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Updated: Nov 14, 2025
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The Deese-Roediger-McDermott DRM Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
Published on: January 31, 2017
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"I can't skip it": does free report improve accuracy in false memories?
Marina C Wimmer1, Ben Whalley2, Timothy J Hollins2
1School of Applied Sciences, Psychology, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK.
Memory (Hove, England)
|March 12, 2021
Summary
Children can strategically monitor their memory to reduce false memories, unlike adults. This study explored memory monitoring in children and adults using a word list task.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Recognition memory is crucial for daily functioning.
- False memories, particularly in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, are common.
- Understanding age-related differences in memory monitoring is key.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate strategic memory monitoring in children and adults.
- To examine how withholding uncertain responses affects false memory accuracy.
- To determine if age influences the ability to control false memories.
Main Methods:
- A semantic Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure was used.
- Participants (7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, adults) studied word lists.
- A forced-report or free-report condition was employed during memory testing.
Main Results:
- Children were less likely to use free report than adults.
- Seven-year-olds showed improved false memory resistance in the free-report condition.
- Adults and 10-year-olds did not benefit from the free-report option.
Conclusions:
- Younger children can strategically monitor retrieval to inhibit false memories.
- Adults' false memories appear less amenable to strategic control once encoded.
- Age-related differences exist in the strategic monitoring of recognition memory.
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