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McGuire KL. Methods of Exploring Related-Meaning-Based False Memories. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1976782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Abstract
Although false memories have largely been examined with the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, little research has focused on the semantic context in which associates are encoded. Across three experiments, we varied semantic context during a sentence-processing task with DRM associates embedded within sentences. More meaningful sentences resulted in greater memory errors (Experiment 1). Furthermore, providing contextual information to discriminate old from new items did not reduce false alarms relative to encoding words in isolation when sentences converged on the meaning of the critical lure (Experiment 2), and actually increased memory errors (Experiment 3). These results suggest that semantic context that allows for meaningful relational processing of items within-lists and that converge on the semantic meaning of the critical lure increases the likelihood that the list theme is identified, resulting in more errors at test.
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Age differences in false memories for visual scenes and the effect of prior recall. JOURNAL OF PACIFIC RIM PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1017/prp.2019.26] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated age differences in false memory for visual scenes and the effect of immediate recall on subsequent recognition. Eighty children (7–9 years), 74 adolescents (14–16 years), 92 young adults (19–26 years) and 82 older adults (50–80 years) studied four visual scenes and then took a recognition test after either a free-recall task or a filler task. Results showed an age-related decline in false recognition for visual scenes, but this trend was eliminated when participants were asked to free-recall before recognition. Prior recall decreased false recognition in children, but increased false recognition in older adults. Across the lifespan, adolescents had the loosest criterion, children had the lowest false recall, and prior recall increased true recognition in older adults.
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Abstract
It is widely accepted that sleep aids in the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval processes involved in memory processing; however, the conditions under which sleep influences memory may be substantially constrained. In a meta-analysis, we examined the effects that sleep has on both veridical (accurate) and false memory consolidation, in studies using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm for memory of thematically related words. The meta-analysis revealed that, whereas there was no overall effect of sleep on either accurate or false memories, the effect of sleep on overall memories was moderated by two constraints. First, sleep effects were influenced by the number of words within each themed word list, relating to differences in processing of the associative network of related words. Second, sleep effects were greater in recall than in recognition tests. Thus, whether sleep consolidation increased or decreased DRM veridical or false memory effects depended on the specific features of the memory task.
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Knott LM, Howe ML, Toffalini E, Shah D, Humphreys L. The role of attention in immediate emotional false memory enhancement. Emotion 2018; 18:1063-1077. [PMID: 29927261 PMCID: PMC6277129 DOI: 10.1037/emo0000407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2016] [Revised: 12/08/2017] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Two experiments examined the effect of reduced attentional resources on false memory production for emotionally valenced stimuli using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Prior research has demonstrated that emotional information is often better remembered than neutral information and that enhanced memory for emotional information is dependent on either automatic or controlled neural processing (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004). Behavioral studies designed to reduce attention resources at encoding have supported neuroimaging findings that indicate high arousal negative stimuli rely more on automatic processing but positive high arousal stimuli rely more on controlled processing. No study has yet examined the attentional resources required to produce emotionally valenced false memories. In Experiment 1, negative, positive, and neutral DRM lists were studied under full or divided attention (DA) conditions, and in Experiment 2, negative and neutral DRM lists were studied under fast (20 ms) or slow (2,000 ms) presentation conditions. Under DA and speeded presentation conditions, higher false memory recognition rates were found for negative compared with positive (Experiment 1) and neutral (Experiments 1 and 2) critical lures. This is the first demonstration of which we are aware that suggests negative false memories are associated with automatic neural processing, whereas positive and nonvalenced neutral false memories are associated with more controlled processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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Otgaar H, Howe ML, Merckelbach H, Muris P. Who Is the Better Eyewitness? Sometimes Adults but at Other Times Children. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2018; 27:378-385. [PMID: 30369724 PMCID: PMC6187487 DOI: 10.1177/0963721418770998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Suggestibility is regarded as a major issue when children testify in court. Many legal professionals and memory researchers view children as inferior witnesses. Although differences in suggestibility exist between children and adults, they are much more complex than is usually assumed. We show that under certain conditions, adults are more susceptible than children to suggestion and false memories. We provide evidence that age-related shifts in suggestibility and false memory appear contingent on how quickly and automatically children and adults make associations when experiencing events. Specifically, when confronted with suggestive information about a related but nonexperienced detail, adults more frequently automatically generate links between items experienced and those already in memory, making them more susceptible to suggestion than children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Otgaar
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University.,Department of Psychology, City, University of London
| | - Mark L Howe
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University.,Department of Psychology, City, University of London
| | | | - Peter Muris
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University
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Abstract
Research has demonstrated that false memories are capable of priming and facilitating insight-based problem-solving tasks by increasing solution rates and decreasing solution times. The present research extended this finding by investigating whether false memories could be used to bias ambiguous insight-based problem-solving tasks in a similar manner. Compound remote associate task (CRAT) problems with two possible correct answers, a dominant and a non-dominant solution, were created and normed (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, participants were asked to solve these CRAT problems after they were given Deese/Roediger-McDermott lists whose critical lures were also the non-dominant solution to half of the corresponding CRATs. As predicted, when false memories served as primes, solution rates were higher and solution times were faster for non-dominant than dominant CRAT solutions. This biasing effect was only found when participants falsely recalled the critical lure, and was not found when participants did not falsely recall the critical lure, or when they were not primed. Results are discussed with regard to spreading activation models of solution competition in problem-solving tasks and current theories of false memory priming effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark L Howe
- a Department of Psychology and Centre for Memory and Law , City, University of London , London , UK
| | - Sarah R Garner
- b Centre for Memory and Law , City, University of London , London , UK
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Otgaar H, Howe ML, Brackmann N, Smeets T. The malleability of developmental trends in neutral and negative memory illusions. J Exp Psychol Gen 2016; 145:31-55. [PMID: 26709588 PMCID: PMC4694095 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Among many legal professionals and memory researchers there exists the assumption that susceptibility to false memory decreases with age. In 4 misinformation experiments, we show that under conditions that focus on the meaning of experiences, children are not always the most susceptible to suggestion-induced false memories. We begin by presenting a short overview of previous developmental false memory studies, the majority of which have found that the susceptibility to misinformation decreases with age. In Experiment 1, 6/7-year-olds, 11/12-year-olds, and adults received a video and were confronted with misinformation about related but nonpresented details. Older children and adults had higher misinformation acceptance rates than younger children. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding adding a younger child group (4/6-year-olds). In Experiments 3 and 4, we used new material and again found that susceptibility to misinformation increased with age. Together, these experiments show that children's memory accuracy is not necessarily inferior to that of adults.'
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Otgaar
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University
| | - Mark L Howe
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University
| | | | - Tom Smeets
- Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University
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Reyna VF, Corbin JC, Weldon RB, Brainerd CJ. How Fuzzy-Trace Theory Predicts True and False Memories for Words, Sentences, and Narratives. JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2016; 5:1-9. [PMID: 27042402 DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2015.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Fuzzy-trace theory posits independent verbatim and gist memory processes, a distinction that has implications for such applied topics as eyewitness testimony. This distinction between precise, literal verbatim memory and meaning-based, intuitive gist accounts for memory paradoxes including dissociations between true and false memory, false memories outlasting true memories, and developmental increases in false memory. We provide an overview of fuzzy-trace theory, and, using mathematical modeling, also present results demonstrating verbatim and gist memory in true and false recognition of narrative sentences and inferences. Results supported fuzzy-trace theory's dual-process view of memory: verbatim memory was relied on to reject meaning-consistent, but unpresented, sentences (via recollection rejection). However, verbatim memory was often not retrieved, and gist memory supported acceptance of these sentences (via similarity judgment and phantom recollection). Thus, mathematical models of words can be extended to explain memory for complex stimuli, such as narratives, the kind of memory interrogated in law.
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Paranormal psychic believers and skeptics: a large-scale test of the cognitive differences hypothesis. Mem Cognit 2015; 44:242-61. [DOI: 10.3758/s13421-015-0563-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Bays RB, Foley MA. Autobiographical Elaboration and the DRM Illusion: Investigating the Content and Process of Lure Activations. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Mary Ann Foley
- Department of Psychology; Skidmore College; Saratoga Springs NY USA
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Otgaar H, Howe ML, Peters M, Smeets T, Moritz S. The production of spontaneous false memories across childhood. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 121:28-41. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2013] [Revised: 11/29/2013] [Accepted: 11/29/2013] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Miller HL, Odegard TN, Allen G. Evaluating information processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The case for Fuzzy Trace Theory. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2013.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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Abstract
Classic research that was initiated in response to heavy reliance on children’s evidence in certain types of criminal cases showed that the incidence of false memories declines steadily between childhood and young adulthood. This developmental decline pattern became the centerpiece of much expert testimony, and it has been treated as settled science in court rulings. It is not settled science. A large number of studies have recently appeared on developmental reversals, an opposite pattern in which false memories for events that preserve the gist of experience increase dramatically between early childhood and young adulthood. Developmental reversals challenge the forensic principle that children’s evidence is inherently more infected with false memories than adults’ evidence.
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Otgaar H, Howe ML, Peters M, Sauerland M, Raymaekers L. Developmental trends in different types of spontaneous false memories: implications for the legal field. BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW 2013; 31:666-682. [PMID: 23839901 DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2012] [Revised: 03/31/2013] [Accepted: 05/22/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
In an emerging area of memory research, it is becoming apparent that one particular type of false memory, called spontaneous false memory, follows a developmental trajectory that is the opposite of what is commonly assumed in false memory research - that is, spontaneous false memories are more likely to occur in adults than in children. The present study focused on developmental trends of different types of spontaneous false memories. Specifically, in the current study, 6-8 year-olds, 10-12 year-olds, and adults were presented with two methods to induce spontaneous false memories: (i) semantically related word lists that are commonly used to evoke spontaneous false memories [i.e, Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm]; and (ii) a video in which related details were not shown but were presented during a recognition task. The results showed that children were more likely to form false memories than adults in the video false memory paradigm, whereas DRM false memories were more evident in adults than in children. Furthermore, we found that on a general level, DRM false memories were positively related to video spontaneous false memories. We explain that stimuli that contain obvious themes attenuate or even reverse developmental trends in spontaneous false memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Otgaar
- Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands
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Swannell ER, Dewhurst SA. Effects of Presentation Format and List Length on Children's False Memories. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2011.638689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Brainerd CJ, Reyna VF. Reliability of Children's Testimony in the Era of Developmental Reversals. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2012; 32:224-267. [PMID: 23139439 PMCID: PMC3489002 DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2012.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
A hoary assumption of the law is that children are more prone to false-memory reports than adults, and hence, their testimony is less reliable than adults'. Since the 1980s, that assumption has been buttressed by numerous studies that detected declines in false memory between early childhood and young adulthood under controlled conditions. Fuzzy-trace theory predicted reversals of this standard developmental pattern in circumstances that are directly relevant to testimony because they involve using the gist of experience to remember events. That prediction has been investigated during the past decade, and a large number of experiments have been published in which false memories have indeed been found to increase between early childhood and young adulthood. Further, experimentation has tied age increases in false memory to improvements in children's memory for semantic gist. According to current scientific evidence, the principle that children's testimony is necessarily more infected with false memories than adults' and that, other things being equal, juries should regard adult's testimony as necessarily more faithful to actual events is untenable.
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Affiliation(s)
- C J Brainerd
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University
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Abstract
The Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm was used to investigate the effect of depression on true and false recognition. In this experiment true and false recognition was examined across positive, neutral, negative, and depression-relevant lists for individuals with and without a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Results showed that participants with major depressive disorder falsely recognised significantly more depression-relevant words than non-depressed controls. These findings also parallel recent research using recall instead of recognition and show that there are clear mood congruence effects for depression on false memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark L Howe
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
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