Reducing false memories via context reinstatement: the roles of encoding and retrieval contexts

Reinstatement of encoding strategies during recall was investigated in 3 experiments using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Participants studied lists using either elaborative or rote rehearsal encoding strategies. At test, participants either reinstated their original encoding strategies or used opposing strategies to recall. In Experiment 1, participants provided "think aloud" verbal reports during study and test, and elaborative encoding led to higher levels of correct recall, more instances of verbalizations of critical items, and lower false recall compared with rote encoding. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 without verbal reports. In Experiment 3, false recall was lower only after elaborative encoding and reinstatement of that encoding context. Results support the role of distinctiveness in false recall, which is sensitive to changes in list context and retrieval context after elaborative encoding.