Psychology defines a “false memory” as either the manifestation of a distorted recollection of an event, or, as the recollection of an event which never actually occurred. (American Psychological Association, 2020). False memories are an important subject of analysis in cognitive psychological research relevant to criminal justice and psychotherapy.
The DRM paradigm, created by Roediger et McDermott in 1995, remains one of the most utilized paradigms to assess false memories, which consists of 2 studies. In the first study, the participants were asked to listen to and memorize 12 lists of words with semantic associations (for example, nurse, hospital, needle, etc.). The listed words caused one to think of a particular word (for example doctor) not present on the list. After listening to one list, the participant is requested to perform a free recall task. Additionally, a recognition task was presented at the end of the last recall. During this recognition test, the participant was asked to rate their degree of certainty with regard to her or his answer.
According to the results of this first study, participants were significantly tendency to “recall” absent words which were semantically related to the listed words. The researchers characterized a phantom word as a « critical lure ». In summary, 40% of the participants wrongly recalled the critical lures. In comparison, the rate of accurate recall of the presented words was only 65%. It is equally interesting to highlight the degree of certainty of responses as part of the recognition task. For instance, more than half of the participants were certain to have seen the “critical lures” in the study phase (memorization phase), but the strength of this number is even more surprising when one considers that merely 75% of participants were sure of the words which were actually present.
In a second experience, the authors added a Remember/Know procedure, created by Tulving (1985). It measures two memory processes, specifically recollection and familiarity, related to the level of awareness of its memory. In fact, after each answer, the participant had to indicate either having a precise memories of the word (for example remembering the word ink or his thoughts after hearing the word) or having just a familiar feeling about the word but no concrete memory of the context. The fist indicates remember answer and the second one know answer. As in the first experience, participants memorized words and filled a recognition task.
According to the results of this second experience, the rate of critical lures proved even more important than in the first experience (55% contrary to 40% in the first experience). These critical lures were recognized as seen in 76% of cases, while the recognition rate of studied words was 72%. Moreover, “remember” answers occurred in 48% of cases for critical lures, while they presented 49% for studied words.
Authors concluded that events which never happened may nevertheless be mentally experienced with a feeling of certainty. Put differently, participants were able to “revive” something that has never been presented in real life by means of a psychologically fiction premised on word association. As such, Roediger et McDermott defined “False memory’’ as a phenomenon of the appearance of “critical lure” during a recall task.
The DRM paradigm is used in different contexts to measure various susceptibility for false memories in human-beings to include the assessment of the mnesic function in patients who suffer from neurological and psychiatric diseases, or other similar deficits in the elderly. In this sense, this seminal study is an important contribution within the field of cognitive psychology.
References :
Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803–814. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.21.4.803