1. Inducing False Memory in 3- to 5-Year-Old Children and
Adults: The Role of Item Relation and Presentation on DRM Performance
Martha Arterberry and Meng Zhao, Department of Psychology, Colby College
Introduction
Results – False Memory
DRM
• In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm,
participants hear a list of related words. Reporting of a
semantically-related, but not presented, word is evidence
of false memory. In this paradigm, children consistently
report fewer false memories than adults (Brainerd, Reyna,
& Forrest, 2002), even when the lists contain child-normed
words (Anastasi & Rhodes, 2008).
• Two explanations:
• Fuzzy-Trace Theory – participants extract the gist of the
list during presentation, and they remember the gist but
not the actual items presented (verbatim memory).
• Association-Activation Theory – spreading activation
amongst presented items accounts for recall of
semantically-related (but unpresented) words.
Stimuli and List Relation
• Previous research on episodic memory has shown that
children’s recall can be improved through the use of visual
stimuli (Arterberry, Milburn, Loza, & Willert, 2001). A
facilitative effect of visual stimuli has not been found in the
DRM paradigm (Ghetti, Qin, & Goodman, 2002; Howe,
2006). Type of visual stimuli used, such as line drawings,
may be at issue.
• Moreover, the ways in which stimuli were related, either
categorically or thematically, affected recall of episodic
information: 3- to 4-year-olds performed best with
categorically-related stimuli and 5- to 7-years-olds
performed best with thematically-related stimuli (Arterberry,
et al., 2001).
Current Study
Adult and child participants were presented with DRM lists
that were either categorically related or thematically related to
a critical lure (a non-presented item related to the list). The
lists were read to participants with or without accompanying
full color pictures.
Discussion
Category Theme
Lion Claws
Dog Paw
Cat Pet
Elephant Circus
Bird Cage
Zebra Zoo
Moose Hunt
Bunny Fluffy
Horse Tail
Deer Woods
Not Presented: Animal
Method
Participants: 80 3-to 5-year-old children (M age = 52 months,
SD =9.39, 36 females, 44 males) and 40 college-aged
students (27 females, 13 males) participated in the study.
Procedure: Each participant was randomly assigned to one
of four conditions with a different type of word organization
(categorical or thematic) and stimuli (pictures plus words or
words only). The DRM lists were adapted from child-normed
lists (Anastasi & Rhodes, 2008). A recall period occurred
following each of the four lists. A final recognition test was
given after recall of the last list.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Category Thematic
NumberRecognized
List Relation
Children
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Category Thematic
NumberRecognized
List Relation
Adults
Picture
Words
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Category Thematic
NumberRecalled
List Relation
Adults
Picture
Words
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Category Thematic
NumberRecalled
List Relation
Children
Results - Recognition
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Category Thematic
NumberReported
List Relation
Children
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Category Thematic
NumberReported
List Relation
Adults
Picture
Words
Results - Recall
Main effect for age: F (1, 112) = 404.47, p < .001, partial η2= .78
Main effect for relation: F (1, 112) = 8.69, p = .004, partial η2= .07
Main effect for age: F (1, 112) = 9.83, p = .002, partial η2= .08
Main effect for age: F (1, 112) = 61.58, p < .001, partial η2= .36
Age x Relation interaction: F (1, 112) = 9.26, p = .003, partial η2= .08
For adults, significantly more false memory with thematically-related lists.
For children, significantly more false memory with category-related lists.
Age Effects: Adults outperformed children in recall and
recognition (not surprising). Also, adults showed less false
memory than children, suggesting that the task may have been
too easy for adults.
Pictures vs. Words: There was no difference in performance
for pictorial vs. word only stimuli, a finding consistent with Ghetti
et al. (2002) and Howe (2006) despite differences in stimuli.
List Relation: Categorically-related lists produced the best true
recall for both adults and children. More false memories were
found in children with categorically-related lists and more false
memories were found in adults with thematically-related lists.
Findings suggest that Fuzzy-Trace Theory may best explain
adult false memory and Association-Activation Theory may best
explain children’s false memory.
Poster presented at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research for Child Development, Philadelphia PA, March 20, 2015