[Effect of directed forgetting on false recognition: an examination of the activation-monitoring hypothesis]

This study examined the influence of directed forgetting on false recognition. Participants studied one of two types of lists consisting of words related to a critical non-presented (CN) word: high or low semantic-associative-strength lists. Thirty-one participants were instructed to forget the Ist list before studying the 2nd list (forget group), another group of 30 participants were instructed to remember both lists (remember group). This was followed by a recognition test and Remember/Know judgments. For CN words, the forget group showed more false recognition than the remember group only for high semantic-associative-strength lists. Moreover, higher proportions of Remember judgments were observed than Know judgments in false recognition responses. These findings are discussed in terms of the activation-monitoring hypothesis of false memories.