Rhodes,
Matthew G., Anastasi Jeffery S. (2000). The Effects of a Levels-of-Processing
Manipulation of False Recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7,
158-162
Background:
This
study explored the process by which false memories are created.
SAC
(source of activation confusion) Ayers and Reder stated that false memories
are the result of making association to a presented word. Then at retrieval
the participant is confused about whether the word was presented or internally
activated. This predicts that words that are deeply processed will be recalled
at a high rate, but that critical lures will be recalled as well.
Levels-of
Processing: Craik and Lockhart believe that the retrieval value of an item
is a function of how deeply processed the word was at encoding. This view
predicts that for list that are deeply processed there would be little
forgetting of targets and few intrusion of critical lures.
Experiments
1 and 2
Investigated
the effects of levels of processing on false memories
Method:
In
Experiment 1, 40 undergraduates listened to a tape of four of the DRM
lists ( needle, sleep, rough, and soft) presented at a rate of one word
every three seconds. The lists of words were blocked by theme. Half the
subjects rated the words on an abstract/concrete dimension (Deep Processing
Task) and half indicated how many vowels each word had (Shallow
Processing Task). After a 5 minute delay they were asked to recall
as many of the words as they could.
In
Experiment 2, participants were presented with index cards in which the
four DRM lists were randomly ordered. Half the subjects were given a sheet
of paper with four boxes and were asked to write the words in the boxes
in order to create four categories (Deep processing). Half the subjects
were given the cards and a sheet of paper and asked to write down how many
vowels each word had. All Participants were asked to write down as many
words as they could remember.
Results:
Deeper
levels of processing led to more veridical memories. However, they also
listed more of the critical lures than did those in the shallow level of
processing.
Veridical
Memories Experiment 1
False
Memories Experiment 1
Veridical
Memories Experiment 2
False
Memories Experiment 2
Shallow
Processing
0.18
0.23
0.09
0.09
Deep
Processing
0.29
0.47
0.38
0.41
Conclusions
The
findings that deeper levels of processing aids in recall of the target
items support both the SAC theory and the Levels of Processing account.
However,
levels of processing theory can not account for the added recall of critical
lures associated with the deep levels of processing. The SAC model makes
sense of these findings.