Effects of prior warning and response deadline on false memory

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of warning on performance during the Deese-Roediger-McDermott recognition test (Roediger & McDermott, 1995), by manipulating the test type. We presented subjects with lists of semantically related words, followed by a recognition test. The test was composed of studied words, related non-studied words (critical lures), and unrelated non-studied words. Half the subjects were uninformed about the false recognition effect, while the others were forewarned. During the test phase, half of each group reported on recognition of each item within 4 seconds (fast condition), and the others did so within 8 seconds (slow condition). In the slow condition, the false critical lure recognition rate was lower in forewarned subjects than in uninformed subjects. However, in the fast condition, there was no significant difference in false recognition rates. Our results demonstrate that identification of critical lures can reduce the frequency of false recognition.