False Memory and Memory Encoding & Retrieval

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering false memory phenomena, the DRM paradigm, Loftus misinformation experiments, repetition schedules, levels of processing, testing effects, and context-dependent retrieval.

DRM Paradigm

An experimental procedure developed by Roediger & McDermott (1995) in which subjects are presented with a list of words that all relate to a single nonpresented critical lure, leading subjects to falsely recall the lure about $40\%$ of the time.

Critical Lure

A specific target word in the DRM paradigm that is never presented in the study list but is semantically related to every word on the list, causing participants to frequently claim they remember or recognize it with high confidence.

Warning Experiment (McDermott & Roediger, 1998)

An experiment testing whether explicit warnings eliminate false memories; even when forewarned about the DRM procedure, participants still frequently falsely recognized nonpresented critical lures, most commonly rating them as "probably old" or "sure old".

Misinformation Effect

A memory distortion studied extensively by Loftus where introducing misleading post-event information during questioning interferes with and alters a person's original memory of an event.

Car Accident Experiment (Loftus & Palmer, 1974)

A study demonstrating that manipulating the severity of the verb in an interrogation question (e.g., "smashed", "collided", "bumped", "hit", "contacted") systematically changed participants' speed estimates of colliding vehicles and altered long-term memory for nonexistent broken glass.

Stop Sign Experiment (Loftus, 1979)

A study where participants viewed slides of a car accident at a stop sign; those asked an incongruent question mentioning a "yield sign" correctly recognized the original slide only $41\%$ of the time (worse than the $50\%$ chance level), showing reliance on misleading information compared to $75\%$ for the congruent condition.

Barn Study (Loftus, 1975)

An experiment demonstrating false detail implantation where asking participants "How fast was the white sports car going when it passed the barn…?" led $17\%$ of subjects to falsely remember seeing a nonexistent barn.

Definite vs. Indefinite Article Effect (Loftus & Zanni, 1975)

A demonstration showing that subtle wording variations in interrogation, such as asking "Did you see the broken headlight?" versus "Did you see a broken headlight?", significantly alter participants' likelihood of affirming the presence of an object.

Lost-at-the-Mall Experiment (Loftus & Pickrell, 1995)

An experiment demonstrating the implantation of rich false autobiographical memories; using booklets containing $3$ true events and $1$ false event from relatives, $7\text{ out of }24$ ($29\%$) participants falsely remembered being lost in a mall as a young child.

Total Time Hypothesis

The proposal that the amount of information retained in memory is directly proportional to the total amount of time spent learning it, suggesting that massed cramming should work equally as well as distributed learning.

The Spacing Effect (Underwood, 1970)

The experimental finding that distributing repetitions of learning items over time (spaced repetition) produces substantially higher percent recall than presenting repetitions back-to-back (massed repetition), disproving the strict Total Time Hypothesis.

Massed Repetition

A study schedule in which repeated exposures to the same learning material occur consecutively in immediate succession with little to no intervening time.

Spaced Repetition

A study schedule in which repetitions of a learning item are separated by temporal delays or intervening items, producing superior retention over massed practice.

The Testing Effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)

The finding that taking an initial retrieval test (Study, Test) yields significantly greater long-term retention after $2\text{ days}$ and $1\text{ week}$ compared to repeated reading (Study, Study), even though repeated reading leads to higher recall at an immediate $5\text{-minute}$ retention interval.

Maintenance Rehearsal

A shallow form of repetition that recycles information continuously at a sensory level without adding meaning or associations, requiring no prior knowledge and producing weak long-term memory.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A deeper form of rehearsal that actively processes information to a semantic level by connecting new items to existing knowledge, forming sentences, using imagery, or organizing concepts.

Levels of Processing Theory

A framework stating that memory performance is a function of the depth of mental processing during encoding, where deeper semantic processing produces stronger and longer-lasting memory traces than shallow sensory processing.

Levels of Processing Experiment (Hyde & Jenkins, 1973)

An experiment demonstrating that orienting tasks requiring deeper semantic encoding (such as pleasantness ratings) produce the highest word recall (~$12.8$ words), while shallow tasks (such as E-G letter checking and parts of speech) yield the lowest recall (~$8.1$ to $8.2$ words).

Context-Dependent Memory

The phenomenon whereby memory retrieval is maximized when an individual's external environment or internal physiological state during retrieval matches the context present during original encoding.

The Sobriety Experiment (Goodwin et al., 1969)

A study on state-dependent memory showing that while being sober at encoding produces the highest overall recall, participants who encode while intoxicated exhibit better memory retention if they are also intoxicated during retrieval rather than sober.

The SCUBA Experiment (Godden & Baddeley, 1975)

A study demonstrating environmental context-dependent memory in which divers who learned word lists either on land or underwater demonstrated significantly higher recall when tested in the matching physical environment (land/land or water/water).

Classroom Context Effect (Abernathy, 1940)

The observation that student exam performance is systematically higher when the exam is administered in the exact same classroom where the lectures were initially delivered.

Mental Reinstatement of Context (Smith, 1979)

The finding that actively visualizing and focusing on the original room where study took place prior to retrieval eliminates the memory impairment typically caused by changing physical testing locations.