Can test list context manipulations improve recognition accuracy in the DRM paradigm?

False memories have been extensively investigated over the past few decades using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In this paradigm, participants study lists of words associatively related to a non-presented critical lure. During a memory test, these critical lures are falsely recalled or recognized. Most studies have focused on false memories that arise when both encoding and retrieval are conducted in the same language (i.e., within-language conditions), which is typically the participant's native or first language (L1). However, much less is known about false memories when critical lures appear in the memory test in a different language than the studied lists (i.e., between-language conditions), being one of them the participant's second language (L2). The main objective of this exhaustive review was to provide an overview of the current state of research on false recognition using the DRM paradigm in between-language conditions, where languages are switched between encoding and retrieval (i.e., L1L2 versus L2L1). The results revealed a language dominance effect in between-language false memories. In other words, false recognition rates were dependent on the study language, with a trend toward higher false recognition when words were enconded in the L1 (L1L2) compared to when words were encoded in the L2 (L2L1). This review enhances our understanding of how studying words in a first or second language affects false memory in the DRM paradigm, emphasizing the significance of investigating false memory in second language speakers and the necessity for further research in the field.

In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, participants falsely recall or recognize a nonpresented word (critical lure), highly associated with previously studied words. As numerous DRM studies have found a robust false memory effect at the behavioural level, event-related potentials (ERPs) studies have searched for possible overlapping in brain electrical activity between true and false memory. Using the DRM paradigm, the present experiment manipulated the sensory modality of stimulus presentation (auditory vs. visual) in the study phase to analyse the effect of modality match between study and test on true and false recognition. Words were therefore presented either visually or auditorily at study and always visually at test. True recognition was found to be significantly higher in the modality 'match' condition (visual-visual) than in the 'mismatch' condition (auditory-visual), whereas there was no modality-match effect on false recognition of critical lures. A general, overlapping was found between ERP correlates of true and false recognition: FN400 (300-500 ms), left-parietal (400-800 ms) and late right-frontal (1000-1500 ms) old/new effects were similar for both studied words and critical lures. No sensory modality-match effect was associated with FN400 or left-parietal old/new effects. Only the late right-frontal activity was modulated by modality manipulation, with significantly more positive ERPs in the modality-match condition. Sensory modality match of stimulus presentation, therefore, dissociated true and false recognition memory only at the behavioural level but not at the ERP level. Overall, true and false recognition memories seem to share common underlying processes.

Memory is prone to illusions. When people are presented with lists of words associated with a non-presented critical lure, they produce a high level of false recognitions (false memories) for non-presented related stimuli indistinguishable, at the explicit level, from presented words (DRM paradigm). We assessed whether true and false DRM memories can be distinguished at the implicit level by using the autobiographical IAT (aIAT), a novel method based on indirect measures that permits to detect true autobiographical events encoded in the respondent’s mind/brain. In our experiment, after a DRM task participants performed two aIATs: the first aimed at testing implicit memory for presented words (true-memories aIAT) and the second aimed at evaluating implicit memory for critical lures (false-memories aIAT). Specifically, the two aIATs assessed the association of presented words and critical lures with the logical dimension “true.” Results showed that the aIAT detected a greater association of presented words than critical lures with the logical dimension “true.” This result indicates that although true and false DRM memories are indistinguishable at the explicit level a different association of the true and false DRM memories with the logical dimension “true” can be detected at the implicit level, and suggests that the aIAT may be a sensitive instrument to detect differences between true and false DRM memories.

Electrophysiological evidence for encoding mechanisms underlying the formation of false recognitions with context retrieval.

False memories refer to falsely remembering something that did not happen or that happened differently. The effects of age on episodic memory underlie both the decline in real memories and the increase in false memories. But, what is the richness and what is the feeling of reality of false memories in the elderly? This mini-review on false memory in young and older adults presents the results from the literature using one of the most used paradigms in the laboratory to study false memories - the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. This paradigm generally consists in the presentation of semantically associated items-lists (words or images) related to a non-presented critical lure (e.g., bed, rest, awake …, the critical lure is sleep). During free recall or recognition tests, the participants regularly produce false memories (intrusions or false recognitions of the critical lures), increasingly with aging. We specifically ask the question of the richness of the false memory trace in young and older adults in terms of contextual associations (What-Where-When-Details binding) and phenomenological characteristics (remembering, knowing, guessing). We propose to examine this issue using a naturalistic episodic memory task via navigation in a virtual environment enriched with series of associated elements (e.g., vegetables stand) linked to non-presented critical lures (e.g., carrots). Based on preliminary results, we propose an integrative model of memory trace which can explain the differences observed between young and old people on the richness of their false memories.

Increasing evidence that positive affect enhances associative processing has lent weight to the idea that positive affect increases false memory for information that is thematically interrelated. Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, we examined whether mild positive affect facilitates monitoring processes in modulating false memory for associate words. When participants in the warned condition – in contrast to those in the unwarned condition – were overtly warned about possible false recognition of the critical lure, we found that positive affect, compared to neutral affect, significantly enhanced monitoring through a warning and reduced false recognition. Signal detection analyses suggest that when a warning is provided, positive affect enhances sensitivity to discriminate list items from critical lures, but it does not shift the overall decision criterion. Taken together, we conclude that positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning in reducing false memories for semantic associates.

Divided attention during retrieval suppresses false recognition in confabulation

When true memory availability promotes false memory: Evidence from confabulating patients

ABSTRACTIn the present experiment, we investigated whether warnings provided at the time of retrieval would reduce emotional false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. The provision of retrieval warnings allowed us to test specific predictions based on the associative theories (e.g., Activation-Monitoring Theory; AMT) and Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT) that have been used to account for false memories in the DRM paradigm. Participants were randomly assigned to either a no-warning group or a retrieval-warning group. In each group, mood-induction procedures were used to elicit a positive, negative, or neutral mood and participants were then presented with word lists comprised of positive, negative, or neutral words. Retrieval warnings reduced false recognition, regardless of the valence of the to-be-remembered information or participants’ mood. Consistent with the associative theories’ predictions, within the warning condition, positive moods yielded greater false recognition for positive critical lures, and negative moods yielded greater false recognition for negative critical lures, compared to neutral moods. These findings have important practical implications for our understanding of the effect of mood on memory.

Insight accompanied by an 'aha!' experience has a mnemonic effect. Previous studies of insight have often focused on the mnemonic effect of insight on veridical memories, while the effect of insight on false memories is not known. More understanding of the mnemonic effect of insight on false memories could have implications for the mechanism of insightful mnemonic effects. The present research examined whether insight has a mnemonic effect on false memories. Participants were asked to perform Chinese verbal compound remote associate (CRA) tasks and then complete the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task, the critical lure of which was also the solution to the Chinese CRA problem. Compared to non-insight, insight was associated with a lower critical lures rate in Experiment 1 and with lower critical lures and unrelated words rates in Experiment 2 when the presentation of DRM list words was random. Giving a warning before DRM tasks could reduce the critical lures rate of non-insight but had little effect on insightful solutions in Experiment 3. These findings indicate that insight can reduce false memories.

Introduction Although sleep has long been known to benefit memory consolidation, recent studies demonstrate that even a brief period of eyes-closed waking rest can similarly benefit a wide variety of memory types, including declarative, procedural and spatial. But sleep is argued to not only quantitatively strengthen memory traces, but also qualitatively transform them over time. The present study tested whether post-encoding waking rest affects the formation of false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm, which are thought to arise from a “gist extraction” transformation of memory. We hypothesized that rest would increase false memory as measured by recall, but decrease false memory as measured by recognition. Methods In a within-subjects, counter-balanced design, N=51 participants auditorily encoded 8 DRM word lists. Each list consisted of 15 semantically-related words, all of which were derived from a central “critical lure” not heard by participants. After encoding, participants either sat quietly with their eyes closed for 15 minutes or spent an equivalent period of time completing a distractor task. Afterwards, participants were tested on their memory via both recall and recognition. False memory was defined as the false recall or recognition of “critical lure” words that had not been included on the list. Scores on the recall test were adjusted for incorrect responses, by subtracting the number of words incorrectly recalled (not including the lure words) from the number of words correctly recalled. Results Paired samples t-tests revealed that there was no significant effect of rest on false memory using either recall (t(50)=.26, p = .796) or recognition (t(50)=1.20, p = .237) tests. There was also no significant effect of rest on memory for studied words (recall: t(50)=1.32, p = .194; recognition: t(50)=0.51, p = .612). Conclusion This study indicates the possibility that waking rest does not affect certain types of qualitative memory transformation thought to occur during sleep. This includes the gist-extraction type processes underlying false memory. Potentially, rather than acting independently of each other, waking rest and sleep may act in coordination, each with distinct roles in the consolidation process. Support (if any) Intramural funding from Furman University.

The production of false recognition and the associated state of consciousness following encoding in a naturalistic context in aging

With the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, the repetition effect on false memory had never been clarified. More importantly, the spacing effect on false memory was never directly investigated. So, we carried out two experiments to examine these effects on true and false recognition. In experiment 1, participants studied DRM lists which were presented one, three or five times. In experiment 2, we manipulated the repetition mode (massed vs. spaced with a short interval or a long interval) to explore the spacing effect. The results showed that true recognition increased monotonically with list repetition (experiment 1) and repetition spacing (experiment 2). The most striking finding was a similar spacing effect but no repetition effect on false recognition. Thus, these results were principally discussed in the light of the activation-monitoring framework.

False memories are not surprising: The subjective experience of an associative memory illusion

Mindfulness-based interventions are known to increase false memory. However, high trait mindfulness is associated with an external encoding style and field independence, which in turn are associated with low false memory. The present study used a bilingual context to disentangle these contrasting findings. Sixty Chinese-English bilinguals completed a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false recognition task and were evaluated using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Results showed negative and positive correlations between trait mindfulness and false recognition in Chinese-Chinese and Chinese-English conditions, respectively. The polar directions of the observed correlations suggest that trait mindfulness is associated with direct and analytical perception of objects and with cognitive flexibility in activating semantic information. The former improves source monitoring, whereas the latter increases the likelihood of generating false memories in the DRM paradigm.