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Retrieval conditions and false recognition: testing the distinctiveness heuristic.
D L Schacter1, D L Cendan, C S Dodson
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. dls@wjh.havard.edu
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|February 19, 2002
Summary
Encoding items as pictures, not words, reduces false recognition by encouraging detailed memory retrieval. This distinctiveness heuristic aids accurate memory recall, especially for semantic associates.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Studies
Background:
- False recognition of non-presented words is common with semantic associate lists.
- Encoding items as pictures, rather than words, previously reduced false recognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mechanisms behind reduced false recognition when encoding pictures versus words.
- To differentiate between the distinctiveness heuristic and impoverished relational encoding accounts.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Mixed picture-word lists to assess general effects.
- Experiment 2: Manipulated retrieval instructions to test the distinctiveness heuristic.
Main Results:
- Mixed lists showed general false recognition suppression.
- Differences in false recognition between picture and word encoding were reduced when retrieval did not favor distinctiveness.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the distinctiveness heuristic account for reduced false recognition with pictorial stimuli.
- The distinctiveness heuristic relies on demanding detailed information for recognition decisions.