EFFECTS OF CONTEXT REINSTATEMENT ON FALSE MEMORY

What is it about?

In the present study, we used the Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) perspective to investigate the role of context switching or reinstatement on correct and false recognition. In two experiments, participants studied words presented against unique picture backgrounds. At test, we manipulated pictorial context, presenting test items with reinstated context, switched context or with no pictorial context. As a measurement method we used the multinomial model developed by Stahl and Klauer (2008, 2009) for the simplified conjoint recognition paradigm. The results indicated that providing item-context associative information in the reinstated-context condition enhances verbatim trace retrieval of targets but does not influence their gist retrieval. In the case of false recognitions of related distracters, manipulations of retrieval context resulted in different effects across experiments, putatively because simple false memory for occurrence (FMO) task and Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm involve different latent-processes. The DRM experiment showed decreased phantom recollection and increased gist-based recognition of critical distracters in the switched-context condition in comparison with the remaining conditions. In contrast, the FMO experiment, showed a decrease in the gist memory for related distracters and increase in the response bias to recognize distracters as targets in the switched-context condition in comparison with the reinstated-context condition.

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