Aylward, Luke (2015) List Lengths in False Short Term Memory. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
False memory creation is a common occurrence and is often unnoticed but causes significant effects in the retrieval of information from memory. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm proposes that when a list of semantically related words is memorised, it can prime false memories of a non-presented ‘lure’ word. For example when the list: bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, blanket, doze is presented, it can prime the non-presented lure; sleep. This experiment attempted to measure the incidence of false recall/recognition of taxonomically related words using varying list lengths. Participants were presented with 40 lists of 3, 6, 9, or 12 words (i.e. 10 three word lists, 10 six word lists, 10 nine word lists, and 10 twelve word lists). Participants were instructed to memorise each presented list, solve a simple addition/subtraction problem, and then recall any words they remembered (delayed free recall). After all lists were presented and recalled, participants were given a test list consisting of previously presented words, lure words, and non-presented distractors, and were asked to circle any words they recognised from the previous lists. It was hypothesised that longer lists would provide more priming words for lures, and therefore were more likely to elicit recall/recognition of lures. The results showed partial support for the hypothesis with longer list lengths eliciting more critical lures. There was little evidence that suggested participants were vulnerable to critical lures on the recall test, but there was strong evidence for creation longer term of false memories on the recognition task at the end of the experiment. False memory for taxonomically related items differed from previous work using associates, suggesting that while longer lists are more likely to prime false memories of critical lures, this effect is stronger in long term memory.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Liam Hendry |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Aug 2025 00:23 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Aug 2025 00:23 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52131 |
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