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Abstract:
Abstract: We examined memory mechanisms potentially
responsible for false recognition. During encoding, participants
heard binaurally presented lists of unrelated words and lists of
related words (e.g. bed, rest, awake, etc.) each strongly
associated with one critical word (e.g. sleep). During test, they
made old/new recognition judgments for the critical words, their
related words, and the unrelated words, when half of each group
were previously presented during encoding and half were not. In
addition, visual test words were presented directly to the left or
right hemisphere and also varied in the number of
(standard-dictionary) senses associated with them. We measured
recognition performance using bias and sensitivity measures from
signal detection theory. Inconsistent with the theory that the
veridicality of memory differs across hemispheres, we did not
observe different patterns of sensitivity for the three word types
following left- versus right-hemisphere test presentations. Also,
inconsistent with the possibility that criterion-setting processes
in right- but not left-hemisphere prefrontal cortex support false
recognition, the greater bias to respond "old" to critical words
compared with other words was not larger following right- than
following left-hemisphere test presentations. Finally, in support
of the possibility that implicit associative activation of
restricted regions in semantic representation space supports false
recognition, the greater bias to respond "old" to critical words
compared with unrelated words was larger when the test words had
small numbers of senses than when they had large numbers of
senses.
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