The effects of a levels-of-processing manipulation on false recall

Abstract

The present study attempted to determine the effect of a levels-of-processing manipulation on the incidence of false recall. In Experiment 1,participants engaged in either a vowel counting task or a concrete/abstract rating task; in Experiment 2, participants engaged in either a vowel counting task or a category sorting task. Results of both experiments demonstrated that participants who engaged in a deeper level of processing (i.e., concrete/abstract ratings or category sorting) recalled significantly more list items and critical lures. The present findings thus lend support to theories that attribute false memories to activation-based factors.The subject of false memories-memories for events that never occurred-has received a great deal of attention in the past few years. Roediger and McDermott (1995) discussed a long-ignored study conducted by Deese (1959) that provides a method that consistently produces false memories. Deese presented participants with a list ofwords that were associates of a single, nonpresented item. For example, participants were presented with a list of words that are the twelve most common associates to the word sleep, such as bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, and nap, but the participants were never presented with the critical lure sleep. Results demonstrated that participants consistently recalled the critical lure from each list at a level comparable to the list items. Deese's study therefore provides a method by which false memories can be reliably produced. Numerous studies have since replicated Deese's findings and have found the paradigm to produce a robust false-memory effect (Anastasi, Rhodes, & Burns, 2000;Gallo, Roberts, & Seamon, 1997;Norman & Schacter, 1997; Payne, Elie, Blackwell, & Neuschatz, 1996;Payne, Neuschatz, Lampinen, & Lynn, 1997;Roediger & McDermott, 1995;Seamon, Luo, & Gallo, 1998). However, much ofthe current literature has focused on the boundary conditions sufficient for producing false memories but has ignored the underlying processes and theoretical factors involved in the creation of false memories.Underwood's (1965) implicit associative response (IAR) theory is the most often cited explanation for the falsememory phenomenon. Underwood proposed that when a word is presented during encoding, a participant may implicitly activate an associate of that word. For example,

Are children’s memory illusions created differently from those of adults? Evidence from levels-of-processing and divided attention paradigms

“…In contrast, the levels-of-processing manipulation had no effect on false memory rates regardless of age. The lack of a levels-of-processing effect on false recognition contrasts with previous research with adults (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2000;Thapar & McDermott, 2001;Toglia et al, 1999) that found that levels-ofprocessing either decreased or increased false recognition depending on whether information had been encoded in a shallow or a deep fashion, respectively. However, these contrasting findings may be due to individual differences in the susceptibility to false memories, something a between-participants design cannot control for.…”

“…Three studies have demonstrated that when information is encoded using deep processing, significant increases occur in both true and false memory rates relative to when that same information is processed in a shallow fashion. Moreover, these effects were obtained regardless of whether recall or recognition measures were used (Rhodes & Anastasi, 2000;Thapar & McDermott, 2001;Toglia et al, 1999). In contrast, two other studies found few effects of levels-of-processing on true and false memories (Read, 1996;Tussing & Greene, 1997).…”

“…Research with adults using levels-of-processing has produced mixed results concerning the effects on true and false memories (Read, 1996;Rhodes & Anastasi, 2000;Thapar & McDermott, 2001;Toglia, Neuschatz, & Goodwin, 1999;Tussing & Greene, 1997). Three studies have demonstrated that when information is encoded using deep processing, significant increases occur in both true and false memory rates relative to when that same information is processed in a shallow fashion.…”

On the susceptibility of adaptive memory to false memory illusions

“…The consequence of that might have been an inflation of false recollection rates, hence reduced accuracy, although we attempted to minimize the inflation of false memories by implementing a mixed list design. However, it is still possible that some inflation may have occurred as there is some evidence that levels-of-processing instructions can increase both false recall and recognition rates (e.g., Rhodes & Anastasi, 2000;Thapar & McDermott, 2001;Toglia, Neuschatz, & Goodwin, 1999). In order to extend the generalizability of our findings, in this last experiment we removed these potential confounds by conducting an intentional memory study in which participants were instructed to memorize neutral, negative, and survival-relevant information in a more traditional pure-list DRM format.…”

Positive Consequences of False Memories

“…1 This is critical because the use of incidental memory tasks may have inflated false recollection rates, hence reduced accuracy. For example, some studies have shown that in incidental memory tasks, levels-of-processing instructions can increase both false recall and recognition rates (e.g., Rhodes & Anastasi, 2000;Thapar & McDermott, 2001). In order to extend the generalizability of the findings, we conducted an intentional memory study in which participants were instructed to memorize neutral and survival-relevant information.…”