Adults' memories of childhood: True and false reports.

In 3 experiments, the authors examined factors that, according to the source-monitoring framework, might influence false memory formation and true/false memory discernment. In Experiment 1, combined effects of warning and visualization on false childhood memory formation were examined, as were individual differences in true and false childhood memories. Combining warnings and visualization led to the lowest false memory and highest true memory. Several individual difference factors (e.g., parental fearful attachment style) predicted false recall. In addition, true and false childhood memories differed (e.g., in amount of information). Experiment 2 examined relations between Deese/Roediger-McDermott task performance and false childhood memories. Deese/Roediger-McDermott performance (e.g., intrusion of unrelated words in free recall) was associated with false childhood memory, suggesting liberal response criteria in source decisions as a common underlying mechanism. Experiment 3 investigated adults' abilities to discern true and false childhood memory reports (e.g., by detecting differences in amount of information as identified in Experiment 1). Adults who were particularly successful in discerning such reports indicated reliance on event plausibility. Overall, the source-monitoring framework provided a viable explanatory framework. Implications for theory and clinical and forensic interviews are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ontogeny of human memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective.

The relation between early memory development and corresponding changes in brain development is explored in this article. It is proposed that a form of preexplicit memory (dependent on the hippocampus) develops in the 1st few months. Between 8 and 12 mo, a more adultlike form of explicit memory emerges, which draws broadly on limbic and cortical structures. Two types of implicit memory also make their appearance in the 1st few months: procedural learning (dependent on striatal structures) and conditioning ( which may rely on the olivary-cerebellar complex and possibly the hippocampus). Finally, working memory (dependent on the prefrontal cortex and associated neural circuitry) is also present early in life, although the ability to use working memory when motoric ability is also required (e.g., reaching for hidden objects) has a protracted developmental course relative to other forms of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining differences in the levels of false memories in children and adults using child-normed lists.

Several previous studies have demonstrated that children, when compared with adults, exhibit both lower levels of veridical memory and fewer intrusions when given semantically associated lists. However, researchers have drawn these conclusions using semantically associated word lists that were normed with adults, which may not lead to the same level of activation or gist generation in children. In the current study, the authors used similar associative word lists normed with children and then evaluated the memory of children and adults using these newly normed lists as well as the typical adult-normed lists. Results indicate that children showed lower true and false memories with both the child-normed and adult-normed lists. Thus, these data suggest that the negative relationship between age and false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM; J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) paradigm is not an artifact of the age group used to construct the lists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovered memories and false memories.

Review of book: Recovered Memories and False Memories by Martin A. Conway, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 301 pp. Reviewed by C. Brooks Brenneis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recollection rejection: How children edit their false memories.

A new methodology is presented for studying children's ability to suppress memory reports of false-but-gist-consistent events, one that measures children's use of a specific editing operation (recollection rejection) that suppresses false reports by accessing verbatim traces of true events. Children make memory reports under 2 instructional conditions, verbatim and gist, and the data are analyzed with fuzzy-trace theory's conjoint-recognition model. Application of the new methodology in studies of children's false memory for narrative events revealed that (a) false-memory editing increases dramatically between early and middle childhood, (b) even young children spontaneously edit their false memories, (c) measures of children's false-memory editing react appropriately to experimental manipulations, and (d) developmental reductions in the incidence of false-memory reports are primarily due to developmental improvements in verbatim memory ability (rather than to decreases in the formation of false memories). Implications for child forensic interviewing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mere memory testing creates false memories in children.

It has been reported that initial recall tests inoculate true memories against forgetting without creating false memories. This is not true of recognition tests. In 2 experiments with 5- and 8-year-olds, initial recognition tests elevated children's false-memory responses (false alarms to unpresented distractors) on delayed tests. In Experiment 1, false-memory creation exceeded true-memory inoculation in 5-year-olds, producing net losses in accuracy over time. In Experiment 2, false-memory creation exceeded true-memory inoculation at both age levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collaboration reduces the frequency of false memories in older and younger adults.

Older (mean age = 74.23) and younger (mean age = 33.50) participants recalled items from 6 briefly exposed household scenes either alone or with their spouses. Collaborative recall was compared with the pooled, nonredundant recall of spouses remembering alone (nominal groups). The authors examined hits, self-generated false memories, and false memories produced by another person's (actually a computer program's) misleading recollections. Older adults reported fewer hits and more self-generated false memories than younger adults. Relative to nominal groups, older and younger collaborating groups reported fewer hits and fewer self-generated false memories. Collaboration also reduced older people's computer-initiated false memories. The memory conversations in the collaborative groups were analyzed for evidence that collaboration inhibits the production of errors and/or promotes quality control processes that detect and eliminate errors. Only older adults inhibited the production of wrong answers, but both age groups eliminated errors during their discussions. The partners played an important role in helping rememberers discard false memories in older and younger couples. The results support the use of collaboration to reduce false recall in both younger and older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic priming: A cognitive neuroscience approach.

Posner and Snyder have proposed that semantic priming involves two processes: Automatic spreading activation and consciously directed attention. According to this view, activation will spread from the node in memory for the prime to nodes for related words. This facilitates response to related words, but does not produce inhibitory effects. Attention, however, is viewed as a slow serial process that produces both facilitation and inhibition effects, but only at a long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). An alternative model has been developed based on a paper by Walley and Weiden. According to our model, facilitation effects are attributed to spreading activation in a network of neurons. Our model differs from Posner and Snyder's model in that we assume that automatic spreading activation, if strong enough to cause neurons to discharge, will produce inhibitory effects through a mechanism of recurrent lateral inhibition. Consequently, this model predicts that if spreading activation is strong enough, responding to unrelated target words will be inhibited even though attention is not directed to the related target. It is possible that even with strongly related prime-target pairs, spreading activation may not be sufficient to cause neurons to discharge and generate lateral inhibition without some additional facilitation resulting from effort-induced arousal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between remembering and knowing: a cognitive neuroscience perspective

Cognitive neuroscience has provided strong support for the idea that there are multiple memory systems. Recent evidence suggests that remembering and knowing may be two types of recognition with different neural substrates. The remember/know distinction is not equivalent to the explicit/implicit distinction because both remembering and knowing are impaired after damage to medial temporal lobe structures. A number of converging lines of evidence suggest that the relationship between remembering and knowing is one redundancy, with "knowing" processes also active during remembering. Remembering appears to depend additionally on frontal lobe functioning.     

False alarms and false memories.

M. B. Miller and G. L. Wolford (1999) make two contributions. First, they add conditions to the basic Roediger-McDermott (1995) procedure and find that critical items are recalled and recognized more often if they are presented in the list than if they are not presented. These results agree with our own which are briefly reviewed. Second, they apply signal detection theory to the paradigm and conclude that false responding is caused by a shift of response criterion. They present no evidence that requires this interpretation, however, and we discuss several reasons why their account is implausible. For example, even when fully informed subjects are asked to use a very strict criterion in responding, the false recognition phenomenon persists at high levels. Further, some variables produce opposite effects on veridical and false recall and recognition; this pattern is difficult to accommodate solely by a shift in response criterion. Therefore, little evidence exists that a simple shift of response criterion can explain false recall and false recognition phenomena in the Roediger-McDermott paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensitivity reductions in false recognition: A measure of false memories with stronger theoretical implications.

Signal detection analyses of recognition memory indicate that a bias to respond "old" is large for critical words that are centrally related with previously encoded word lists, is small for words that are less related, and is not observed for unrelated words. Also, recognition sensitivity has not been previously shown to differ between those conditions, which has focused debate over how to explain false recognition on the bias differences. In 3 experiments, critical-word sensitivity was lower than sensitivity for other word types, but related-word sensitivity was not lower than sensitivity for unrelated words. Extant models that predict reduced critical-word sensitivity also predict lower sensitivity for related words than for unrelated words. These results provide crucial new constraints on theoretical explanations of false memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding implicit memory: A cognitive neuroscience approach.

Dissociations between implicit and explicit memory have attracted considerable attention in recent memory research. A central issue concerns whether such dissociations require the postulation of separate memory systems or are best understood in terms of different processes operating within a single system. This article presents a cognitive neuroscience approach to implicit memory in general and the systems–processes debate in particular, which draws on evidence from research with brain-damaged patients, neuroimaging techniques, and nonhuman primates. The article illustrates how a cognitive neuroscience orientation can help to supply a basis for postulating memory systems, can provide useful constraints for processing views, and can encourage the use of research strategies that are referred to as cross-domain hypothesis testing and cross-domain hypothesis generation, respectively. The cognitive neuroscience orientation suggests a complementary role for multiple systems and processing approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Latent variable modeling of cognitive processes in true and false recognition of words: A developmental perspective.

The present study aimed at testing theoretical predictions of the fuzzy-trace theory about true and false recognition. The effects of semantic relatedness and study opportunity on true and false recognition of words from Deese, Roediger, McDermott lists (J. Deese, 1959; D. R. Read, 1996; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) were evaluated in 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 151). Instead of a traditional analysis of variance, the authors used a relatively novel statistical analysis technique, latent class factor analysis, to test the hypotheses pertaining to the effect of semantic relatedness and study opportunity on children's true and false recognition given their low or high verbatim-trace and gist-trace level. The results showed that variation in true recognition of target words from semantically related and unrelated word lists that were either studied once or repeated could be explained well by variation in verbatim-trace and gist-trace level. Variation in false recognition of semantically related distractors also could be explained by variation in gist-trace level, but the recollection-rejection hypothesis was not confirmed. The variable age was positively but weakly related to gist-trace level, but no significant relationship was found between age and verbatim-trace level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

False perceptions of false memories.

We argue that the preceding comment by J. J. Freyd and D. H. Gleaves (see record 83:25318) on H. L. Roediger and K. B. McDermott's (see record 1995-42833-001) article contests claims that we never made. In this reply, we consider and rebut their arguments, defend our use of the term events, and consider the role of relatedness in producing false memories. In proposing a critical experiment indented to illuminate the debate about memory recovery in therapy, it is Freyd and Gleaves who generalize directly from a laboratory experiment to complicated events in therapy. However, our analysis of their proposed experiment finds it irrelevant to the development of false memories, either inside or outside the lab. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Special edition in cognitive neuroscience: Preface.

Introduces this special issue of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, which focuses on three hot research areas in Cognitive Neuroscience--perception and action, multisensory integration, memory and higher-order cognition. Highlighted within each domain is how different research methodologies can be brought to bear on the issue of the neural bases of higher mental functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotions in memories of success and failure: A cultural perspective.

Americans and Chinese tend to behave differently in response to success and failure: Americans tend to persist on a task after success, whereas Chinese tend to persist after failure. This study examined whether cultural differences in emotional reactions to success and failure account for these differences. American and Chinese students recalled personal success and failure events, evaluated the primary emotion evoked by the event, and responded to measures of concerns, appraisals, and willingness to try the same task again. Americans were more likely than Chinese to report that their success enhanced their self-esteem. Chinese were more likely than Americans to estimate that their success would make others jealous and enhance others' respect for their family. Chinese, compared to Americans, viewed failures as more tolerable, as less problematic for their goals, and as less damaging to their self-esteem. Culture moderated the relations between these components of emotion and willingness to try the task again. In short, culturally framed emotional reactions to success and failure result in different patterns of anticipated self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

False memories in children and adults: Age, distinctiveness, and subjective experience.

This study investigated developmental trends associated with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott false-memory effect, the role of distinctive information in false-memory formation, and participants' subjective experience of true and false memories. Children (5- and 7-year-olds) and adults studied lists of semantically associated words. Half of the participants studied words alone, and half studied words accompanied by pictures. There were significant age differences in recall (5-year-olds evinced more false memories than did adults) but not in recognition of critical lures. Distinctive information reduced false memory for all age groups. Younger children provided with distinctive information, and older children and adults regardless of whether they viewed distinctive information, expressed higher levels of confidence in true than in false memories. Source attributions did not significantly differ between true and false memories. Implications for theories of false memory and memory development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recollections of true and false autobiographical memories.

Two diarists recorded true and false events and thoughts over a period of 5 months. In recognition tests taken 7 months later, they discriminated between true and false diary entries and judged their state of memory awareness as recollective experience, feeling of familiarity, or no distinct state of awareness. Correct recognition rates for true events and thoughts were high. Events were associated with recollective experience and thoughts with feelings of familiarity. Incorrect recognition was higher for thoughts than events. False memories were associated with familiarity or no distinct state of awareness. For correct memories of events only, factors influencing encoding (importance, consequentiality, etc.) interacted with state of memory awareness at retrieval. The quality of phenomenal experience, based on the associations between encoding and retrieval, may be critical in leading a remeberer to accept a memory as true. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning mathematics: A cognitive perspective.

During the past decade, rather than studying the outcomes of mathematics learning in experimentation with specific teaching strategies, cognitive psychology has been advancing understanding of the fundamental nature of mathematics learning. The promise of cognitive theories for instruction is illustrated by reviewing several studies on elementary mathematics. This research illuminates the formal structure of a mathematical procedure such as counting and the hierarchy of its subprocedures, the diagnosis of consistent errors in subtraction and decimals and the discovery of their underlying sources, the formulation of the role of schemata in executing arithmetic skills, and the comprehension of word problems. The development of mathematics skills is considered in terms of the distinction between procedural and propositional knowledge. Implications of a cognitively based understanding of mathematical learning for the effective design of instruction are discussed. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)