Normative data for semantically associated Spanish word lists that create false memories

Abstract

The present study provides norms for Spanish word lists that have been used to create false memories in native speakers of Spanish. The word lists reported are based on the Roediger and McDermott (1995) lists that have been used extensively to examine illusory memories. We employed Roediger and McDermott's critical lures, translated them into Spanish, and created semantically associated Spanish word lists by testing native Spanish speakers. The resulting lists were then normed with additional native Spanish speakers. Overall, the participants recalled 53% of the list items and 32% of the critical lures with the word lists developed. In addition, 74% of the list items and 69% of the critical lures were recognized by the participants. The present study adds to the literature by providing a set of Spanish lists that can be used by researchers interested in evaluating false memories in individuals who speak Spanish. These norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.

Normative data for Italian Deese/Roediger–McDermott lists

“…The level of recall in the present study differed somewhat from those reported by Stadler et al (1999) and Anastasi, De Leon, and Rhodes (2005), but the patterns were similar. For example, Stadler et al found that a greater proportion of list items (.60) were recalled than critical lures (.40).…”

“…This table also provides the proportions of list items and critical lures recalled in the English and Spanish lists normed in previous studies (Anastasi, De Leon, & Rhodes, 2005;Roediger & McDermott, 1995;Stadler et al, 1999). The data from the Italian lists showed great variability in the probabilities that the different lists would produce illusory memories.…”

“…The Italian lists in the present study were constructed using the same general method of Anastasi, De Leon, and Rhodes (2005). Anastasi, De Leon, and Rhodes had employed a PowerPoint presentation of the lists; instead, we used an online survey to present the participants with the Italian equivalents of the 24 critical lures one at a time.…”

“…The DRM paradigm has been limited to English-speaking participants, with few studies examining illusory memories in other languages (for exceptions, see Anastasi, De Leon, & Rhodes, 2005;Anastasi, Rhodes, Marquez, & Velino, 2005;Pérez-Mata, Read, & Diges, 2002;Zeelenberg & Pecher, 2002). Pérez-Mata et al tested Spanish speakers using associative Spanish lists.…”

“…Zeelenberg and Pecher presented participants with items from the DRM lists that had been directly translated into Dutch. Anastasi, De Leon, and Rhodes (2005;) used a similar method by directly translating six of the DRM lists into Spanish, Japanese, and German, in order to test foreign exchange students in their native languages. To our knowledge, normative data for Italian DRM lists comparable to those reported by Stadler et al (1999), for English, and Anastasi, De Leon, and Rhodes, for Spanish, have not yet been provided.…”