Differences between Bilinguals and Monolinguals in False Memory Production? A Look into the DRM Paradigm Using Contextual Details

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.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental disorder characterized by significant impairment in intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning, as well as patterns of personality pathology. Memory deficits are not recognized as a core symptom of BPD, but individuals with BPD symptoms have long been suspected to have inaccurate perceptions, disturbed memory processes, and an increased tendency to develop false memories. In the present study, we examined whether there was an association between BPD features and the production of false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm—a laboratory-based procedure that is frequently used to investigate false memory. We also compared the traditional categorical BPD criteria (DSM-5 Section II) with the alternative model of personality disorders BPD criteria (DSM-5 Section III) in predicting memory performance. A total of 298 university students completed the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder, SCID-II Personality Questionnaire, Borderline Personality Disorder Impairment Scale, Personality Inventory for DSM-5, Beck Depression Inventory, Dissociative Experiences Scale, and Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire. Participants were also tested using both traditional DRM word lists as well as word lists that were specifically associated with BPD features. Using the traditional diagnosis of BPD, BPD features were correlated with higher false memory for positive information; in the alternative model of BPD, identity impairment and anxiousness were correlated with the overall false memory score. We also found that trauma and dissociation mediated the relation between BPD and false memory. These findings are discussed in terms of how the consequences of trauma, such as dissociation and identity disturbance, are associated with false memory. Whether false memory rates are higher in a clinical population of BPD patients than in non-clinical volunteers remains to be determined.

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.

Background: Previous experimental work demonstrates that acute exercise may enhance episodic memory performance. However, limited research has examined the extent to which acute exercise influences false episodic memory production, and no studies, to date, have examined whether there is an intensity-specific effect of acute exercise on both true episodic and false episodic memories. Thus, the present experiment evaluated the effects of intensity-specific acute exercise on episodic memory and false episodic memory.Methods: A three-arm, parallel, between-group randomized controlled trial was employed in the University setting, with participants (N=60; Mage= 20.8 years) randomized into a moderate intensity exercise group (15-minute bout of treadmill exercise at 50% heart rate reserve), a high intensity exercise group (15-minute bout of treadmill exercise at 80% heart rate reserve), or a control group (time-matched period of sitting). True episodic and false episodic memory were both assessed using 6 word-lists from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, including both a short-term recall and a delayed memory recognition assessment. Results: For the number of words recalled across each of the 6 lists, there was a significant main effect for list (P<0.001, η2p=0.15), marginally significant main effect for group (P=0.07, η2p=0.09), but no list by group interaction effect (P=0.44, η2p=0.03). Those in the high-intensity exercise group recalled significantly (P<0.05) more words than the control group. For the false episodic word recall, across various lists, high-intensity acute exercise was associated with a greater rate of false episodic memories. For the memory recognition task, there was no main effect for word type (P=0.46, η2p=0.01), group (P=0.4443, η2p=.03), word type by group interaction (P=0.44,η2p=0.03), recall by group interaction (P=0.4441, η2p=0.04), or word type by recall by group interaction (P=0.32, η2p=0.04). However, there was a main effect for recall (P<0.001, η2p=.54)and a word type by recall interaction (P<0.001, η2p=0.77).Conclusion: These findings suggest that acute high-intensity exercise may enhance true episodic memories, and, possibly, also increase the rate of false episodic memories. We discuss these findings in the context of how different acute exercise intensities may have unique and differential effects on underlying mechanistic processes related to true and false episodic memory.

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, subjects study lists of words that are designed to elicit the recall of an associatively related critical item. The 55 lists we have developed provide levels of false recall ranging from .01 to .65, and understanding this variability should provide a key to understanding this memory illusion. Using a simultaneous multiple regression analysis, we assessed the contribution of seven factors in creating false recall of critical items in the DRM paradigm. This analysis accounted for approximately 68% of the variance in false recall, with two main predictors: associative connections from the study words to the critical item (r = +.73; semipartial r = +.60) and recallability of the lists (r = -.43; semipartial r = -.34). Taken together, the variance in false recall captured by these predictors accounted for 84% of the variance that can be explained, given the reliability of the false recall measures (r = .90). Therefore, the results of this analysis strongly constrain theories of false memory in this paradigm, suggesting that at least two factors determine the propensity of DRM lists to elicit false recall. The results fit well within the theoretical framework postulating that both semantic activation of the critical item and strategic monitoring processes influence the probability of false recall and false recognition in this paradigm.

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.

Data on the effect of sleep on false memories are mixed. Here we address two methodological issues which could explain these inconsistencies: the use of free recall vs. recognition tasks and the absence of immediate testing. In a mixed design, 8 word lists from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott task were administered to a Recall (n = 20) and a Recognition Group (n = 20) at 9 AM ('Wake' condition) or 9 PM ('Sleep' condition). Immediate Testing (IT) followed the presentation of 4 out of 8 lists. Delayed Testing was performed 12 h later. A week later, participants underwent the other condition with 8 different lists. In both groups: IT performance was similar between conditions; veridical recalls were facilitated by Sleep and by IT irrespectively of condition. False memories were enhanced in Sleep vs. Wake for non-tested lists only in the Recall Group. IT affected delayed false recognition regardless of the condition, whereas its effects on delayed recall differed between conditions: in Sleep, the false recall rate was similar between tested and non-tested lists, whereas in Wake, it was higher for tested than non-tested lists. Our results confirm that sleep enhances false recalls but not false recognitions when memory is tested directly after the retention interval. Moreover, immediate testing enhances veridical memory independently of condition, whereas its effect on false recall depends on the behavioural state in which retention occurs. Therefore, immediate testing could be usefully introduced in standard sleep-memory studies, while its use should be carefully evaluated in studies on sleep and false memories.

Recent studies with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm have revealed that Korsakoff patients show reduced levels of false recognition and different patterns of false recall compared to controls. The present experiment examined whether this could be attributed to an encoding deficit, or rather to problems with explicitly retrieving thematic information at test. In a variation on the DRM paradigm, both patients and controls were presented with associative as well as categorised word lists, with the order of recall and recognition tests manipulated between-subjects. The results point to an important role for the automatic/controlled retrieval distinction: Korsakoff patients’ false memory was only diminished compared to controls’ when automatic or short-term memory processes could not be used to fulfil the task at hand. Hence, the patients’ explicit retrieval deficit appears to be crucial in explaining past and present data. Results are discussed in terms of fuzzy-trace and activation-monitoring theories.

Relation between Deese-Roediger-Mcdermott recall measures of false memory and the fading affect bias

Misremembering is a common phenomenon in normal human development that has great potential to become problematic, especially in legal situations. The Deese/Roediger--McDermott (DRM; Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) model has been commonly used in the literature to uncover mechanisms for why these false memories may occur. Children have only recently begun to be investigated using this paradigm. Some related mechanisms in children for false recollection that have yet to be investigated are child executive functioning and socioeconomic status. In the current study, executive functioning was investigated as a potential mechanism for false recollections using a DRM paradigm. Children completed a brief assessment of intelligence followed by assessments of executive functioning. Participants then engaged in the DRM recall and recognition task. Finally, they completed a semantic knowledge task. Results indicated that specific aspects of executive functioning (inhibition and cognitive flexibility) predicted false memory production at both recall and recognition. Additionally, maternal education and gross family income had predictive value at recall and recognition. However, a mediational model was not supported. These results help explain mechanisms for false memory and can provide valuable information regarding susceptibility to false memory production.

The present study focuses on both the clinical symptom of confabulation and experimentally induced false memories in patients suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome. Despite the vast amount of case studies of confabulating patients and studies investigating false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, the nature of Korsakoff patients' confabulatory behaviour and its association with DRM false memories have been rarely examined. Hence, the first aim of the present study was to evaluate confabulatory responses in a large sample of chronic Korsakoff patients and matched controls by means of the Dalla Barba Confabulation Battery. Second, the association between (provoked) confabulation and the patients' DRM false recognition performance was investigated. Korsakoff patients mainly confabulated in response to questions about episodic memory and questions to which the answer was unknown. A positive association was obtained between confabulation and the tendency to accept unstudied distractor words as being old in the DRM paradigm. On the other hand, there was a negative association between confabulation and false recognition of critical lures. The latter could be attributed to the importance of strategic retrieval at delayed memory testing.

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.

How does the extraversion personality trait influence false recall with the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm?

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.