False Memory From Associated Words

What it is

Roediger and McDermott built on a 1959 list-learning study by James Deese. Participants heard lists of words all associated with one word that was not on the list. In the first experiment the missing word was recalled 40 per cent of the time, and in the second, with longer lists, 55 per cent; later it was recognised with high confidence, at a rate comparable to words that had been presented.

In effect

In the article on how false memories form, it is the route by which association alone, without any outside suggestion, produces a confident memory.

What it does not say

It shows that meaning-based association can create false recall of a word in a list. It does not by itself show how memories of whole events are altered.

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