Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Posters 1043–1049 Thursday Evening
ent for categorized and DRM lists, regardless of priming; and (3) false
memories were suppressed for pictures. As with the adults, children’s
false memories are based on interitem associative connections, not
across-item thematic relations, but their veridical memories depend
on both. This dissociation is inconsistent with models that rely on thematic
relations to explain the DRM illusion but is consistent with
knowledge- and resource-based models of memory development.
(1043)
More Detailed Real Memories Can Give Rise to More Detailed False
Memories. KEITH B. LYLE & MARCIA K. JOHNSON, Yale University—When
memory for imagined events is tested, feature information
from similar perceived events may be inadvertently reactivated and
misattributed to the imagined events, producing false memories that
contain actually perceived details (Lyle & Johnson, in press). Here, we
examined the content of false memories as a function of opportunity
to bind together features (shape and location) of perceived events.
Drawings of objects were randomly presented in four peripheral locations
for either 1 or 4 sec. In a center location, participants imagined
object drawings, half of which (e.g., a lollipop) had shape features
similar to those in a real drawing (e.g., a magnifying glass).
Location memory for drawings was greater in the 4- than in the 1-sec
condition. When falsely remembered as seen, imagined objects were
systematically attributed to the location of similar drawings in the
4-sec condition only. Thus, feature binding increases the variety of
perceived detail in both real and false memories.
(1044)
Context Reinstatement and False Recall in the DRM Paradigm.
KERRI A. GOODWIN, KRISTIN MEHR, CAROLINE NORRIS,
BRIANNA RYCYK, & KRISTEN CESIRO, Loyola College in Maryland—Goodwin
reported that when participants engaged in elaborative
encoding in the DRM paradigm, they were more likely to reinstate
their original encoding strategy then when they were engaged in
rote rehearsal. The present study experimentally investigated the effects
of retrieval instructions that either matched or mismatched encoding
conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to study lists
using either elaborative encoding or rote rehearsal. At recall, participants
re-created their original encoding for half of the lists and performed
a mismatched retrieval strategy for the other half. Preliminary
results indicate a crossover interaction for false recall in which participants
engaged in elaboration showed more false recall when encoding
and retrieval conditions matched than when they mismatched,
and in which those engaged in rote rehearsal showed the opposite pattern.
Results are discussed in terms of source monitoring and attribution
memory processes.
• EYEWITNESS MEMORY •
(1045)
Distinctiveness of Encoding Determines Susceptibility to False
Memories. HEATHER R. COLLINS & RICHARD E. MAYER, University
of California, Santa Barbara—The distinctiveness heuristic
suggests that participants use an expectancy of distinctive information
at retrieval to reduce false memories. We hypothesize that distinctiveness
can also affect false memories for an event. At encoding, participants
heard a verbal narration (nondistinct) or saw a slideshow
with narration (distinct) about a home burglary. During manipulation,
participants received false information presented by a narration (nondistinct)
or a slideshow with narration (distinct). Conditions were based on
information presented during encoding and manipulation: distinct/
distinct, distinct/nondistinct, nondistinct/distinct, and nondistinct/
nondistinct. Although participants in all conditions exhibited false
memories, those who encoded information in a distinctive manner had
fewer false memories than did those who encoded nondistinct information.
Presenting distinct information during manipulation did not increase
false memories. We observed an interaction showing increased
remember judgments for conditions with fewer false alarms (distinct
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encoding) and decreased remember judgments for conditions with
more false alarms (nondistinct encoding). Encoding can thus impact
false memories more than manipulation.
(1046)
Eyewitness Memory for Own- and Other-Race Faces: The Mitigating
Effects of Sequential Presentation and Conservative Instructions.
JESSICA L. MARCON & CHRISTIAN A. MEISSNER, University
of Texas, El Paso, & TARA L. MITCHELL, Lock Haven University—
Meissner et al. (in press) recently introduced a novel lineup recognition
paradigm in which participants encode a series of faces and are
later tested via a series of six-person lineup arrays in which one of the
targets is either present or absent. This paradigm allows researchers
to estimate signal detection parameters while examining phenomena
relevant to application in eyewitness memory. The present study extends
this research by using this lineup recognition paradigm to investigate
the cross-race effect in memory for faces (Meissner &
Brigham, 2001). Hispanic participants were asked to encode a series
of black and Hispanic faces and subsequently to identify these faces
from a series of lineup arrays. The present study examined whether
variation in lineup presentation method (simultaneous vs. sequential)
and lineup instructions (standard vs. conservative criterion) might mitigate
the influence of the cross-race effect in eyewitness identification.
Results are discussed for their theoretical and applied implications.
(1047)
Creating and Reducing Memory Intrusions From an Unrelated
Event That Precedes a Witnessed Crime. PATRICK O. DOLAN &
VERONICA ZAK, Drew University—The eyewitness memory literature
has repeatedly demonstrated intruded memories from postevent
misleading information. Following Lindsay and colleagues (e.g.,
Lindsay et al., 2004), we investigated the likelihood of eyewitness
memory intrusions from an unrelated event that preceded the witnessed
crime. Participants first listened to a narrative describing a
school field trip to a palace that included details of items inside the
palace (e.g., swords on the wall). After 30 min of filler activities, participants
viewed a video clip of a museum robbery that included views
of other museum artifacts (e.g., urn on a pedestal). Results from a surprise
recognition memory test suggest that participants falsely remembered
items from the palace tour as being seen in the robbery
video. However, participants who were given either a strict warning
before the test or a source-monitoring test had significantly fewer
extra-event intrusions. These results are discussed in light of the
source monitoring framework and their practical implications.
(1048)
Photograph Review and False Memory for Recent Events. QUIN M.
CHROBAK & MARIA S. ZARAGOZA, Kent State University—The
influence of photograph review on the development of false memories
for confabulated events was investigated. After viewing a movie
clip, participants were forced to confabulate answers to false-event
questions. Half of the participants were shown pictures that corresponded
to either the characters or events being referred to in each
question (photo group) and half were not (no-photo group). One week
later, participants had developed false memories for confabulated responses.
In addition, participants in the photo group were more likely
to develop false memories in the absence of confirmatory feedback
than were participants in the no-photo group. The results extend those
of Lindsay, Hagen, Read, Wade, and Garry (2004) by showing that
photograph review can facilitate the development of false memories
for recent events as well as for those from the distant past.
(1049)
Creating False Memories in a Group Setting at a College Dormitory
Hall Reunion. JOANNA L. SMUTZLER, MARGARET L. CHARLE-
ROY, SEYEDETH S. HASHEMINEJAD, RYAN M. JONES, & TERRY
R. GREENE, Franklin & Marshall College—College juniors attended
reunions of their freshmen dormitory halls and were told they would