Abstract
Illusory recollection is the subjective detailed feeling of remembering that sometimes accompanies false remembering of events that never happened (e.g., high confidence, “Remember” judgements, or even remembrance of precise details supposedly associated with the false event). In this review, typical illusory recollection measures obtained from laboratory studies will be depicted, with a focus on the DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995), one of the most largely used procedures to study memory distortion and its associated illusory recollection. The theoretical explanations of illusory recollection will be described and contrasted in light of factors affecting the phenomenon, in order to show their strengths and limits. Although the focus on the origins of illusory recollection is relatively recent, overall, this review suggests that DRM false memories can be an excellent tool to study this phenomenon under controlled conditions and to gain insights on false memories occurring in everyday life.
Highlights
Memories are malleable, often deviate from what happened and are not free from errors (e.g., Bartlett, 1932; Conway, 1997; Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993; Roediger, 1996; Schacter, 1999)
It may be possible that, compared to neutral critical lures, “Remember” responses for emotional critical lures refer to indistinctive emotional reactions (e.g., “this is something unpleasant”, an emotional reaction that could virtually apply to any associate in the study list) or thematic associations (e.g., “this is another unpleasant word related to the others/ belonging to the same theme”) following the presentation of associates, rather than to vivid illusory recollections (i.e., “I remember that particular sound”, “it was the second word presented in the list”)
Recent data using the think-out-loud procedure suggest that older adults might be more likely to report illusory recollection and misrecollect details associated with studied items to justify their “Remember” judgements compared to younger adults (Dehon & Lampinen, in preparation)
Summary
Often deviate from what happened and are not free from errors (e.g., Bartlett, 1932; Conway, 1997; Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993; Roediger, 1996; Schacter, 1999). Research has shown that it is possible to make people falsely remember events that never occurred, but even more intriguingly, these memory distortions may be quite compelling as individuals often remember vivid details associated with the supposed occurrence of the events (e.g., Gallo, 2006; Loftus & Palmer, 1974; Wade et al, 2002), a phenomenon called “Illusory Recollection” (e.g., Gallo & Roediger, 2003) or “Phantom Recollection” (e.g., Brainerd, Wright, Reyna, & Mojardin, 2001). False-but-cue-consistent information may come to mind during retrieval and may cue verbatim details of the corresponding presented items, which may counter the familiarity associated with the false-but-cue-consistent information (e.g., Brainerd et al, 2001) Both theories imply that it is likely that the critical lure will seem familiar due to either activation or reliance on gist traces (i.e., traces that support the general semantic theme). The various measures typically used to examine illusory recollection and the factors that influence it in the context of the DRM paradigm will be described
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