Phantom Recollection Research Articles

Short-Term Phantom Recollection in 8-10-Year-Olds and Young Adults.

Illusory conscious experience of the "presentation" of unstudied material, called phantom recollection, occurs at high levels in long-term episodic memory tests and underlies some forms of false memory. We report an experiment examining, for the first time, the presence of phantom recollection in a short-term working memory (WM) task in 8- to 10-year-old children and young adults. Participants studied lists of eight semantically related words and had to recognize them among unpresented distractors semantically related and unrelated to the studied words after a retention interval of a few seconds. Regardless of whether the retention interval was filled with a concurrent task that interfered with WM maintenance, the false recognition rate for related distractors was very high in both age groups, although it was higher in young adults (47%) than children (42%) and rivaled the rate of target acceptance. The conjoint recognition model of fuzzy-trace theory was used to examine memory representations underlying recognition responses. In young adults, phantom recollection underpinned half of the false memories. By contrast, in children, phantom recollection accounted for only 16% of them. These findings suggest that an increase in phantom recollection use may underlie the developmental increase in short-term false memory.

Self-Enhanced False Memory Across the Life Span.

The role of self in veridical memory has been extensively studied, but what is the role of self in false memory development across the life span? The current study examined the impact of self-reference on associative false memory in children, younger adults, and older adults, and further investigated possible mechanisms concerning how self-reference might affect false memory in different age groups. Combining a self-reference manipulation with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, children, younger adults, and older adults encoded DRM word lists as paired with their own name, another person's name, or a red square. Later their true and false recognition memory as well as recollection and familiarity were measured. A self-enhanced false memory effect was found in all age groups. That is, participants generated more false memories in the self-reference condition relative to the other-reference and neutral conditions. Furthermore, when examining its underlying memory mechanisms, we found that self-reference mainly increased false recollection in younger adults but facilitated familiarity of critical lures in older adults. Although self-reference increases false memory in both younger and older adults, the underlying mechanisms are different in that older adults have more self-relevant false familiarity while younger adults generate more self-relevant phantom recollection. The current study also has implications for eyewitness reports, suggesting that the self-relevance of memory may be one relevant factor to consider when evaluating potential risk factors of false memory.

How Culture Shapes Constructive False Memory

Culture plays a critical role in memory. Memory is also known to be constructive and prone to errors (e.g., false memories). However, little is known about how culture potentially shapes the formation of false memories. We examined the role of culture in shaping various aspects of false memory by comparing European (N = 33) and Chinese (N = 40) samples. In our study, we embedded the Deese-Roediger/McDermott (DRM) pictures in different contexts and paired them with participants’ own name or other people’s name (e.g., Adele) to create item-person-context memory episodes. We found that European participants had more phantom recollection for non-presented lure pictures while Chinese participants were more likely to form familiarity for lure pictures. Furthermore, we showed that European participants formed more self-related false memories of item-context bindings than Chinese participants. Our study is the first to show cultural differences in constructive false memories using the DRM paradigm.

Norming retrieval processes

There is a long tradition of norming words and other materials for various descriptive properties (e.g., concreteness, emotional valence, imagery, meaningfulness), which allows those properties to be manipulated in memory experiments. We introduce a new approach to norming, in which measurement models are used to norm the underlying retrieval processes that memory items trigger. We report two worked examples of this approach, for the most commonly administered items in false memory experiments: DRM lists. In one project, 36 lists that had been previously normed for their levels of true and false memory were normed for their levels of 3 retrieval processes that control false memory (recollection rejection, phantom recollection, and semantic familiarity) and 3 parallel processes that control true memory (true recollection, erroneous recollection rejection, and semantic familiarity). In the other project, 72 new DRM lists, whose associative and semantic strengths had been systematically varied, were normed for the same retrieval processes. Together, these norms provide maximum likelihood estimates of all 6 retrieval processes for all 108 lists. Analyses of those estimates revealed that list differences in the three false memory processes are mutually dissociated, as are list differences in the three true memory processes. Thus, investigators can vary each retrieval process, without confounding it with other processes, by merely selecting appropriate groups of lists. That allows simple List × Treatment designs to be used to pinpoint the retrieval processes that are responsible for the effects of important memory manipulations (e.g., delay, divided attention, encoding instructions, repetition).

Verbatim editing: A general model of recollection rejection.

Recollection rejection is traditionally defined as using verbatim traces of old items' presentations to reject new similar test cues, in old/new recognition (e.g., rejecting that couch is old by retrieving verbatim traces of sofa's presentation). We broaden this conceptualization to include (a) old as well as new similar test cues, (b) using verbatim traces for acceptance as well as rejection, and (c) using illusory verbatim traces of unpresented items (phantom recollection) as well as actual verbatim traces (true recollection). The expanded model describes how true recollection and phantom recollection generate memory decisions by creating matches and mismatches between comparisons of test cues to the content of retrieved verbatim traces versus comparisons of test cues to the content of test questions. This model generates a series of predictions about verbatim editing. Some are intuitive, such as the prection that performance will be more accurate for old cues than for new similar ones. Others are counterintuitive and conflict with an alternative model, such as correct rejections are easier than hits and that correct rejection rates will be more stable over time than hit rates. Meta-analyses of a corpus of conjoint recognition data sets provided support for the model's predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

False Memory for Orthographically Related Words: Research in the Simplified Conjoint Recognition Paradigm

Abstract The aim of this study was to define the processes underlying false recognition memory for orthographically related words by using the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm (Stahl & Klauer, 2009), which is grounded in the fuzzy trace theory. We considered 2 accounts. The first assumes that false memory stems from the perceptual feature overlap between targets and distractors represented in the gist memory parameter. The second account assumes that false memory for orthographically related distractors results from the misattribution of verbatim information, which is reflected in the phantom recollection parameter. Data from two experiments were analyzed with multinomial processing tree modeling to estimate the contribution of latent processes to performance in recognition memory tests. These analyses supported the feature overlap account, suggesting that gist trace encodes both semantic and orthographic patterns. We also showed that a boost in false memories due to the adding of semantic associates to a list of orthographically related words stems from an increase in phantom recollection. We discussed further directions in theoretical and empirical research on the gist and verbatim traces’ contribution to false recognition of perceptually related stimuli.

Stress effects on emotional memory in middle childhood

False recognition results from the interplay of multiple cognitive processes, including verbatim memory, gist memory, phantom recollection, and response bias. In the current study, we modified the simplified Conjoint Recognition (CR) paradigm to investigate the way in which the valence of emotional stimuli affects the cognitive process and behavioral outcome of false recognition. In Study 1, we examined the applicability of the modification to the simplified CR paradigm and model. Twenty-six undergraduate students (13 females, aged 21.00 ± 2.30 years) learned and recognized both the large and small categories of photo objects. The applicability of the paradigm and model was confirmed by a fair goodness-of-fit of the model to the observational data and by their competence in detecting the memory differences between the large- and small-category conditions. In Study 2, we recruited another sample of 29 undergraduate students (14 females, aged 22.60 ± 2.74 years) to learn and recognize the categories of photo objects that were emotionally provocative. The results showed that negative valence increased false recognition, particularly the rate of false “remember” responses, by facilitating phantom recollection; positive valence did not influence false recognition significantly though enhanced gist processing.

Increased phantom recollection after sleep.

Sleep is known to benefit memory consolidation, but its effect on false memory is less clear. We applied the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm to investigate how sleep affects the cognitive processes behind correct or false recognition, according to fuzzy-trace theory, and measured the retrieval of verbatim traces, retrieval of gist traces, and phantom recollection. Participants studied 24 lists of semantically related words lacking the strongest common associate or theme word. Recognition was tested 12 h later, following either a night's sleep or daytime wakefulness. The recognition test featured studied words, nonstudied theme words (false recognition), and unrelated words. False recognition rate was higher after sleep than after daytime wakefulness. True recognition rate was the same. Analysis of the cognitive processes underlying recognition showed that phantom recollection was higher after sleep. Assuming that phantom recollection reflects the retrieval of strong gist traces, sleep may strengthen gist traces and promote gist extraction.

“I Will Never Disown You” (Mk. 14:31): A Psychological Perspective on Peter’s Denials

This article attempts to explore the effects of memory retention, phantom recollection, and recollection rejection on the quest for the Apostle Peter’s denials (Mt. 26:31–35, 69–75; Mk 14:27–31, 66–72; Lk. 22:31–34, 54–62; Jn. 13:37–38, 18:15–18, 25–27). Phantom recollection refers that sometimes gist-based false memories at high levels are strong enough to elicit falsely recalled experiences. While individuals retrieve true recognition of their instantiating studied scenarios rather than false-but-gist-consistent lures by detecting relevant signal via a memory-editing operation called recollection rejection. This article examines the extent to which Peter’s memory retention sustains and moreover presumes that phantom recollection leads Peter to override his own promise, but with the assistance of detecting the crucial signals (i.e., the rooster crows, Mt. 26:74b, Mk. 14:72a, Lk. 22:60b, Jn. 18:27b; Jesus straightforwardly looks at him, Lk. 22:61a) that evokes the recollection rejection process, he retrieves his true memories. For the first time, if any, the attempt to interpret the pericope of Peter’s denials through the lens of the false memory theory could elucidate our hermeneutical understandings from the nature of humankind perspective.

Usage of semantic representations in recognition memory

ABSTRACTMeanings of words facilitate false acceptance as well as correct rejection of lures in recognition memory tests, depending on the experimental context. This suggests that semantic representations are both directly and indirectly (i.e., mediated by perceptual representations) used in remembering. Studies using memory conjunction errors (MCEs) paradigms, in which the lures consist of component parts of studied words, have reported semantic facilitation of rejection of the lures. However, attending to components of the lures could potentially cause this. Therefore, we investigated whether semantic overlap of lures facilitates MCEs using Japanese Kanji words in which a whole-word image is more concerned in reading. Experiments demonstrated semantic facilitation of MCEs in a delayed recognition test (Experiment 1), and in immediate recognition tests in which participants were prevented from using phonological or orthographic representations (Experiment 2), and the salient effect on individuals with high semantic memory capacities (Experiment 3). Additionally, analysis of the receiver operating characteristic suggested that this effect is attributed to familiarity-based memory judgement and phantom recollection. These findings indicate that semantic representations can be directly used in remembering, even when perceptual representations of studied words are available.

Emotional valence of stimuli modulates false recognition: Using a modified version of the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm

False recognition results from the interplay of multiple cognitive processes, including verbatim memory, gist memory, phantom recollection, and response bias. In the current study, we modified the simplified Conjoint Recognition (CR) paradigm to investigate the way in which the valence of emotional stimuli affects the cognitive process and behavioral outcome of false recognition. In Study 1, we examined the applicability of the modification to the simplified CR paradigm and model. Twenty-six undergraduate students (13 females, aged 21.00±2.30years) learned and recognized both the large and small categories of photo objects. The applicability of the paradigm and model was confirmed by a fair goodness-of-fit of the model to the observational data and by their competence in detecting the memory differences between the large- and small-category conditions. In Study 2, we recruited another sample of 29 undergraduate students (14 females, aged 22.60±2.74years) to learn and recognize the categories of photo objects that were emotionally provocative. The results showed that negative valence increased false recognition, particularly the rate of false “remember” responses, by facilitating phantom recollection; positive valence did not influence false recognition significantly though enhanced gist processing.

Resisting false recognition: An ERP study of lure discrimination

There is keen interest in what enables rememberers to differentiate true from false memories and which strategies are likely to be the most effective. This study measured electrical brain activity while healthy young adults performed a mnemonic discrimination task, deciding whether color pictures had been studied, were similar to studied pictures (lures), or were new. Between 500 and 800ms post-stimulus, event-related potentials (ERPs) for correctly recognized studied pictures and falsely recognized lures compared to those for correctly rejected novel items had a left centroparietal scalp distribution. This was typical of the parietal old/new effect associated with recollection, and in line with previous evidence that similar lures may elicit false or phantom recollection as opposed to just familiarity. There was no evidence of a parietal effect for correctly rejected lures as would be expected if recall-to-reject was used. The ERP old/new effects for lures also varied with individual differences in performance. Parietal effects for falsely recognized lures were larger in better performers, who successfully rejected a greater number of lures as “similar”. The better performers also showed more pronounced right frontocentral old/new effects between 800 and 1100ms for correctly rejected and falsely recognized similar lures. The enhancement of false recollection in better performers implies false recognition of lures occurred only when more specific information was recovered about the study episodic. Together, the findings suggest reliance on recollection to decide that items were studied, supported by post-retrieval processing.

Phantom Recollection of Bridging and Elaborative Inferences

The phantom recollection model is a multiprocess analysis according to which memory judgments are collaboratively supported by one's recollection of an item in its context, a vaguer sense of stimulus familiarity, and the phantom recollection of the substance and even perceptual details of unstudied but related lures. Phantom recollection has previously been documented to support readers’ judgments of certain logical implications of sentences and discourse bridging inferences. This study evaluated the representational status of elaborative inferences in a comparable way. Subjects read blocks of brief passages and then judged explicit, bridging inference, elaborative inference, and control test items. Different subject groups were instructed to make their judgments with (1) a verbatim criterion, or (2) a gist criterion or (3) to accept only items implied but not stated in their passages. Multinomial tree processing analysis was applied to the data. Consistent with numerous other behavioral measures, these procedures provided evidence of phantom recollection support for bridging but not elaborative inferences. This outcome bears on the representational basis of elaborative inferences. The merits but also some hazards of the present methodology are discussed.

The role of phantom recollection in false recall

Although high levels of phantom recollection (illusory vivid experience of the prior "presentation" of unpresented items) have been found for false recognition, little is known about phantom recollection in recall. We examined this issue with Deese/Roediger-McDermott lists using two paradigms: repeated recall and conjoint recall. High levels of phantom recollection were observed with both standard behavioral measures and the parameters of fuzzy-trace theory's dual-recall model. In addition, phantom recollection and the true recollection that accompanies presented items appear to involve different retrieval processes, because they were dissociated by manipulations such as number of recall tests and list strength.

True and phantom recollection: An fMRI investigation of similar and distinct neural correlates and connectivity

Although research suggests that most false memories are mediated by a sense of familiarity, behavioral evidence indicates that some are characterized by retrieval of item-specific details associated with recollection. However, neuroimaging studies have yet to isolate and analyze the neural correlates of false (or phantom) recollection, focusing instead on general recognition processes. In doing so, results are mixed with respect to the role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in distinguishing between true and false retrieval. The present study sought to investigate the neural basis of true and phantom recollection and clarify the role of the MTL in dissociating between the two processes. Results showed that true and phantom recollection were associated with a largely overlapping retrieval network including activity in bilateral anterior parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and right superior parietal cortex. However, connectivity analyses using two common MTL seeds revealed a more inferior network (fusiform gyrus, hippocampus, middle temporal gyrus) associated with true recollection and a more superior network (superior parietal, superior frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex) associated with false recollection. Finally, direct comparisons between true and phantom recollection showed greater activity in right hippocampus and early visual cortex for true recollection, whereas no region exhibited greater activity for false recollection. Results indicate that while both true and phantom recollection show similar patterns of activation, there are also distinctions in the neural networks contributing to the two recollection processes. Moreover, results conclude that within the MTL, the hippocampus proper can distinguish between true and phantom recollection.

Measuring phantom recollection in the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm

False memories are sometimes strong enough to elicit recollective experiences. This phenomenon has been termed Phantom Recollection (PR). The Conjoint Recognition (CR) paradigm has been used to empirically separate PR from other memory processes. Recently, a simplification of the CR procedure has been proposed. We herein extend the simplified CR paradigm to the measurement of PR by including an additional parameter. Two experiments in the simplified CR paradigm were conducted in which participants studied lists of items that converge on a single semantic associate. PR was obtained for lists from which eight items were presented but not for lists from which a single item was presented. In addition, new evidence for the validity of the guessing processes in the simplified CR paradigm is reported. These findings support the validity and usefulness of the simplified CR model as a measurement tool for processes of veridical and false memory.

Veridical and false memory for text: A multiprocess analysis

People report recognizing discourse inferences at rates that approach target acceptance. Brainerd et al. [Brainerd, C. J., Wright, R., Reyna, V. F., & Mojardin, A. H. (2001). Conjoint recognition and phantom recollection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27, 307–329] proposed that memory retrieval in contexts associated with very high levels of false memory involve a process of illusory recollection which complements the impact of recollection and familiarity [Jacoby, L. L. (1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513–541]. Experiments were conducted to compare three multiprocess models of text retrieval: A three-process “phantom recollection” model; and two dual-process models, respectively lacking mechanisms of veridical recollection and phantom recollection. Participants read lists of brief texts and then evaluated explicit, implicit, and foil memory probes. Different participant groups were instructed to use verbatim, verbatim plus gist, or gist-only memory-criteria. Multinomial processing tree analysis indicated that both immediate and delayed testing require the involvement of phantom recollection (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). When the participant’s extraction of text meaning is impaired, a dual-process model is adequate to fit the data (Experiment 3).

A simplified conjoint recognition paradigm for the measurement of gist and verbatim memory.

The distinction between verbatim and gist memory traces has furthered the understanding of numerous phenomena in various fields, such as false memory research, research on reasoning and decision making, and cognitive development. To measure verbatim and gist memory empirically, an experimental paradigm and multinomial measurement model has been proposed but rarely applied. In the present article, a simplified conjoint recognition paradigm and multinomial model is introduced and validated as a measurement tool for the separate assessment of verbatim and gist memory processes. A Bayesian metacognitive framework is applied to validate guessing processes. Extensions of the model toward incorporating the processes of phantom recollection and erroneous recollection rejection are discussed.

Robust recollection rejection in the memory conjunction paradigm.

The present research provides compelling evidence for recollection rejection in the memory conjunction paradigm. In Experiment 1, warnings provided at time of test were shown to reduce memory conjunction errors. Moreover, the authors found substantial evidence of recollection rejection and phantom recollection. In Experiment 2, the authors manipulated how often study items were presented. Participants were told that they could earn a cash payoff for being accurate. Recognition of conjunction lures was lower in the multiple presentation condition. However, the payoff manipulation did not significantly interact with item type. The authors obtained evidence of robust recollection rejection from 3 different dependent measures. Consistent with Experiment 1, they also found evidence of phantom recollection. These findings provide evidence that recollection rejection can be quite robust in the memory conjunction paradigm.

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.