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The Huron University College Journal of Learning and
Motivation
Volume 51 | Issue 1
Article 3
2013
False Recognition: Words and Images
Tristan Bell
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Bell, Tristan (2013) "False Recognition: Words and Images," The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation: Vol. 51:
Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/hucjlm/vol51/iss1/3
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False Recognition
False Recognition: Words and Images
Tristan Bell
Huron College
For the last century, psychologists have been very interested in the
reasons why and how our memory system fails us. The purpose of
the present study is to determine whether participants will
recognize more false items when presented with a list of words or
presented with the same words as a series of images. A total of 28
undergraduate students participated in this study including 14
females and 14 males. Participants were randomly assigned to one
of the two conditions; a word condition or an image condition.
Immediately after they were given a list of words or a sequence of
images, they were asked to identify which ones had been in the
previously viewed list or sequence. Results indicated that the false
recognition rate was significantly lower for the participants in the
image condition than for participants in the word condition and no
significant gender differences were foimd.
Limitations and
possibilities for future research are discussed.
Memory is essential for functioning. It is the basis that helps us form ideas, make
decisions, self identify and navigate through our environment. Memory can sometimes fail us or
fool us too; we might distort past memories or remember facts that did not happen (Misirlisoy,
2004). For the last century, psychologists have been very interested in the reasons why and how
our memory system fails us. Much research has been involved in the study of proactive and
retroactive interference (Loftus, 1995). Proactive interference is where memories have been
disrupted by factors that we have experienced earlier. Retroactive interference is where
memories have been disrupted by factors we have experienced later. Theorist who focus on
retroactive interference study how, when a person is given new information that is misleading, in
some way they will make errors in reporting what they saw. It is often difficult for people to
detect new information so they are easily tricked (Lofhis, 1995).
False Recognition
^
The study of false memory first began with the list-learning paradigm. Researchers
demonstrated that people were likely to recognize false words when they previously have been
presented with words that are all related in their nature (Misirlisoy, 2004). Many lists were
created and revised, eventually forming what is now known today as the Deese-RoedigerMcDemott (DRM) lists (Deese, 1959). Participants are presented with a list of words that are all
related to one word named the 'critical word', which is not presented in the initial list. For
example, a participant might be presented with the words "sky, dive, building, up, low, over,
above, tall, noon, airplane, elevate, jump, tower clouds, cliff." When given a list and asked to
recognize the words that were previously presented, the critical word 'high' will be added.
Participants usually report erroneously that they recognized the critical word as part of the initial
list (Misirlisoy, 2004).
Researchers Maylor and Mo (1999) conducted a study to assess the differences in false
recognition when the stimuli was presented visually or auditorially. The participants were
presented with lists of words that were related to critical lure words either auditorially or visually
and then were given the recognition test either auditorially or visually. Results indicated that
false recognition rates for critical lures were higher following visual presentation than following
auditory presentation. They also found that participants performed significantly better when the
study and the test modalities were the same, meaning that they were presented the lists visually
and the false recognition test was also done visually.
Studies using the DRM paradigm have found that there are differences in gender.
Dewhurst, Anderson and Knott (2012) conducted a study examining the differences in men and
women on false recognition with the DRM lists when the words were negative. Ten lists were
created for this study that used negative lures words, for example, cry, evil and ten lists were
False Recognition
made that used neutral lure words for example, chair, slow. When asked to recognize the words
after each presented list, women falsely recognized significantly more negative lure words than
men. However there was no significant difference in rate of false recognition when the lists
contained neutral lures. These fmdings suggest that women are more likely to recall emotionally
charged words (Dewhurst et al., 2012).
Another study sought to examine whether there would be a gender difference using the
DRM lists when the lists contained gender-related words (Bauste & Ferraro, 2004). Researchers
used 5 lists; one of the lists had words related to males, for example 'beard, suit, husband,' and
another list contained words related to females, for example 'sister, dolls, cute.' Researchers
hypothesized that men would recognize fewer false words i f the list of words they were
presented were male related and that females would recognize fewer false words i f their list was
female related. Results did not support their prediction.
Researchers Bauer, Marsh and Martin recently conducted a study to examine the
possibility that there might be a difference in whether the presentation of lists of images or lists
of words would induce more false memories. They hypothesized that images would elicit fewer
false memories because of the complexity and visual properties of images. Researchers used a
Java computer program to present a series of words or images to participants. After participants
were shown a sequence of words or images, there was a 20 second period of recall. Each
condition consisted of 6 trials. The image condition and the word condition were completely
unrelated to each other; the words were from a category of sleep-related words whereas the
images were all pictures of flowers. The researchers' hypothesis was confirmed: participants
were more likely to recall false items in the word condition than in the image condition.
False Recognition
^
The current study is an extension of the Bauer et al. study where the pattern of false
memory recall of images, compared to words is of interest. More specifically, the purpose of the
present study is to determine i f participants will recognize more false items when the sequences
belong to the same category for both images and words. It is hypothesized that participants will
falsely recognize more words than false images and that there will be a difference in the pattern
of rates of recognition between genders.
Method
Participants
A total of 28 participants were used in this study including 14 females and 14 males.
The participants were all students who attend Huron University College and Western University.
Anecdotal evidence suggests the majority of participants were between the ages of 19 and 22;
however, no explicit demographic data was collected.
Materials
A letter of information was given, informing the participants of the aims of the study and
providing some background information. A consent form was also given, informing participants
that their participation was voluntary and that their information would be held confidential. Once
participants gave consent, they were asked to watch a slide show created with Microsoft
PowerPoint. Two different slide shows were created for this study. Group A was shown the
word slide show which consisted of 15 slides with one word on each slide, using Calibri font,
size 88. Group B was shown the image slide show which consisted of 15 slides with one black
and white image per slide. Group A was given a checklist with 17 words on it, and Group B was
given a checklist with 17 images on it (See Appendix A for word checklist. See Appendix B for
image checklist).
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Procedure
The researcher constructed all the checklists and PowerPoint slide shows that were
administered. Participants were recruited in person by the researcher and were randomly divided
up into two groups: Group A the word condition or Group B the image condition. The procedure
was performed in one session and took approximately 7 minutes to complete. Participants were
tested individually. Participants in both groups were asked to watch and memorize the contents
of the 15-slide PowerPoint show. They were told not to memorize the order of the words or
images, just to memorize as many as possible. Following the word trial, the participants in Group
A were given a word recall sheet. The word recall sheet contained 17 words in total; 15 words
that the participant had previously seen, one "lure word" and one "neutral lure". The lure word
was a word related to the 15 previously seen words and the neutral lure word was unrelated to
the category. The participants were asked to check off the words they recalled seeing previously.
Peirticipants in Group B were instructed to look at 2 sheets of paper containing 17 little images;
15 of these images they had previously seen plus one lure image and one neutral lure image. The
lure image was related to all the other images, whereas the neutral lure image was unrelated to
the previously seen images. They were asked to check off the images that they remembered
seeing. Participants were debriefed and dismissed.
Results
A chi- square goodness of fit text was conducted, the false recognition rate was
significantly different between the word condition and image condition, ; ^ ( l , i V = 2 8 ) = 7.36,/7
<.05. The false recognition rate was significantly lower for the participants in the image
condition than for participants in the word condition. Another chi-square good of fit text was
performed and it was foimd that there was not a significant difference between genders for
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falsely recognizing the lure word, regardless of test condition, /^{l, N= 28) = .09, p< .05. A 2
X 2 between- subjects analysis of variance was conducted with correct word recognition as the
dependent variable and gender (female/male) and condition (words/ images) as the independent
variables. The results indicated that there was a significant main effect for condition, F(l,24) =
27.27,/7 < .05, partial //^ = .53, with those in the image condition (M= 14.86, S'Z>=.36)
recognizing significantly more correct images than those in the word condition (M=13.43,
S'D=.94). There was not a significant gender effect, F ( l , 24) = 1.09,p> .05, partial tf' = .04, nor
was there a significant interaction effect, F(l,24) = .00,p> .05, partial if = .00.
Discussion
In the present study it was hypothesized that participants would recognize more false
words than false images. The present study confirmed previous findings that participants would
recognize more false material when the list presented was in the form of words, compared to the
presentation of images. There was not a significant difference for false recognition rate between
genders. Participants in Group A, the word condition, recalled significantly fewer correct words
than participants in Group B, the image condition; again there were no significant gender
differences. In both conditions not one participant falsely identified the neutral word or image
therefore, no statistical analysis was conducted.
Bauer et al., hypothesized that images would elicit fewer false memories because of the
complexity and visual properties of images. The results of the present study corroborated their
findings. This could be due to differences in processing requirements of text versus image. It is
possible that participants were creating a personal interpretation or connection with the images,
more so than with the words.
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There are some reasons to believe that this study could have been more reliable and
valid. Participants were only tested for one trial and the researcher only used one list from among
the 24 DRM lists. The list that was chosen contained words that were easily transferable to
images. Future studies should consider multiple trials and incorporate presenting the list in
alternative ways, for example including an auditory component. Although there is was not a
gender component in recognition rate in either condition, future research could validate and use
different lists to see i f there are any differences on the rate of false recognition among different
personality types.
In addition, two issues with the sample may have impacted the results. First, the sample
was restricted to only one university, and thus results are not generalizable to the population.
Second, participants were all within roughly the same age group. Previous research has found
differences in false word recognition when ages are varied. Future studies should consider
assessing differences in age when presenting sequences of images.
The present study did not control for time. Participants were asked to start the recognition
task immediately after they saw the PowerPoint presentation and were able to take as much time
as they needed to complete the checklist. Future research should consider creating a time lag
between trial and recognition. It would be interesting to see i f results woxdd be replicated for the
image condition when varying the interval between presenting and testing. This would give
some insight as to what kind of memory contributes to false recognition.
Future research should consider replicating the current study with a larger population.
Understanding how false recognition occurs could assist many institutions such as schools,
police, and universities. From the findings of these studies institutions could learn how to better
help children study for tests, or how to help eyewitnesses more clearly identify criminals. Also
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understanding how false memories occur leads to a better imderstanding of how normal memory
works.
False Recognition
References
Bauer, K, Marsh, L , Martin, J. False Memory in Images and Words. Unpublished
manuscript.
Bauste,G.F, Ferrado, R. (2004) Gender differences in False Memory Production.
Current Psychology, 23, 238-244.
Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions of
immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 17-22.
Dewhurst, S.A, Anderson, R.J, and Knott, L.M. (2012). A gender difference in the false
recall of negative words: Women DRM more than men. Cognition and
Emotion, 26, 65-1A.
Loftus, E. (1995). The Formation of False Memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 720-725.
Maylor, E.A, and Mo, A. (1999). Effects of Study-test Modality on False Recognition.
British Journal of Psychology, 90, 411-493.
Misirlisoy, M. (2004). Effects of associative processes on false memory: Evidence
fi-om converging associates and category associates procedures.
(impublished doctoral dissertation.). The Middle East technical university.
Turkey.
Word Lists
SMELL
•
FOOT •
MOUTH •
BOOTD
SHOED
HAND •
TOED
FLAG •
SOCK •
WALK •
ARM •
SANDALS •
KICK •
ANKLE •
INCH •
SOCCER •
YARD •
15.
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Raw Data
Condition
Gender
Correct Recognition
False Recognition
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
13
14
13
13
13
15
14
14
11
14
14
13
13
14
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
14
15
15
15
14
15
15
0
1
0
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Figure 1. The raw data for False Recognition. For Condition, 1 = "Word condition" and 2 =
"Image condition" for Gender, 1 = "Female" and 2 = "Male", for False Recognition, 0 = "Did
not falsely recognize lure word" and 1 = "Falsely recognized lure word."
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ANOVA Summary Table
Source
Gender
SS
.57
df
1
MS
.57
F
.31
Condition
14.29
1
14
.00
Gender* Condition .00
1
.00
1.00
Error
24
.52
12.57