This study separated participants into four different conditions based on a 2 (blocked or random study trials) x 2 (blocked or random test trials) between-subjects design. Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm the researcher investigated whether or not false memories were produced at the time of study or the time of test. According to the paradigm, participants who view a series of categorical words (mad, fear, hate, rage, temper) are thought to semantically associate critical lures (anger), as a part of the list presented, more frequently than participants who see a string of unrelated terms. The production of false memory is commonly accredited to the priming effect and the relationships among categorical terms. The current study explored whether manipulating blocked versus random word lists had an effect on false memory rates and further examined the conditions under which false memories are produced, in order to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon. Participants' responses were assessed based on their recall under either blocked or random conditions in both the study and test phases. Using measures of recognition and reaction time (RT), the results indicate that false memories are created primarily during original study and not during · the test of recognition. However, although the highest rates of false memories occurred during the blocked-study condition, the fastest reaction times for false memories were seen during blocked-test. These findings can contribute to the theoretical understanding of the origin of false memory. After comparing false memory rates and reaction times, concluding whether or not the mind exclusively produces these memories during the encoding process has yet to be determined.

This thesis investigated the memory skills of young adults with and without language and learning disabilities (LLD) using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott word recall paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Three types of word lists were presented: semantic lists consisted of words that are related to a non-presented critical item (CI) (e.g., bad) in meaning (good, rotten, harmful, worse); phonological lists included words related to the CI in sound (e.g., had, lad, bat, bag); and hybrid lists included words related to the CI in both meaning and sound (e.g., good, lad, rotten, bat). Individuals with diagnoses of LLD were classified as "true LLD" or "compensated LLD" based on language test scores and a discriminating composite score, while those without LLD were considered the "typical language" (TL) group. Hypotheses were made regarding veridical recall and memory intrusions, including intrusions of the non-presented critical item (CI). For veridical recall, the compensated LLD and TL groups were expected to have higher recall accuracy than the true LLD group. As for CI intrusions, two possible outcomes were considered: the true LLD group may recall more CIs due to inability to discriminate between presented and non-presented words (Kirchner & Klatzky, 1985); or they may recall fewer CIs due to difficulties forming traces of the gist of the word list (Weekes et al., 2005). Data from 30 participants (ages 18 to 25) -- 12 true LLD, 8 compensated LLD, and 10 TL -- were included in this thesis. Results indicated that the true LLD group showed a non-significant tendency to have lower recall accuracy scores than the other two groups, and a higher number of CI intrusions. List-type also affected accuracy and CI intrusions, as semantically-related lists increased recall accuracy and hybrid semantic-phonological lists increased CI intrusions. Possible conclusions from these data are presented along with recommendations for future research. / text

This thesis is an expansion of an ongoing examination of gist and verbatim memory in young adults with language-learning disabilities (LLD) using the DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). This study uses lists based on situation semantic features in addition to DRM lists based on backwards associative strength (BAS), which were categorized as strong-, mid-, and low-BAS (Stadler, Roediger, & McDermott, 1999). Items in each list (e.g., bacon, toast, cereal, muffin) related to a non-presented word (e.g., breakfast): the critical lure (CL). BAS is a measure of the likelihood that a list item will elicit the CL. Thirty young adults participated in this study and were divided into three groups: true LLD, compensated LLD, and typically developing (TD). Participants listened to word lists and verbally recalled the words they remembered hearing. Accurate recall was an indicator of verbatim memory; CL recall was an indicator of gist memory. The true LLD group recalled CL at a significantly higher rate than the other groups in the case of the situation lists; additionally, the compensated LLD group recalled CL for the low-BAS lists at a significantly higher rate than the other groups. These findings suggest that the LLD participants may process semantic information differently or may rely on gist memory to a greater extent than the TD controls. Results also indicated list type differences for both verbatim and gist recalls, supporting the effects of both semantic features and BAS together with other factors. / text

This report investigated the various types of memory intrusion errors of adults with language learning disability (LLD) in comparison to age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) adults using lists that are specifically designed to induce memory intrusions adapted from Roediger and McDermott (1995) and modified by Watson et al. (2001; 2003). The 28 participants between the ages of 18:9 - 24:3 listened to pre-recorded lists of twelve words that converged on a critical lure either semantically, phonologically, or dually with a hybrid list. This report tested the hypotheses that 1) hybrid lists would be more likely to induce memory intrusions of the critical lure than either semantic or phonological lists for each group; 2) adults with LLD would demonstrate more intrusion errors than their TD counterparts; 3) the error profiles of the LLD and TD groups should be largely similar; however, the adults with LLD might show deficits in extracting the semantic gist of word lists in light of such patterns in children with specific language impairment (Sheng & McGregor, 2010a). Results showed that the hybrid lists induced the greatest number of critical lure intrusions producing a super-additive effect. Contrary to our hypothesis, the LLD group did not produce more memory intrusions than the TD group. The fact that the two groups performed similarly on all standardized measures suggests that the participants with LLD may have outgrown their disability. Results also revealed that interference and intrusions increased when there was an increase in phonological similarity among words for both groups. Lastly, our preliminary evidence suggests that adults with LLD are not as efficient as their TD counterparts at extracting the gist of semantically-related words. The inclusion of a greater number of participants may provide stronger support for the hypothesis that lexical-semantic organization is less efficient in young adults with LLD. / text

<p>This thesis presents four studies investigating (1) whether incidentally primed control-related words can attenuate the impact of activated stereotypes on subsequent evaluation of a target person, (2) the impact of motivated forgetting on the recall of stereotypically congruent and incongruent information, and (3) the impact of a directed forgetting instruction on the false recall and recognition of nonpresented stereotypical information.</p><p>In three experiments, Study I showed that participants initially primed with the social category, <i>immigrant, </i>and subsequently primed with words that were evocative of control or self-control made less negative impression of a target displaying ambiguous behaviors than participants not exposed to such words.</p><p>Study II, using a directed-forgetting paradigm, demonstrated in two experiments that participants subliminally primed with Swedish facial photographs who later studied stereotypically incongruent words roughly recalled an equal number of items regardless of the forget or remember instructions. </p><p>Study III showed that participants primed with the social category, <i>immigrant</i> and then studied a list of stereotypically related and unrelated words falsely recognized more nonpresented stereotypical words when they were furnished with a forget than a remember instruction. Similarly, Study IV (Experiment 2) demonstrated that participants primed with the social category, <i>immigrant</i>, but not with a neutral category, falsely recalled more nonpresented stereotypical words when their cognitive capacity was depleted through a concurrent memory load task. </p><p>The thesis presents a review and a discussion of some of the theoretical underpinnings of the extant literature on stereotyping and intergroup relations and of the social implications of the present findings.</p>

This thesis presents four studies investigating (1) whether incidentally primed control-related words can attenuate the impact of activated stereotypes on subsequent evaluation of a target person, (2) the impact of motivated forgetting on the recall of stereotypically congruent and incongruent information, and (3) the impact of a directed forgetting instruction on the false recall and recognition of nonpresented stereotypical information. In three experiments, Study I showed that participants initially primed with the social category, immigrant, and subsequently primed with words that were evocative of control or self-control made less negative impression of a target displaying ambiguous behaviors than participants not exposed to such words. Study II, using a directed-forgetting paradigm, demonstrated in two experiments that participants subliminally primed with Swedish facial photographs who later studied stereotypically incongruent words roughly recalled an equal number of items regardless of the forget or remember instructions. Study III showed that participants primed with the social category, immigrant and then studied a list of stereotypically related and unrelated words falsely recognized more nonpresented stereotypical words when they were furnished with a forget than a remember instruction. Similarly, Study IV (Experiment 2) demonstrated that participants primed with the social category, immigrant, but not with a neutral category, falsely recalled more nonpresented stereotypical words when their cognitive capacity was depleted through a concurrent memory load task. The thesis presents a review and a discussion of some of the theoretical underpinnings of the extant literature on stereotyping and intergroup relations and of the social implications of the present findings.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:30:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6278.pdf: 3722087 bytes, checksum: 5d4fe7ef1accdc79a886f6fa9eec0aff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-18 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / False memories are defined as remembering events that never happened or remember facts in a distorted way. In cognitive psychology this phenomenon has been studied through the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, in witch lists of words semanticaly related are used. In behavior analysis, the paradigm of stimulus equivalence is a proposition to study semantic relations. This doctoral dissertation presents three studies with undergraduate students in witch DRM and the stimulus equivalence paradigms were used in association to investigate false memories. First and second studies aimed to replicate the phenomenon in a experimental situations, using both Paradigms. Difference concentrates in the controlled variables. In Study 1, nonsense words were used as stimuli. Procedure was divided into two phases. Phase 1: formation of three twelve members equivalence classes. Phase 2: verification of false memories using lists based on DRM paradigm. A list with 10 out of the 12 stimuli from each of the three classes was presented (study list). After completing a distracter task a lists composed by all stimuli from previously list (targets), the rest of the stimuli form the classes (critical distractors) and four more nonsense words (non-related distracters) were shown. Participants should indicate witch stimuli were presented on study list. Participant recognized significantly more critical distratctors, compared to non-related stimuli. However, results could be due to the novelty of non-related distractors. In the second study, this variable was controlled. In Study 2, bot phases were presented, but in Phase 1, participants were first taught three four-stimuli equivalence classes in witch one set of stimuli was familiar pictures. Later, three classes with twelve stimuli were taught. Stimuli from the first three classes were used as non-related distractors. Participant did not recognized significantly more critical distratctors, compared to non-related. It is argued that results could be due to a weak relations between stimuli from the equivalence classes. The third study aimed to increase the relations between stimuli and to investigate the effect of including emotional stimuli in equivalence classes, on false memories. Study 2 was replicated and in the twelve-member classes, a set of stimuli was pictures with happiness, angry or neutrality expressions. Only in neutral list critical ditractors were recognized significantly more than non-related distractors. Results indicates list with emotions are less likely to produce false memories. / Falsas memórias são definidas como lembranças de eventos que nunca aconteceram ou lembranças distorcidas de fatos do passado. Na psicologia cognitiva, este fenômeno tem sido estudado por meio do paradigma Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) que utiliza listas com palavras associadas semanticamente. Na análise do comportamento, existe a proposta do estudo de relações semânticas utilizando o paradigma da equivalência de estímulos. A presente tese apresenta três estudos que utilizaram o paradigma DRM e o de equivalência de estímulos no estudo de falsas memórias. O primeiro e o segundo estudos tiveram por objetivo replicar o fenômeno, em situação experimental, utilizando os dois paradigmas. A diferença esteve nas variáveis controladas em ambos os estudos. No Estudo 1 foram utilizadas apenas pseudopalavras como estímulos. O procedimento foi dividido em duas fases. Fase 1: treino para formação de três classes de equivalência compostas por 12 estímulos. Fase 2: teste de falsas memórias. Uma lista era apresentada com alguns dos estímulos das classes formadas na fase anterior (lista de estudo). Após um tarefa distratora, era apresentada uma lista composta por todos os estímulos da lista de estudo (alvos), o restante dos estímulos das classes, que não constavam na lista de estudo (distratores críticos) e mais quatro novos estímulos (distratores não relacionados). Os resultados mostraram reconhecimento significativamente maior dos distratores críticos do que dos não relacionados. Uma variável importante observada foi que os resultados poderiam ser fruto da novidade dos distratores críticos. No segundo estudo essa variável foi controlada. No Estudo 2, as duas fases também estiveram presentes, porém na Fase 1 foram ensinadas, primeiramente, três classes de equivalência com quatro estímulos, em que um dos conjuntos de estímulos era composto por figuras familiares. Em seguida, três classes com 12 estímulos foram ensinadas. Qs estímulos das primeiras classes foram utilizados como distratores não relacionados. Os resultados apontaram que não houve diferenças significativas no reconhecimento dos dois tipos de distratores. Argumenta-se que esse resultado possa ser fruto de um baixo grau de relacionamento entre os estímulos das classes de equivalência. O terceiro estudo pretendeu aumentar a força das relações de equivalência e verificar a influência da utilização de estímulos com conteúdos emocionais nas classes de equivalência na ocorrência de falsas memórias. O estudo 2 foi replicado e, para as classes com 12 estímulos, os estímulos de um dos conjuntos de cada classe eram ou expressões faciais de alegria, ou de raiva, ou de neutralidade. Apenas na lista neutra, os distratores críticos foram mais reconhecidos que os não relacionados. Os resultados indicam que listas com conteúdo emocional são menos sujeitas a falsas memórias.

False memories happen when someone mis-remembers a past event that occurred. The study of false memories is commonly done using the DRM paradigm which can form false memories through semantic list learning. The current study is evaluating false memory, deception, and truth-telling using the DRM paradigm while measuring cortical activation with fNIRS. Results indicated no interactions between specific condition responses and brain regions in the prefrontal cortex. A main effect of condition was found indicating that correct responses have the lowest level of activation. Additionally, there were no significant differences found between deception and false memory responses. Further research needs to be conducted to help further analyze possible differences between these conditions as well as in more subcortical regions of the prefrontal cortex.

False memories (FM´s) occur when we remember the events that never happened in reality, situations at which we were not present, and places where we never been to or when we remember some event differently from what really happened. The main purpose of this work was to check the durability of individual s memory after a time span of one week and to check the influence of the source monitoring on the creation of FM´s. For this, it was used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, which consists of the presentation of twelve lists of fifteen associated words (targets) to an undisclosed one which is called the critical distractor or critical nonpresented word. The individuals were picked among 80 UFU Psychology undergraduates who volunteer to participate. They were divided in two groups: auditory and visual ones. This separation was due to the difference in the modality of lists presentation at study. All participants were asked to pay attention to the words and half of them were asked to do the source monitoring of the words, whether it is auditory or visually form. Following the presentation of the twelve lists, they solved simple arithmetic problems. At last, it was done an immediate recognition memory test which has seventy words: thirty six studied itens (targets), twelve related lures (critical distractors) and twenty two unrelated lures (new words which were not semantically associated to any of the ten lists previously presented to them). One week later, they came back to do the delayed recognition memory test. The test and the procedure were the same as for the immediate recognition memory test. In these recognition tests they had to choose between Yes or No for each word, whether they did or did not recognize the words from one of the lists and they were asked to identify the word s source: Auditory or Visually form. The results showed that false memories are created and can be kept until one week later, more than real memories. Visual modality was better to the correct recognition (targets) and further more, it was responsible for the smaller rate of false recognition. Instructions to the individuals improved the source monitoring for targets, but it did not cut down on the misattribution for the critical distractor. / Falsas memórias (FM´s) podem ser definidas como o fato de nos lembrarmos de eventos que não ocorreram na realidade, de situações as quais nunca presenciamos, de lugares onde nunca estivemos, ou então, de nos lembrarmos de algum evento de maneira um pouco distorcida do que realmente aconteceu. O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi verificar a durabilidade da memória dos sujeitos ao longo de uma semana, bem como verificar a influência do monitoramento da fonte na criação de falsas memórias. Para tanto, neste estudo foi usado o procedimento de Deese/ Roediger/ McDermott (DRM) que consiste de listas de palavras associadas. O instrumento utilizado foi composto de doze listas de quinze palavras associadas (alvos) a um tema central que recebe o nome de distrator crítico e não aparece na lista. Os participantes da pesquisa foram 80 universitários do curso de Psicologia da UFU que aceitaram voluntariamente participar do estudo. Eles foram divididos em dois grupos: auditivo e visual. Esta separação foi devida a diferença da modalidade de apresentação das palavras no estudo. Foi pedido a todos que prestassem atenção às palavras e para a metade da amostra de cada grupo, foi informado que deveriam fazer o monitoramento da fonte das palavras, via auditiva ou visual. Após a apresentação das doze listas, eles fizeram uma tarefa de distração com problemas simples de matemática. Ao final, foi feito um teste de reconhecimento imediato contendo setenta palavras, sendo: trinta e seis alvos, os doze distratores críticos e vinte e duas palavras acrescentadas e que não eram semanticamente relacionadas a nenhuma das listas. Após uma semana, fizeram um teste de reconhecimento posterior, no qual receberam a mesma folha do teste de reconhecimento imediato e procederam da mesma forma. Nos testes de reconhecimento, eles tinham que assinalar a opção (Sim ou Não) em cada palavra, conforme reconhecessem ou não a palavra de alguma das listas e identificar a fonte na qual a palavra foi apresentada: auditiva ou visual. Os resultados mostraram que as falsas memórias são criadas e podem ser mantidas, após uma semana, mais do que as memórias reais. A modalidade visual foi melhor para o reconhecimento verdadeiro e foi a responsável pela menor taxa de reconhecimento falso. A instrução aos participantes melhorou o monitoramento da fonte para os alvos, mas não fez com que o índice de atribuição de fontes para os distratores críticos diminuísse. / Mestre em Psicologia Aplicada