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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
Published on: January 31, 2017
Anchoring effects in the development of false childhood memories
Kimberley A Wade1, Maryanne Garry, Robert A Nash
1Psychology Department, University of Warwick, Coventry, England. k.a.wade@warwick.ac.uk
Abstract:
When people receive descriptions or doctored photos of events that never happened, they often come to remember those events. But if people receive both a description and a doctored photo, does the order in which they receive the information matter? We asked people to consider a description and a doctored photograph of a childhood hot air balloon ride, and we varied which medium they saw first. People who saw a description first reported more false images and memories than did people who saw a photo first, a result that fits with an anchoring account of false childhood memories.
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