction with a Lexical Decision Task (LDT). One hundred participants read 5 DRM lists intermixed with 4 non-word lists. After a delay manipulated into 3 experimental conditions (immediate, 3-minute and 10-minute), they were asked to classify actually studied items, CIs, new words and non words in an LDT. Results showed that, independent of the delay, the classification latency of the CIs was the same as that for actually studied words and that both were more active than matched control items. Moreover, results showed that the delay affects the activation of true and false memories at the same rate. Overall the results seem to support the hypothesis that false memories trace becomes additive traces that are integrated into the episodic memory, with the same features of the true memories.

Highlights

False memories are defined as the remembering of events that never happened or as remembering them quite differently from the way they happened (Roediger & McDermott, 1995)
In this study we focused on studies that used the lexical decision task (LDT) because it can be considered a relatively pure measure of how much activation the study of a Deese-RoedigerMcDermott paradigm (DRM) lists produces for studied items and CIs (Tse & Neely 2005)
The DRM paradigm was used in conjunction with the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) paradigm

Summary

Introduction

False memories are defined as the remembering of events that never happened or as remembering them quite differently from the way they happened (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). One of the most frequently used paradigms to study false memories is the Deese-RoedigerMcDermott paradigm (DRM; Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In the literature the most used theoretical explanation of the DRM memory illusion is the Activation/Monitoring Theory (AMT; Roediger, Balota, & Watson, 2001). The AMT suggests that false memories are due to a combination of spreading activation and a more controlled monitoring process (Roediger et al, 2001). Subjects produce false memories because they fail to distinguish between items

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