Why distinctive information reduces false memories: evidence for both impoverished relational-encoding and distinctiveness heuristic accounts.

Full Abstract

Two accounts explain why studying pictures reduces false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995). The impoverished relational-encoding account suggests that studying pictures interferes with the encoding of relational information, which is the primary basis for false memories in this paradigm. Alternatively, the distinctiveness heuristic assumes that critical lures are actively withheld by the use of a retrieval strategy. When participants were given inclusion recall instructions to report studied items as well as related items, they still reported critical lures less often after picture encoding than they did after word encoding. As the impoverished relational-encoding account suggests, critical lures appear less likely to come to mind after picture encoding than they do after word encoding. However, the results from a postrecall recognition test provide evidence in favor of the distinctiveness heuristic. Copyright 2004 APA, all rights reserved

Author information

Author/s: Hege, Amanda C G (AC); Dodson, Chad S (CS);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, 102 Gilmer Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA. cdodson(-atsign-)virginia.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2004-Jul; vol 30 (issue 4) : pp 787-95

Dates: Created 2004/07/07; Completed 2005/04/07;

PMID: 15238023, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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