Miller & Wolford (1999) propose that false identification occurs in the DRM paradigm due to criterion shifts and not due to memory processes. Miller & Wolford claim these criterion are 1). Participants use familiarity to identify a critical item and require little if any memory trace & 2). Participants only use familiarity to identify an item as old. Gallo et. al’s (2001) present experiment tests what effect a warning has before and after studying a DRM list and whether these two criterion shifts or memory processes are responsible for false recognition in the DRM paradigm.

METHOD

Participants: 96 participants participated. 24 participants per condition.

Materials & Design: There were 18 DRM lists that consisted of 15 words per list. The participants listened to 12 lists presented over headphones. In three of the conditions the critical item was presented in 6 of the 12 lists. In the no-CT condition, there was not a critical item listed in any of the studied lists.

Procedure: Participants were randomly assigned to one of 4 conditions.

1^st condition – Standard condition- participants are told to answer the questions with care but the DRM effect is not explained.

2^nd condition – Warning before study. Participants are specifically told that some of the lists contain the critical word and they are given an example of how the DRM paradigm works.

3^rd condition – Warning administered after study. Participants are informed of the DRM paradigm after studying the list. If liberal criterion shifts are the cause of false identification, then this warning should reduce false recognition of critical items.

4^th condition – No critical target (no CT) condition – Participants are informed of the DRM paradigm and told to respond new to any word that is related to the list.

RESULTS

• Warning participants before studying the list significantly reduced false recognition of critical items, but when administered a warning after studying the list, participants were unable to significantly reduce false identification of the critical item. This implies that memory processes and not criterion shifts are responsible for false recognition in the DRM paradigm.
• In the no-CT condition, participants were able to reduce the number of false recognition of critical items, but they also reduced the number of list items presented. If two criterion were in fact the cause of false memory in the DRM paradigm, then the critical lure items should have been reduced, but not the list items.

• Strategically liberal criterion shifts as proposed by Miller & Wolford (1999) play an insignificant role in the DRM false recognition.
• Memory processes are the cause of false recognition in the DRM paradigm.