Regular Article
False Memory for Categorized Pictures and Words: The Category Associates Procedure for Studying Memory Errors in Children and Adults,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2676Get rights and content

Abstract

Subjects studied lists of category exemplars with the highest and lowest frequency exemplars of those categories excluded. In Experiment 1, first and fifth grade children and college students falsely recognized pictures of related-high-frequency category exemplars more than related-low-frequency or unrelated exemplars. The magnitude of this false memory effect was comparable across all age groups and it increased after a 3-day delay. In Experiment 2, college students falsely recognized related-high-frequency word exemplars more than related-low-frequency or unrelated exemplars when exposure duration at study was 2 s or 20 ms per item. Similar to recent findings with converging associates (Seamon et al., 1998, even subjects who could not recognize list words following rapid exposure still demonstrated false memory of related-nonstudied category exemplars. These findings were discussed in terms of implicit activation and fuzzy trace interpretations of false memory.

References (49)

  • D.L Schacter et al.

    The neuropsychology of memory illusions: False recall and recognition in amnesic patients

    Journal of Memory and Language

    (1996)
  • F Strack et al.

    Memory for nonoccurrences: Metacognitive and presuppositional strategies

    Journal of Memory and Language

    (1994)
  • D Aaronson et al.

    Extensions of Grier's computational formulas for A′ and B" to below-chance performance

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1987)
  • M Anisfeld et al.

    Association, synonymity, and divectionality in false recognition

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1968)
  • F.C Bartlett

    Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology

    (1932)
  • W.F Battig et al.

    Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms

    Journal of Experimental Psychology Monograph

    (1969)
  • C.J Brainerd et al.

    Mere memory testing creates false memories in children

    Developmental Psychology

    (1996)
  • C.J Brainerd et al.

    Are children's false memories more persistent than their true memories

    Psychological Science

    (1995)
  • M Bruck et al.

    The suggestibility of young children

    Current Directions in Psychological Science

    (1997)
  • J Deese

    On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1959)
  • D.A Gallo et al.

    Remembering words not presented in lists: Can we avoid creating false memories

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    (1997)
  • D.W Hall et al.

    False recognitions of associates of converging versus repeated words

    American Journal of Psychology

    (1973)
  • D.L Hintzman

    Judgments of frequency and recognition memory in a multiple-trace memory model

    Psychological Review

    (1988)
  • I.E Hyman et al.

    The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories

    Journal of Memory and Language

    (1996)
  • Cited by (73)

    • Electrophysiological evidence for the effects of emotional content on false recognition memory

      2018, Cognition
      Citation Excerpt :

      At subsequent test, they frequently falsely recognize the lure word with high confidence. In addition, subjectively compelling memory errors can also be reliably induced using categorized stimuli (Koutstaal & Schacter, 1997; Seamon, Luo, Schlegel, Greene, & Goldenberg, 2000). In this procedure, several exemplars (words or pictures) per category are presented during encoding.

    • The nature and consequences of false memories for visual stimuli

      2018, Journal of Memory and Language
      Citation Excerpt :

      One possible explanation for these differences in false memory rates is distinctiveness. That is, pictures contain more details which are distinct from each another and this tends to weaken the associatively-based generation of false memories (Koutstaal, Schacter, & Brenner, 2001; Seamon, Luo, Schlegel, Greene, & Goldenberg, 2000). So, the cognitive processes underlying visual and verbal false memories might be different, and hence, it is unknown whether false memories for visual stimuli also exert positive influences on subsequent priming tasks.

    • Emotional valence of stimuli modulates false recognition: Using a modified version of the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm

      2016, Cognition
      Citation Excerpt :

      The results showed that false recognition increased with the valence changing from positive and neutral to negative DRM lists of words due to the increase in semantic similarity between false and true words and the decrease of success in suppressing false alarms by verbatim memory (Brainerd et al., 2008). However it is unclear if this finding is applicable to pictorial materials as mounting evidence illustrates the significant differences between the text and pictorial stimuli during memory processes (e.g., Israel & Schacter, 1997; Kapucu et al., 2008; Schacter et al., 1999; Seamon, Luo, Schlegel, Greene, & Goldenberg, 2000). For example, pictures are more vivid and distinctive than words, which results in significant differences in false memory (e.g., Schacter et al., 1999).

    • Television advertisements create false memories for competitor brands

      2015, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
      Citation Excerpt :

      Howe et al. (2010, experiment 3) found that adults’ false memories for negative-emotional DRM lists increased over a week, whilst those for neutral lists stayed constant. Seamon et al. (2000) found that false recognition for non-presented pictures of items related to presented category pictures increased over 3 days. Most relevant to the current investigation, Sherman (2013) found that false memory for brand names increased over a week in both between and within-subjects designs.

    • The production of spontaneous false memories across childhood

      2014, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Appreciation is expressed to Principal Kelly Lyman and the first and fifth grade teachers of Noah Wallace School in Farmington, Connecticut, who welcomed us into their classrooms.

    ☆☆

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to John Seamon at the Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459-0408. E-mail: [email protected].

    View full text