Influence Of Vocabulary Capacity And Degree Of Correlation On False Memory

In order to survey the influence of vocabulary capacity(that is,the number of vocabulary in the vocabulary)and degree of correlation on false memory,we took various capacities and different degree of correlation of vocabulary as learning stuff.The subjects were college students who came from a normal university.We examined the influence of vocabulary capacity on false memory in free recall and recognition tests.We also examined the influence of the proportion of associated words to unassociated words in vocabulary on false memory in free recall and recognition tests.In experiment 1,we inspected the influence of vocabulary capacity(among the longest group of 18 words,the longer group of15 words,the medium group of12 words,the shorter group of 9 words and the shortest group of 6 words)on error probability of critical lures in free recall and recognition tests.The results showed that there was different degree of influences of vocabulary capacity on error probability of critical lures in free recall and recognition tests in general.The longer the vocabulary,the more false memory of critical lures came from free recall and recognition tests;The shorter the vocabulary,the less false memory of critical lures came from free recall and recognition tests.But in recognition tests,the error probability of critical lures of the medium group of12 words was lower than that of the shorter group of 9 words,which had significant difference between two groups.In experiment 2,we investigated the influence of the proportion of associated words to unassociated words in vocabulary [among 12/0 group(12 associated words,0 unassociated word),9/3 group(9 associated words,3 unassociated words),6/6 group(6 associated words,6unassociated words),3/9 group(3 associated words,9 unassociated words)and 0/12 group(0associated words,12 unassociated words)]on error probability of critical lures in free recall and recognition tests.The results showed that there were significant effects of the proportion of associated words to unassociated words in vocabulary on error probability of critical lures in free recall and recognition tests.The higher the degree of correlation,that is,the higher the proportion of associated words in vocabulary,the more false memory of critical lures came from free recall and recognition tests;The lower the degree of correlation,that is,the lower the proportion of associated words in vocabulary,the less false memory of critical lures came from free recall and recognition tests.