The ironic effect of guessing: increased false memory for mediated lists in younger and older adults

False memory in a second language: The importance of controlling the knowledge of word meaning

In the globalized world we live in, it is increasingly common for people to speak more than one language. Although research in psychology has been widely interested in the study of false memories with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, to date, there is a scarcity of studies comparing false memories in the first and the second language (L1 and L2, respectively). It is noteworthy that one of the most studied variables in the DRM paradigm, the backward associative strength (BAS), has hardly been studied in the L2. Moreover, the only study that recently examined this matter found differences in the knowledge of L2-word meaning between the high-BAS and low-BAS lists, which would hinder the interpretation of the BAS effect in L2 false memories. Taking all this into account, the current work examined false memories in the L1 (Spanish) and the L2 (English) as a function of BAS overcoming the limitations of the previous study. We selected DRM lists using both Spanish and English free association norms and lists were constructed to vary in BAS values while controlling the knowledge of word meaning. Results showed that false recognition was greater in the L1 or dominant language than in the L2 or non-dominant language. Furthermore, BAS modulated the false recognition in both the L1 and the L2. That is, false recognition was higher in high-BAS than low-BAS lists in both languages. Sensitivity index from the signal-detection theory helped us gain further insight into these results. The main findings are discussed in the light of theoretical models from both the false memory and the second language processing literature. Finally, practical implications and future research are provided.

Item-specific encoding reduces false recognition of homograph and implicit mediated critical lures

We evaluated the effects of item-specific and relational encoding instructions on false recognition for critical lures that originated from homograph and mediated study lists. Homograph lists contained list items that were taken from two meanings of the same critical lure (e.g., autumn, trip, harvest, stumble; for fall) which disrupted thematic/gist consistency of the list. Mediated lists contained unrelated list items (e.g., slippery, spicy, vent, sleigh) that were indirectly related to a critical lure (e.g., cold), through a set of non-presented mediators (e.g., wet, hot, air, snow), and had no thematic/gist consistency. In two experiments, item-specific and relational encoding improved correct recognition relative to a read-only control task, but only item-specific encoding reduced false recognition of critical lures. Signal-detection analyses indicated that the item-specific reduction increased test-based monitoring. The item-specific reduction for homograph and mediated critical lures is consistent with the activation-monitoring framework given gist-based processes are reduced or eliminated on these list types.

Manipulations of List Type in the DRM Paradigm: A Review of How Structural and Conceptual Similarity Affect False Memory

The use of list-learning paradigms to explore false memory has revealed several critical findings about the contributions of similarity and relatedness in memory phenomena more broadly. Characterizing the nature of "similarity and relatedness" can inform researchers about factors contributing to memory distortions and about the underlying associative and semantic networks that support veridical memory. Similarity can be defined in terms of semantic properties (e.g., shared conceptual and taxonomic features), lexical/associative properties (e.g., shared connections in associative networks), or structural properties (e.g., shared orthographic or phonological features). By manipulating the type of list and its relationship to a non-studied critical item, we review the effects of these types of similarity on veridical and false memory. All forms of similarity reviewed here result in reliable error rates and the effects on veridical memory are variable. The results across a variety of paradigms and tests provide partial support for a number of theoretical explanations of false memory phenomena, but none of the theories readily account for all results.

The Role of Language Proficiency in False Memory: A Mini Review

Memory errors and, specifically, false memories in the Deese/Roediger–McDermott paradigm have been extensively studied in the past decades. Most studies have investigated false memory in monolinguals’ native or first language (L1), but interest has also grown in examining false memories in participants’ second language (L2) with different proficiency levels. The main purpose of this manuscript is to review the current state of knowledge on the role of language proficiency on false memories when participants encode and retrieve information in the same language. To do so, a systematic literature search was conducted, and the available studies were reviewed. These studies differed in, for example, age, language proficiency, or material characteristics, including both high and low associative strength lists, and they reported different results. In this review, we attempted to make sense of the apparently contradictory results by carefully identifying participants’ language dominance and L2 proficiency. Specifically, the results indicated that, first, people are more prone to produce false memories in their dominant than in their non-dominant language. This result generalizes to lists with high and low associative strength, as well as to participants of different ages. Second, false memories do not differ between two languages when speakers are equally proficient in both languages. Finally, highly proficient L2 speakers produce more false memories in their L2 than speakers with lower L2 proficiency. The results of this review will be considered in the light of the theoretical frameworks of false memories and bilingual language processing.

The effect of early list manipulations on the DRM illusion

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is widely used to study false memory in the laboratory. It tests memory for lists of semantically related words (correct list item memories) and their non-presented associates (false lure memories). Evidence suggests that early items in DRM lists could make an especially significant contribution to false memories of lures, as they may critically influence the underlying associative activation and/or gist extraction processes. The present study tested this suggestion by using two manipulations that were intended to affect processing of early DRM list items. The first was interpolation of a semantically unrelated distractor item among the list items (Experiments 1 and 2). The second was arranging for these items to be either the strongest or weakest associates of the lure (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a distractor item reduced both list item and lure recall when presented early in a DRM list, but selectively disrupted list item recall when presented late in the list. In Experiment 2, arranging for the early list items to be the weakest associates of the lure reduced false recall of the lure but had no effect on list item recall. The findings are discussed with respect to theories that explain false memory in the DRM protocol, including fuzzy trace theory (FTT) and activation-monitoring theory (AMT). They are also discussed with respect to general theories of memory and the potential role of category/context information in generating false memories.

The feature boost in false memory: the roles of monitoring and critical item identifiability

The feature boost refers to increased false memories for word lists that are both associatively and categorically (C + A) related to a non-presented critical item (CI) relative to lists that are only associatively (NC-A) related [Coane, J. H., McBride, D. M., Termonen, M.-L., & Cutting, J. C. (2016). Categorical and associative relations increase false memory relative to purely associative relations. Memory & Cognition, 44(1), 37-49. doi:10.3758/s13421-015-0543-1]. We explored the replicability of the feature boost and its dependance on monitoring processes by explicitly warning participants about the nature of the lists or by asking participants to guess the CI (implicit warning). Overall, the feature boost was replicated. Guessing performance was higher for C + A lists than for NC-A lists. Explicit warnings were equally effective for both list types in reducing false memory relative to recall and to a no-recall math condition. When the CI was not guessed or recalled, the feature boost emerged. However, when the CI was guessed or previously recalled, false alarms did not differ as a function of list type. The feature boost seems to be driven in part by differences in the identifiability of the CI, such that CIs related to C + A lists are harder to identify and thus reject. These results suggest that differences in monitoring processes that are sensitive to CI identifiability contribute to the effect.

Evidence for adult age-invariance in associative false recognition

Older people are more prone to memory distortions and errors than young people, but do not always show greater false recognition in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. We report two preregistered experiments investigating whether recent findings of age-invariant false recognition extend to designs in which studied items are blocked. According to (Tun, P. A., Wingfield, A., Rosen, M. J., & Blanchard, L. (1998). Response latencies for false memories: Gist-based processes in normal aging. Psychology and Aging, 13(2), 230-241.), age effects on false recognition in the DRM task are due to a greater reliance on gist processing which is enhanced under blocked study conditions. Experiment 1 assessed false recognition in an online variant of the DRM task where words were presented visually, with incidental encoding. The results showed Bayesian evidence against greater false recognition by older adults, whether lures were semantically associated with studied lists, or perceptually related (presented in the same distinctive font as studied lists) or both. Experiment 2 used a typical DRM procedure with auditory lists and intentional encoding, closely reproducing (Tun, P. A., Wingfield, A., Rosen, M. J., & Blanchard, L. (1998). Response latencies for false memories: Gist-based processes in normal aging. Psychology and Aging, 13(2), 230-241.) Experiment 2 but omitting an initial test of recall. The results showed evidence against an age-related increase in critical lure false recognition under these conditions. Together, the data suggest that older people do not make more associative memory errors in recognition tests than young people.

Item-specific processing reduces false recognition in older and younger adults: Separating encoding and retrieval using signal detection and the diffusion model

Our study examined processing effects in improving memory accuracy in older and younger adults. Specifically, we evaluated the effectiveness of item-specific and relational processing instructions relative to a read-only control task on correct and false recognition in younger and older adults using a categorized-list paradigm. In both age groups, item-specific and relational processing improved correct recognition versus a read-only control task, and item-specific encoding decreased false recognition relative to both the relational and read-only groups. This pattern was found in older adults despite overall elevated rates of false recognition. We then applied signal-detection and diffusion-modeling analyses, which separately utilized recognition responses and the latencies to those responses to estimate contributions of encoding and monitoring processes on recognition decisions. Converging evidence from both analyses demonstrated that item-specific processing benefits to memory accuracy were due to improvements of both encoding (estimates of d' and drift rate) and monitoring (estimates of lambda and boundary separation) processes, and, importantly, occurred similarly in both younger and older adults. Thus, older and younger adults showed similar encoding-based and test-based benefits of item-specific processing to enhance memory accuracy.

Aging and recognition memory: A meta-analysis

Recognizing a stimulus as previously encountered is a crucial everyday life skill and a critical task motivating theoretical development in models of human memory. Although there are clear age-related memory deficits in tasks requiring recall or memory for context, the existence and nature of age differences in recognition memory remain unclear. The nature of any such deficits is critical to understanding the effects of age on memory because recognition tasks allow fewer strategic backdoors to supporting memory than do tasks of recall. Consequently, recognition may provide the purest measure of age-related memory deficit of all standard memory tasks. We conducted a meta-analysis of 232 prior experiments on age differences in recognition memory. As an organizing framework, we used signal-detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966; Macmillan & Creelman, 2005) to characterize recognition memory in terms of both discrimination between studied items and unstudied lures (d') and response bias or criterion (c). Relative to young adults, older adults showed reduced discrimination accuracy and a more liberal response criterion (i.e., greater tendency to term items new). Both of these effects were influenced by multiple, differing variables, with larger age deficits when studied material must be discriminated from familiar or related material, but smaller when studying semantically rich materials. These results support a view in which neither the self-initiation of mnemonic processes nor the deployment of strategic processes is the only source of age-related memory deficits, and they add to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying those changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluating the contributions of task expectancy in the testing and guessing benefits on recognition memory

Recently, we have shown that two types of initial testing (recall of a list or guessing of critical items repeated over 12 study/test cycles) improved final recognition of related and unrelated word lists relative to restudy. These benefits were eliminated, however, when test instructions were manipulated within subjects and presented after study of each list, procedures designed to minimise expectancy of a specific type of upcoming test [Huff, Balota, & Hutchison, 2016. The costs and benefits of testing and guessing on recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 1559-1572. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000269 ], suggesting that testing and guessing effects may be influenced by encoding strategies specific for the type of upcoming task. We follow-up these experiments by examining test-expectancy processes in guessing and testing. Testing and guessing benefits over restudy were not found when test instructions were presented either after (Experiment 1) or before (Experiment 2) a single study/task cycle was completed, nor were benefits found when instructions were presented before study/task cycles and the task was repeated three times (Experiment 3). Testing and guessing benefits emerged only when instructions were presented before a study/task cycle and the task was repeated six times (Experiments 4A and 4B). These experiments demonstrate that initial testing and guessing can produce memory benefits in recognition, but only following substantial task repetitions which likely promote task-expectancy processes.

The costs and benefits of testing and guessing on recognition memory

We examined whether 2 types of interpolated tasks (i.e., retrieval-practice via free recall or guessing a missing critical item) improved final recognition for related and unrelated word lists relative to restudying or completing a filler task. Both retrieval-practice and guessing tasks improved correct recognition relative to restudy and filler tasks, particularly when study lists were semantically related. However, both retrieval practice and guessing also generally inflated false recognition for the nonpresented critical words. These patterns were found when final recognition was completed during a short delay within the same experimental session (Experiment 1) and after a 24-hr delay (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, task instructions were presented randomly after each list to determine whether retrieval-practice and guessing effects were influenced by task-expectancy processes. In contrast to Experiments 1 and 2, final recognition after retrieval practice and guessing was equivalent to restudy, suggesting that the observed retrieval-practice and guessing advantages were in part because of preparatory task-based processing during study. (PsycINFO Database Record

False memories with age: Neural and cognitive underpinnings

As we age we become increasingly susceptible to memory distortions and inaccuracies. Over the past decade numerous neuroimaging studies have attempted to illuminate the neural underpinnings of aging and false memory. Here we review these studies, and link their findings with those concerning the cognitive properties of age-related changes in memory accuracy. Collectively this evidence points towards a prominent role for age-related declines in medial temporal and prefrontal brain areas, and corresponding impairments in associative binding and strategic monitoring. A resulting cascade of cognitive changes contributes to the heightened vulnerability to false memories with age, including reduced recollective ability, a reliance on gist information and familiarity-based monitoring mechanisms, as well as a reduced ability to inhibit irrelevant information and erroneous binding of features between memory traces. We consider both theoretical and applied implications of research on aging and false memories, as well as questions remaining to be addressed in future research.