False Memory In Short Memory With The Sternberg Paradigm

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott,1995) paradigm was developed to investigate false memory. In this paradigm, participants study lists of words (e.g., boy, pretty, skirt, etc.) related to an associated nonpresented lure (e.g., girl). On later memory tests, participants reliably intrude or falsely recognize this critical lure. Most research studied the functions of false memory. A great puzzle in the false memory is the mechanism of false memory, many researchers have used DRM paradigm and versions and have manipulated many variables to explore this problem. The effect of study modality in false memory has been explored using the DRM paradigm on many written recall tests and visual recognition tests. However, the explanations and factors on modality effect in false memory still deserve more careful scrutiny.Most studies are concerning the long-term modality effect. We aim to extending the area to short-term modality effect. In a Sternberg-task, the subjects study DRM lists consisting of 3,5 or 7 items. After the presentation of the last item, show a probe item, the subjects make a judge, "new" or "old"We explored the cognitive mechanism of modality effect in false recognition through conducting three behavioral experiments. The three experiments involved a 2 x 3 factorial design. The first factor, which was manipulated between participants, were auditory and visual modality. The second factor, which was manipulated within participants, were three set sizes:three, five and seven items. Participants studied a memory set from each DRM list three times in all three Experiments. Sets of different size were presented randomly within each block of 36 lists so subjects could not anticipate the length of each set on a trial-by-trial basis. In Experiment 1, the probe was presented immediately after the presentation of the last study item, which remained visible until the subject made a response. Participants pressed the space bar to initiate the next set. At the end of each block, participants took a 2 min break and initiated the next block with a key press. In Experiment 2, the probe was presented after 1500ms. In Experiment 3, the probe disappeared after 750ms.The results indicated:(1) Accuracy decreased as a function of set size, but the decrease was more marked for critical lures. (2)In immediate tests, correct rejections of critical lures were slower following visual presentation than auditory presentation. After an interval of 1500ms or in 750ms time limit, the modality effect disappeared. (3) correct rejections of critical lures were slower at set size 7 than size 3.