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Abstract:
Abstract: Previous research (Roediger & McDermott, 1995)
has shown that thematically related memory intrusions occur when
participants rely on the gist-based representation of a study list
to guide retrieval processes. These results suggest that
schematically related items should be more prone to false
recognition than unrelated distinctive items. The experiments
reported here investigated how schematic thinking drives the
generation of memory illusions. All studies used items consisting
of a forename-occupation pair that was either stereotypically
consistent (e.g. John-Mechanic) or inconsistent (Mary-Mechanic).
Study 1, a source memory task, showed that participants were
reliably more likely to wrongly attribute a stereotype consistent
occupation to a forename judged to be old. The results of the
second study, using the 'Remember-Know Procedure' showed that of
the items wrongly judged as old, consistent pairings attracted
significantly more 'Know' judgements than inconsistent pairings.
'Remember' judgements showed a trend in the opposite direction.
Study 3, a simple old/new recognition task, revealed the same
pattern as the previous studies. More consistent pairings were
recognised falsely, an effect that was exacerbated in a group of
elderly subjects and under divided attention at encoding. These
results suggest schema-overapplication as a possible cause for
memory intrusions. False memories of this type seem
familiarity-driven and reliant on executive components depleted by
divided attention.
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