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

Helena M Oliveira,Magda Saraiva,Pedro B Albuquerque

doi:10.1177/1747021818761002

Abstract

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.

Highlights

One of the most commonly used means to study false memories is the Deese-RoedigerMcDermott (DRM) paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995)
Concerning false memories, the proportion was calculated by dividing the number of critical lures that were recalled by the total number of critical lures associated with the presented lists
Robinson and Roediger (1997) concluded that the probability of recalling the critical lure increased as a function of the number of associates per list and the total associative strength of the lists

Summary

Introduction

One of the most commonly used means to study false memories is the Deese-RoedigerMcDermott (DRM) paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). The word presentation is followed by a free recall task or a recognition task. According to this approach, a false memory is produced when the critical lure is recalled or falsely recognised as belonging to the presented word list. According to Deese (1959), the rate of critical lure recall can reach. Several studies have identified the processes and the variables involved in the production of false memories in the DRM paradigm. Several studies have identified the processes and the variables involved in the production of false memories in the DRM paradigm. Deese (1959)

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Conclusion