Abstract
Subjects hearing a list of associates to a nonpresented lure word later often claim to have heard the lure (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). To examine the characteristics of such false memories, subjects completed a memory characteristics questionnaire (MCQ; Johnson, Foley, Suengas, & Raye, 1988) or made remember/know (RK; Gardiner & Java, 1993) judgments for previously heard theme associates and nonpresented lures. MCQ ratings indicated that false memories for lures had less auditory detail and less remembered feelings and reactions than memories for presented words. In addition, rates of false recognition for lures were significantly lower than rates of correct recognition when items from various themes were intermixed instead of blocked at acquisition and subjects made MCQ ratings instead of RK judgments. This demonstrates that false memories can be affected both by how they are acquired and by how extensively they are examined at retrieval.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, J. W., &Hasher, L. (1983). Is memory schematic?Psychological Bulletin,93, 203–231.
Anisfeld, M., &Knapp, M. (1968). Association, synonymity, and directionality in false recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology,77, 171–179.
Bartlett, F. C. (1932).Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Batchelder, W. H., &Riefer, D. M. (1990). Multinomial processing models of source monitoring.Psychological Review,97, 548–564.
Belli, R., &Loftus, E. (1994). Recovered memories of childhood abuse: A source monitoring perspective. In S. J. Lynn & J. W. Rhue (Eds.),Dissociation: Clinical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 415–433). New York: Guilford.
Bransford, J. D., &Franks, J. J. (1971). Sentence memory: A constructive versus interpretive approach.Cognitive Psychology,3, 331–350.
Bransford, J. D., &Johnson, M. K. (1973). Considerations of some problems of comprehension. In W. Chase (Ed.),Visual information processing (pp. 383–438). New York: Academic Press.
Ceci, S. J., &Bruck, M. (1993). Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis.Psychological Bulletin,113, 403–439.
Conway, M. A., &Dewhurst, S. A. (1995). Remembering, familiarity, and source monitoring.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,48A, 125–140.
Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology,58, 17–22.
Dodson, C. S., &Johnson, M. K. (1993). Rate of false source attributions depends on how questions are asked.American Journal of Psychology,106, 541–557.
Dodson, C. S., &Johnson, M. K. (1996). Some problems with the process dissociation approach to memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,125, 1–14.
Durso, F. T., &Johnson, M. K. (1980). The effects of orienting tasks on recognition, recall, and modality confusion of pictures and words.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,19, 416–429.
Finke, R. A., Johnson, M. K., &Shyi, G. C. W. (1988). Memory confusions for real and imagined completions of symmetrical visual patterns.Memory & Cognition,16, 133–137.
Gardiner, J. M., &Java, R. I. (1993). Recognizing and remembering. In A. E. Collins, S. E. Gathercole, M. A. Conway, & P. E. M. Morris (Eds.),Theories of memory (pp. 163–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hashtroudi, S., Johnson, M. K., &Chrosniak, L. D. (1990). Aging and qualitative characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined complex events.Psychology & Aging,5, 119–126.
Henkel, L. A., & Franklin, N. (in press). Reality monitoring of physically similar and conceptually related objects.Memory & Cognition.
Hyman, I. E., &Pentland, J. (1996). The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 101–117.
Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C., Brown, J., &Jasechko, J. (1989). Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,56, 326–338.
Johnson, M. K. (1988). Discriminating the origin of information. In T. F. Oltmanns & B. A. Maher (Eds.),Delusional beliefs (pp. 34–65). New York: Wiley.
Johnson, M. K. (1992). MEM: Mechanisms of recollection.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,4, 268–280.
Johnson, M. K. (1997). Identifying the origin of mental experience. In M. S. Myslobodsky (Ed.), The mythomanias: The nature of deception and self-deception (pp. 133–180). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Johnson, M. K., Bransford, J. D., &Solomon, S. K. (1973). Memory for tacit implications of sentences.Journal of Experimental Psychology,98, 203–205.
Johnson, M. K., Foley, M. A., &Leach, K. (1988). The consequences for memory of imagining in another person’s voice.Memory & Cognition,16, 337–342.
Johnson, M. K., Foley, M. A., Suengas, A. G., &Raye, C. L. (1988). Phenomenal characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined autobiographical events.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,117, 371–376.
Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S., &Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring.Psychological Bulletin,114, 3–28.
Johnson, M. K., &Hirst, W. (1993). MEM: Memory subsystems as processes. In A. F. Collins, S. E. Gathercole, M. A. Conway, & P. E. Morris (Eds.),Theories of memory (pp. 241–286). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Johnson, M. K., Kounios, J., &Nolde, S. F. (1996). Electrophysiological brain activity and memory source monitoring.NeuroReport,7, 2929–2932.
Johnson, M. K., Nolde, S. F., &DeLeonardis, D. M. (1996). Emotional focus and source monitoring.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 135–156.
Johnson, M. K., Nolde, S. F., Mather, M., Kounios, J., Schacter, D. L., &Curran, T. (1997). The similarity of brain activity associated with true and false recognition memory depends on test format.Psychological Science,8, 250–257.
Johnson, M. K., &Raye, C. L. (1981). Reality monitoring.Psychological Review,88, 67–85.
Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Foley, H. J., &Foley, M. A. (1981). Cognitive operations and decision bias in reality monitoring.American Journal of Psychology,94, 37–64.
Lane, S. M., &Zaragoza, M. S. (1995). The recollective experience of cross-modality confusion errors.Memory & Cognition,23, 607–610.
Lindsay, D. S. (1994). Memory source monitoring and eyewitness testimony. In D. F. Ross, J. D. Read, & M. P. Toglia (Eds.), Adult eyewitness testimony: Current trends and developments (pp.27–555). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lindsay, D. S., &Johnson, M. K. (1989). The eyewitness suggestibility effect and memory for source.Memory & Cognition,17, 349–358.
Lindsay, D. S., Johnson, M. K., &Kwon, P. (1991). Developmental changes in memory source monitoring.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,52, 297–318.
Lindsay, D. S., &Read, J. D. (1994). Psychotherapy and memories for childhood sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,8, 281–338.
Loftus, E. F. (1979). The malleability of human memory.American Scientist,67, 312–320.
Loftus, E. F., Donders, K., Hoffman, H. G., &Schooler, J. W. (1989). Creating new memories that are quickly accessed and confidently held.Memory & Cognition,17, 607–616.
McDermott, K. B. (1996). The persistence of false memories in list recall.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 212–230.
Multhaup, K. S. (1995). Aging, source, and decision criteria: When false fame errors do and do not occur.Psychology & Aging,10, 492–497.
Norman, K. A., & Schacter, D. L. (1997). False recognition in younger and older adults: Exploring the characteristics of illusory memories.Memory & Cognition.
Payne, D. G., Elie, C. J., Blackwell, J. M., &Neuschatz, J. S. (1996). Memory illusions: Recalling, recognizing, and recollecting events that never occurred.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 261–285.
Posner, M. I., &Keele, S. W. (1968). On the genesis of abstract ideas.Journal of Experimental Psychology,77, 353–363.
Raaijmakers, J. G. W., &Shiffrin, R. M. (1992). Models for recall and recognition.Annual Review of Psychology,43, 205–234.
Rajaram, S. (1993). Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past.Memory & Cognition,21, 89–102.
Raye, C. L., Johnson, M. K., &Taylor, T. H. (1980). Is there something special about memory for internally generated information?Memory & Cognition,8, 141–148.
Read, J. D. (1996). From a passing thought to a false memory in 2 minutes: Confusing real and illusory events.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,3, 105–111.
Reinitz, M. T., Lammers, W. J., &Cochran, B. P. (1992). Memoryconjunction errors: Miscombination of stored stimulus features can produce illusions of memory.Memory & Cognition,20, 1–11.
Roediger, H. L., III, &McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,21, 803–814.
Sachs, J. S. (1967). Recognition memory for syntactic and semantic aspects of connected discourse.Perception & Psychophysics,2, 437–442.
Schacter, D. L., Reiman, E., Curran, T., Yun, L. S., Bandy, D., McDermott, K. B., &Roediger, H. L., III (1996). Neuroanatomical correlates of veridical and illusory recognition memory revealed by PET.Neuron,17, 267–274.
Schooler, J. W., Gerhard, D., &Loftus, E. F. (1986). Qualities of the unreal.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 171–181.
Sporer, S. L. (1992). Post-dicting eyewitness accuracy: Confidence, decision-times and person descriptions of choosers and nonchoosers.European Journal of Social Psychology,22, 157–180.
Sporer, S. L., Penrod, S., Read, D., &Cutler, B. (1995). Choosing, confidence, and accuracy: A meta-analysis of the confidence-accuracy relation in eyewitness identification studies.Psychological Bulletin,118, 315–327.
Stern, L. B., &Dunning, D. (1994). Distinguishing accurate from inaccurate eyewitness identifications: A reality monitoring approach. In D. F. Ross, J. D. Read, & M. P. Toglia (Eds.),Adult eyewitness testimony: Current trends and developments (pp. 273–299). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Suengas, A. G., &Johnson, M. K. (1988). Qualitative effects of rehearsal on memories for perceived and imagined complex events.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,117, 377–389.
Sulin, R. A., &Dooling, D. J. (1974). Intrusions of a thematic idea in retention of prose.Journal of Experimental Psychology,103, 255–262.
Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness.Canadian Psychology,26, 1–12.
Underwood, B. J. (1965). False recognition produced by implicit verbal responses.Journal of Experimental Psychology,70, 122–129.
Weingardt, K. R., Toland, H. K., &Loftus, E. F. (1994). Reports of suggested memories: Do people truly believe them? In D. F. Ross, J. D. Read, & M. P. Toglia (Eds.),Adult eyewitness testimony: Current trends and developments (pp. 3–26). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zaragoza, M. S., &Koshmider, J. W., III (1989). Misled subjects may know more than their performance implies.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,15, 246–255.
Zaragoza, M. S., &Lane, S. M. (1994). Source misattributions and the suggestibility of eyewitness memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,20, 934–945.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by National Institute on Aging Grant AG09253 and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship awarded to the first author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mather, M., Henkel, L.A. & Johnson, M.K. Evaluating characteristics of false memories: Remember/know judgments and memory characteristics questionnaire compared. Memory & Cognition 25, 826–837 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211327
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211327