Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 23, 2026

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
Published on: January 31, 2017
True and false memory in the absence of perceptual identification
Anne M Cleary1, Robert L Greene
1Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3180, USA. acleary@iastate.edu
Abstract:
Two experiments are reported in which, after attempting to identify a briefly flashed, masked test word, participants were asked to rate the likelihood that it had been presented in an earlier study list. Even when people were unable to identify such items, they demonstrated an ability to discriminate between those that were studied and those that were not studied; ratings given to studied items were significantly higher than ratings given to nonstudied items. This effect does not appear to be a data-driven phenomenon. In Experiment 1 it was found when the presentation modality was changed from study to test. In Experiment 2 false memory for unidentified items that were related to studied items was shown.
Related Concept Videos
False Memories
One primary source of false memories is misattribution, where individuals incorrectly associate external information with...
Eyewitness Memory
One such error is memory distortion, which occurs because human memory does not function like a...
Implicit Memories
One key aspect of implicit...
Sensory Memory
Traumatic Memory
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

