Adaptive constructive processes: An episodic specificity induction impacts false recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm
Year: 2018
Type: preprint
Abstract: Numerous studies indicate that an episodic specificity induction (ESI) - brief training in recollecting the details of a past experience - enhances performance on subsequent tasks that rely on episodic retrieval, including autobiographical memory, imagination, problem solving, and creative thinking. In four experiments, we examined whether these benefits of the ESI extend to reducing susceptibility to false memory, or whether they are accompanied by a cost in the form of increased susceptibility to false memory. To assess how ESI impacts false memory generation, we used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, a reliable procedure for generating false memories. When an ESI was administered after DRM list presentation and just before a free recall test, rates of false recall for critical lures were significantly enhanced relative to a control induction. These findings support the hypothesis that ESI operates to boost recollection of illusory episodic details associated with critical lures in the DRM, and suggest that constructive rather than reproductive episodic retrieval processes support the wide-ranging benefits of ESI on a range of cognitive tasks.
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4236812221