Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
Published on: January 31, 2017
The availability heuristic with famous names: a replication
1Department of Psychology, Bishop's University, Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada. smckelvi@ubishops.ca
Abstract:
In two experiments, 195 Canadian undergraduates initially judged a list of 25 names (12 famous men and 13 nonfamous women or 12 famous women and 13 nonfamous men) for familiarity. Contrary to previous research, subsequent estimates of the perceived number of men's and women's names were not higher when the names were famous than nonfamous. When the estimated differences were compared to the true difference (-1), famous names were judged more numerous than nonfamous names, but the size of the effect (d = 0.34) was smaller than in previous research. Reasons for these findings are discussed.
Related Concept Videos
The Availability Heuristic
The Representativeness Heuristic
Hindsight Biases
Nonconscious Mimicry
Social Proof
First Impression

