Fuzzy-trace Theory Research Articles

Remembering a criminal conversation: Beyond eyewitness testimony

Unlike the important body of work on eyewitness memory, little research has been done on the accuracy and completeness of “earwitness” memory for conversations. The present research examined the effects of mode of presentation (audiovisual/ auditory-only) on witnesses' free recall for utterances in a criminal conversation at different retention intervals (immediate/delayed) within a single experiment. Different forms of correct recall (verbatim/gist) of the verbal information as well as different types of errors (distortions/fabrications) were also examined. It was predicted that participants in the audiovisual modality would provide more correct information, and fewer errors than participants in the auditory-only modality. Participants' recall was predicted to be impaired over time, dropping to a greater extent after a delay in the auditory-only modality. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Interpretations of the overall findings are offered within the context of dual-coding theory, and within the theoretical frameworks of source monitoring and fuzzy-trace theory.

Development of the false-memory illusion.

The counterintuitive developmental trend in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) illusion (that false-memory responses increase with age) was investigated in learning-disabled and nondisabled children from the 6- to 14-year-old age range. Fuzzy-trace theory predicts that because there are qualitative differences in how younger versus older children and disabled versus nondisabled children connect meaning information across the words on DRM lists, certain key effects that are observed in adult studies will be absent in young children and in learning-disabled children. Data on 6 such adult effects (list strength, recall inflation, delayed inflation, delayed stability, thematic intrusion, and true-false dissociation) were used to investigate this hypothesis, and the resulting data were consistent with prediction.

The incidence of false memories in native and non-native speakers

The current study consisted of four experiments that utilised a novel approach to investigating false memories. Each of the experiments in the current study investigated individuals with varying experience with different languages. Experiment 1 tested participants in both their native and secondary languages as well as monolingual English speakers, while Experiment 2 assessed native Spanish speakers using both English and Spanish associative lists. Experiment 3 examined the illusory memories in monolingual Spanish speakers in both English and Spanish, while Experiment 4 investigated false memories in monolingual English speakers in both English and Spanish. Results indicated that memory for list items and critical lures was greatest when the lists were presented in the participants' primary language. Results can be explained by either activation-based or fuzzy-trace theories.

Item method directed forgetting diminishes false memory

Directed forgetting may reduce the ORM false memory illusion by interfering with meaning processing. Participants were presented with a list composed of six 10-word semantically associated sub-lists, and they were either (a) asked to remember a ll list it ems or (b) asked to remember all associates from sub-lists and to forget all associates from other sub-lists. All participants were requested to recall and recognise list items. Although directed forgetting effects have been previously reported only for true responses in the ORM paradigm with the list method, we also found directed forgetting for false responses with the item method. Such forgetting instructions reduced both verbatim and meaning processing, decreasing both the intrusion and the false alarm rate. These results are consistent with two-process explanations of DRM false memories, such as fuzzy-trace theory, and add to our understanding of false memory editing.

Word Frequency Effect in False Memories

Fuzzy Trace Theory argues that false memories arise from a weak verbatim memory along with strong encoding of the meaning (gist). The present study simultaneously investigated the effects of the strength of both the gist and the verbatim information on false memories. Exp. 1 was carried out to compare false memories for common and rare words in recall and recognition. In Exp. 2 a control for possible testing effects was added, and participants were given a recognition test with no preceding recall test. Qualitative judgements (Remember vs Know) regarding words judged as old on the recognition test were also collected in Exp. 2. Both experiments showed that false memories were more likely when weak verbatim items occurred along with strong gist (as with common words) than only with weak gist encoding (as with rare words). Moreover, participants were more likely to choose falsely physically similar distractors for rare words than for common words. Semantically similar distractors, on the other hand, were more likely to be selected for common than for rare words. These results provide further support for the fuzzy trace theory explanation of false memories. However, some weaknesses of this model regarding false memories are also discussed.

Coherence and correspondence criteria for rationality: experts' estimation of risks of sexually transmitted infections

The aim of this study is to examine both coherence and correspondence criteria for rationality in experts' judgments of risk. We investigated biases in risk estimation for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) predicted by fuzzy-trace theory, i.e., that specific errors would occur despite experts' knowledge of correct responses. One hundred twenty professionals with specific knowledge of STI risks in adolescents were administered a survey questionnaire to test predictions concerning: knowledge deficits (producing underestimation of risks); gist-based representation of risk categories (producing overestimation of condom effectiveness); retrieval failure for risk knowledge (producing lower risk estimates); and processing interference in combining risk estimates (producing biases in post-test diagnosis of infection). Retrieval was manipulated by asking estimation questions that “unpacked” the STI category into infection types or did not specify infection types. Other questions differentiated processing biases from knowledge deficits or retrieval failure by directly providing requisite knowledge. Experts' knowledge of STI transmission and infection risks was verified empirically. Nevertheless, under predictable conditions, they misestimated risk, overestimated the effectiveness of condoms, and also suffered from processing biases. When questions provided better retrieval supports (unpacked format), risk estimates improved. Biases were linked to gist representations, retrieval failures, and processing errors, as opposed to knowledge about STIs. Results support fuzzy-trace theory's dual-process assumptions that different types of errors are dissociated from one another, and separate failures of coherence and correspondence among the same sample of experts. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fuzzy-trace theory and memory development

We review recent applications of fuzzy-trace theory to memory development, organizing the presentation around two themes: the theory’s explanatory principles and experimental findings about memory development that follow as predictions from those principles. The featured explanatory principles are: parallel storage of verbatim and gist traces, dissociated retrieval of verbatim and gist traces, differential survival rates for verbatim and gist traces, retrieval phenomenology, and developmental trends in verbatim and gist memory. The experimental findings come from four different areas of research: the development of retrieval phenomenologies, “reversed” developmental trends in false memory, the development of mere testing effects, and the development of false persistence in memory.

The effects of memory trace strength on eyewitness recall in children with and without intellectual disabilities

Children with mild moderate intellectual disabilities (ID) were compared with typically developing peers of the same chronological age (CA) on an eyewitness memory task in which memory trace strength was manipulated to examine whether increased memory trace strength would benefit those with ID more than those without ID. No evidence was found for this claim or for the notion that different mechanisms are implicated in memory processes for children with ID versus CA controls. Fuzzy-trace theory was also used to contrast question types that probed verbatim memory versus gist memory. Manipulations of trace strength, when used with immediate recall (to reduce the impact of decay), were predicted to improve verbatim memory more than gist memory. The results broadly supported the predictions. Performance was not improved in the stronger trace strength condition on measures of recall that tapped gist memory (e.g., open-ended recall), whereas performance was significantly better in the stronger trace strength condition on two of the three measures of recall that tapped verbatim memory (i.e., closed misleading questions, open-ended specific questions). Differences in performance between the groups were quite marked on several question types, supporting previous findings that those with ID have certain vulnerabilities as potential witnesses compared with peers of the same CA.

False recognition with the Deese-Roediger-McDermott-Reid-Solso procedure: a quantitative summary.

In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott-Read-Solso (DRMRS) procedure, participants study lists of words associated with central concepts (critical themes) that are not on the lists, then their memory is tested. Based on 224 estimates, the rate of False Recognition of the nonstudied critical themes was .59 (95% confidence interval of .56 to .61), which is smaller than the Hit rate of .75 for correct recognition of studied items (95% confidence interval of .73 to .77) but greater than various rates of False Alarms for other nonstudied items (ranging from .13 to .19). Ratings of subjective confidence were similar on Hits and on False Recognitions but higher than on False Alarms, confirming that false recognition was more like correct recognition than like other errors. The results from judgments of feeling of remembering or knowing, from the effects of intervening activities (particularly recall) between study and test, and from the effects of age suggest that False Recognition occurs because the critical theme is activated along with studied items during list presentation and perhaps also during recall. Invoking fuzzy trace theory, it is argued Hits are based on verbatim traces whereas False Recognition is based on gist traces and a failure of source memory. Proposals are made for research.

How People Make Decisions That Involve Risk

Many health and safety problems, including war and terrorism, are by-products of how people reason about risk. I describe a new approach to reasoning about risk that implements a modern dual-process model of memory called fuzzy-trace theory. This approach posits encoding of both verbatim and gist representations, with reliance on the latter whenever possible; dependence of reasoning on retrieval cues that access stored values and principles; and vulnerability of reasoning to processing interference from overlapping classes of events, which causes denominator neglect in risk or probability judgments. These simple principles explain classic and new findings, for example, the finding that people overestimate small risks but ignore very small risks. Fuzzy-trace theory differs from other dual-process approaches to reasoning in that it places intuition at the apex of development, considering fuzzy intuitive processing more advanced than precise computational processing (e.g., trading off risks and rewards). The theory supplies a conception of rationality that distinguishes degrees of severity of errors in reasoning. It also includes a mechanism for achieving consistency in reasoning, a hallmark of rationality, by explaining how a person can treat superficially different reasoning problems in the same way if the problems share an underlying gist.

Behavioral measurement of remembering phenomenologies: so simple a child can do it.

Two remembering phenomenologies, vivid recollection and vague familiarity, have been extensively studied in adults using introspective self-report tasks, such as remember-know. Because such tasks are beyond the capabilities of young children, there is no database on how these phenomenologies first develop and what factors affect them. In experiments with 5- to 14-year-olds, a child-appropriate behavioral methodology (conjoint recognition) was used to measure these phenomenologies. For both true and false memory, there were marked age increases in vivid recollective experiences, coupled with only slight increases in vague familiarity experiences. Thus, there is a vague-to-vivid developmental shift in the mental states that accompany remembering, a finding that is predicted by fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of recollection and familiarity.

Effects of perceptual modality on verbatim and gist memory.

In two experiments, predictions of the fuzzy-trace theory of memory were tested. Perceptual information may play a role in retrieval and recognition processes for verbatim, but not for gist, memory. Perceptual modality effects were assessed in the present study by presenting three-sentence stories (e.g., The bird is in the cage. The cage is over the table. The bird is yellow) and then testing recognition of probes that varied on three dimensions: (1) semantic accuracy (true vs. false), (2) wording (all original words vs. one novel word included), and (3) sentence type (premise vs. inference). In Experiment 1, study modality (auditory vs. visual) was manipulated, and in Experiment 2, both study and test modalities were manipulated. Despite replicating a number of findings consistent with fuzzy-trace theory (e.g., instruction and probe type effects), the results of both experiments failed to support the idea that perceptual information plays a role in performance on verbatim memory tests.

Pengaruh Framing pada Keputusan Akuntansi Managerial dalam Perspektif Individu-Kelompok; Pengujian Empiris atas Prospect Theory dan Fuzzy-Trace Theory

The purposes of this study are to explore framing effects in a managerial accounting decision context on individual and group’s perspective, and to test the explanatory power of prospect theory and fuzzy-trace theory, on such effects. A number of 279 students in executive class of Magister Management Gadjah Mada University participated in this experiment. The results show the existence of the framing effect bias at individual and also at group. This result also indicates the ability of fuzzy-trace theory to predict the bias as does prospect theory, but in experiment hereinafter was designed to distinguish among the explanatory abilities of two theories in an accounting context, this result indicate that the fuzzy-trace theory provides additional power to explain the framing effect. At examination of decision difference between group and individual, result shows the existence of group polarization when information presented in gain domain/positive frame, but when information presented in loss-domain/negative-frame, individual and group do not show the existence of group polarization.

"If I didn't write it, why would I remember it?" Effects of encoding, attention, and practice on accurate and false memory.

In two experiments involving recall and recognition, we manipulated encoding strategies, attention, and practice in the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott false memory procedure. During the study of auditory word lists, participants listened to the words, wrote the words, wrote the second letter of the words, or counted backward by threes and wrote numbers in time with the words. The results from both experiments showed that, relative to the full-attention hear word condition, the divided-attention write number condition impaired accurate memory, but not false memory. In contrast, the focused-attention write word and write second letter conditions were comparable to the hear word condition in producing accurate memory, yet they were better at reducing false memory. But even after multiple study-test trials, people still falsely recalled or recognized words that they had never written during study. These results are consistent with predictions generated from fuzzy trace theory and the activation/monitoring framework.

Fuzzy-trace theory, risk communication, and product labeling in sexually transmitted diseases.

Health care professionals are a major source of risk communications, but their estimation of risks may be compromised by systematic biases. We examined fuzzy-trace theory's predictions of professionals' biases in risk estimation for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) linked to: knowledge deficits (producing underestimation of STI risk, re-infection, and gender differences), gist-based mental representation of risk categories (producing overestimation of condom effectiveness for psychologically atypical but prevalent infections), retrieval failure for risk knowledge (producing greater risk underestimation when STIs are not specified), and processing interference involving combining risk estimates (producing biases in post-test estimation of infection, regardless of knowledge). One-hundred-seventy-four subjects (experts attending a national workshop, physicians, other health care professionals, and students) estimated the risk of teenagers contracting STIs, re-infection rates for males and females, and condom effectiveness in reducing infection risk. Retrieval was manipulated by asking estimation questions in two formats, a specific format that "unpacked" the STI category (infection types) and a global format that did not provide specific cues. Requesting estimates of infection risk after relevant knowledge was directly provided, isolating processing effects, assessed processing biases. As predicted, all groups of professionals underestimated the risk of STI transmission, re-infection, and gender differences, and overestimated the effectiveness of condoms, relative to published estimates. However, when questions provided better retrieval supports (specified format), estimation bias decreased. All groups of professionals also suffered from predicted processing biases. Although knowledge deficits contribute to estimation biases, the research showed that biases are also linked to fuzzy representations, retrieval failures, and processing errors Hence, interventions that are designed to improve risk perception among professionals must incorporate more than knowledge dissemination. They should also provide support for information representation, effective retrieval, and accurate processing.

Phantom recall

Phantom recollection (illusory vivid experience of the “presentation” of unpresented items) occurs at high levels in certain types of false recognition, but it is not yet known whether it occurs at high levels in false recall. A nonintrospective methodology based on fuzzy-trace theory’s dual-retrieval model of recall was used to estimate this hallucinatory phenomenology directly from free-recall data. To generate convergent evidence, the methodology was implemented in two distinct paradigms (repeated recall and conjoint recall) using Deese/Roediger/McDermott lists. With both paradigms, levels of phantom recollection were high and were usually equal to or greater than corresponding levels of true recollection (for presented material). Measurements of phantom recollection and true recollection were singly and doubly dissociated by a series of theory-driven manipulations (list blocking, strength of false-memory illusions, repetition, and study-test delay), suggesting that the two phenomenologies are by-products of different retrieval processes.

Recollection rejection: false-memory editing in children and adults.

Mechanisms for editing false events out of memory reports have fundamental implications for theories of false memory and for best practice in applied domains in which false reports must be minimized (e.g., forensic psychological interviews, sworn testimony). A mechanism posited in fuzzy-trace theory, recollection rejection, is considered. A process analysis of false-memory editing is presented, which assumes that false-but-gist-consistent events (e.g., the word SOFA, when the word COUCH was experienced) sometimes cue the retrieval of verbatim traces of the corresponding true events (COUCH), generating mismatches that counteract the high familiarity of false-but-gist-consistent events. Empirical support comes from 2 qualitative phenomena: recollective suppression of semantic false memory and inverted-U relations between retrieval time and semantic false memory. Further support comes from 2 quantitative methodologies: conjoint recognition and receiver operating characteristics. The analysis also predicts a novel false-memory phenomenon (erroneous recollection rejection), in which true events are inappropriately edited out of memory reports.

Children's memory of a physical examination: A comparison of recall and recognition assessment protocols

Previous studies of children's abilities to remember the details of salient personal experiences have consistently obtained age differences in various aspects of memory performance. For example, research on children's memory for recent physical examinations indicates that 3-year-olds provide less information in response to open-ended questions and exhibit more forgetting over time than do older children. Given these findings, the present studies were designed to explore further the abilities of 3-year-olds to remember a specified visit to the doctor. In contrast to earlier investigations, in which young children's memory was assessed solely by a verbal protocol that began with broad, open-ended questions, the two studies reported here explored the usefulness of a recognition-based assessment interview. Because of the context specificity that characterises children's memory performance, it was hypothesised that a recognition measure would provide a more sensitive index of the information available in young children's memory than would the standard interview, and thus lead to a reduction of the typically obtained age differences in performance. In contrast to these expectations, clear age differences in memory performance were observed among the children who received the recognition-based interview. Because these age differences stemmed largely from the 3-year-olds' high rate of false alarms to lures, the findings suggest that professionals who interview children should exercise caution when interpreting responses to yes-no questions. The convergence of these findings with recent results obtained in tests of Fuzzy-Trace Theory is also discussed.

Fuzzy-Trace Theory and False Memory

A key problem confronting theories of false memory is that false-memory phenomena are so diverse: Some are characteristic of controlled laboratory tasks, others of everyday life; some occur for traumatic events with legal consequences, others for innocuous events; some are characteristic of one developmental level, others of another developmental level. Fuzzy-trace theory explains false memories via a small set of principles that implement a single representational distinction. Those principles generate new predictions, some of which are counterintuitive.

Explaining the development of false memories

We review six explanatory dimensions of false memory in children that are relevant to forensic practice: measurement, development, social factors, individual differences, varieties of memories and memory judgments, and varieties of procedures that induce false memories. We conclude that, despite greater fidelity to real-world false memory contexts, recent studies fail to use known techniques that separate mere acquiescence from memory changes. Acquiescence and memory interact in interrogation through a dynamic process of construing both questions and memories. Fuzzy-trace theory’s verbatim–gist distinction offers an explanation for how this construal process can transform acquiescence into false memory. Acquiescence and false memory are further exacerbated by individual differences in cognition, personality, and social factors. To avoid such effects, interviewers should not encourage children to consider, imagine, or interpret alternative versions of events, especially with repeated specific questions rather than open-ended free recall. The goal of interviews should be not only to separate truth from falsity, but also to separate the fuzzy truth, the construal of questions and gist memories, from the verbatim “just-the-facts” truth required for the administration of justice.