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. 2012 May;38(3):747-56.
doi: 10.1037/a0026375. Epub 2011 Nov 21.

The influence of forward and backward associative strength on false recognition

Affiliations

The influence of forward and backward associative strength on false recognition

Jason Arndt. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2012 May.

Abstract

In an experiment, I examined the influence of 2 associative factors on false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995): the strength of the association from studied items to unstudied lure items (backward associative strength, or BAS) and the strength of the association from unstudied lure items to studied items (forward associative strength, or FAS). BAS and FAS were manipulated, and participants were asked to respond rapidly at retrieval or were allowed to respond in a self-paced manner in order to examine the contributions of automatic and controlled memory processes to lure errors. The results of this study demonstrated that both BAS and FAS influenced lure errors under speeded retrieval conditions and under self-paced retrieval conditions, as well as that lure errors generally increased when retrieval time increased. These results favor the explanation of false memory offered by global-matching models over those of activation-monitoring theory and fuzzy-trace theory.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Old-new d' as a function of Retrieval Time, Backward Associative Strength (BAS) and Forward Associative Strength (FAS).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Lure d' as a function of Retrieval Time, Backward Associative Strength (BAS) and Forward Associative Strength (FAS).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Lure d' from Heit, Brockdorff, and Lamberts (2004) as a function of Retrieval Time, Experiment, and Warning Condition.

References

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