Individuals' ratings of semantic relatedness predict false memories

Temporally structured sequences of experiences, such as narratives or life events, are segmented in memory into discrete situational models. In segmentation, contextual shifts are processed as situational boundaries that temporally cluster items according to the perceived contexts. As such, segmentation enhances associative binding of items within a situational model. One side effect of enhanced associative processing is increased risk of false recollections for not-presented, semantically related items. If so, do boundaries facilitate false recollections, or does segmentation protect against them? In two experiments, we introduced situational shifts in word sequences in the form of semantic and perceptual boundaries, with semantic relatedness between words or the frame color around a word changing on a regular basis. After encoding, we tested participants’ associative memory performance and false recollection rates. In Experiment 1, color boundaries occurred synchronously or asynchronously to semantic boundaries. We found better associative recognition, but also more false recollections, for synchronous than asynchronous boundaries. In Experiment 2, color boundaries occurred synchronous to semantic boundaries or were absent entirely. We found that false recollection rates elicited by semantic boundaries increased when color boundaries were absent. We also tested associative memory performance using a non-semantic, temporal memory task. We found better temporal memory performance for semantic boundaries, as well as a negative correlation between increased false recollection rates and better temporal memory performance for semantic lists, but not for random lists. We discuss implications for false memory theories and segmentation of narrative materials in false memory research.

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Semantic associates create retroactive interference on an independent recall task

10.31234/osf.io/v652u ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

James Antony ◽

Kelly Bennion

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Spatial Memory ◽

Retroactive Interference ◽

Critical Word ◽

False Memories ◽

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Recall Task ◽

Associate Learning ◽

Memory Impairments ◽

Critical Words

Semantic similarity between stimuli can cause false memories, but the extent to which it causes retroactive interference in recall has been less explored. Here, subjects learned unique locations for “critical” words that reliably produce false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Next, subjects centrally viewed words that were semantically associated with half of the critical words. Finally, subjects retrieved the critical word locations (to test recall) and distinguished them from previously unseen words (to test recognition). We found spatial memory impairments for critical words whose semantic associates were shown (vs. not shown), suggesting that semantic material caused retroactive interference, even on a test of unrelated content (i.e., spatial versus semantic). This effect was present in three experiments when the interfering information was presented shortly before spatial recall, but not after a one-hour delay between associate learning and test or after swapping the order of the spatial and associate phases. Moreover, impairments occurred whether or not subjects were aware of the semantic relatedness between critical and associate words and consistently occurred when the associates had low-to-moderate strength in predicting the critical words. By contrast, swapping the order of the two learning phases increased critical word recognition in a manner that scaled linearly with associate-to-critical word strength. These findings suggest that memory impairments can occur solely via semantic associates on an independent task where all relevant responses are freely available; in this way, they cannot be attributed to any conventional account of retroactive interference.

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Variation in Individuals' Semantic Networks for Common Knowledge is Associated with False Memory

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470218.2012.680894 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 65 (6) ◽

pp. 1035-1043 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Susan M. Stevens-Adams ◽

Timothy E. Goldsmith ◽

Karin M. Butler

Keyword(s):

False Memory ◽

Recognition Test ◽

Common Knowledge ◽

Memory Task ◽

False Memories ◽

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Semantic Networks ◽

The Third ◽

Task Order ◽

Word Lists

Three experiments assessed the relationships between false memories of words and their degree of connectedness within individual semantic networks. In the first two experiments, participants studied associated word lists (e.g., hot, winter, ice), completed a recognition test that included related nonstudied words (e.g., cold, snow), and then rated the semantic relatedness of all word pairs including studied and nonstudied words. In the third experiment, the task order was reversed; participants completed pairwise ratings and then, two weeks later, completed the false memory task. The relatedness ratings were analysed using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm. In all experiments, items that an individual falsely recognized had higher semantic Pathfinder node densities than those items correctly rejected.

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Warnings Reduce False Memories for Missing Aspects of Events

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000087 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 58 (3) ◽

pp. 207-216 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Matthew P. Gerrie ◽

Maryanne Garry

Keyword(s):

False Recognition ◽

Source Monitoring ◽

False Memories ◽

Monitoring Framework

When people see movies with some parts missing, they falsely recognize many of the missing parts later. In two experiments, we examined the effect of warnings on people’s false memories for these parts. In Experiment 1, warning subjects about false recognition before the movie (forewarnings) reduced false recognition, but warning them after the movie (postwarnings) reduced false recognition to a lesser extent. In Experiment 2, the effect of the warnings depended on the nature of the missing parts. Forewarnings were more effective than postwarnings in reducing false recognition of missing noncrucial parts, but forewarnings and postwarnings were similarly effective in reducing false recognition of crucial missing parts. We use the source monitoring framework to explain our results.

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