Does level of processing affect false recall and false recognition - Outline Example

Does the level of processing affect false recall and false recognition? Does the level of processing affect false recall and falserecognition? According to Rhodes and Anastasi (2000), false recall also known as false memory is the memories of events that never occurred. One study conducted by Deese, in 1959, provided a straightforward method of producing false recall and false recognition consistently. In his study, Deese provided the participants with a list of twelve words associated to the word sleep, which was not present in the list.

These words included rest, bed, tired, awake, dream, snooze, blanket, snore, doze, wake, nap, and slumber (Thapar and McDermott, 2001). The results showed that the participants recalled and recognized certain words highly associated with the word sleep that was not presented. For this reason, researchers have used this study in the past in order to determine how fundamental variables affect false recall and recognition, as well as accurate memory. Therefore, this paper will determine how the level of processing affects recall and false recognition.

The main aim of Deese’s study was to examine the effect of two variables on false recall and false recognition: the retention interval and level of processing. The aim of the two experiments done was to examine the effects of level of processing and retention interval on false recall and false recognition. Experiment one examined the effect of level of processing on false recall while the second one examined the effect of level of processing on false recognition. In experiment one, ninety one participants were presented with lists of words.

They were to either sum the total number of vowels in each word (shallow level of processing), to rate the pleasantness of each word on a scale of 1-5 (shallow level of processing), or to write the color of the words (deep level of processing) and then their memory would be tested later (Rhodes and Anastasi, 2000).There was also testing of retention interval, where each participant was given a blank sheet of paper and asked to write down the words that they could remember from the previous study.

According to Thapar and McDermott (2001), the results showed that the level of processing effects were seen in the critical items, which was quite similar to those of the studied items i.e. semantic processing exhibited greater likelihood of false recall than the superficial processing. Thus, those participants who engaged in a highly involving level of processing such as the rating abstract recalled more items within the studied items, as well as the critical items than those who engaged in a shallow level of processing.

Therefore, it is quite clear that the level of processing affects false recall for the critical items and studied items.In the second experiment, the participants were to read the words and ignore their color display and would later be tested for recognition. Unlike the first experiment, which compared the shallow and deep levels of processing, this experiment compared the shallow and the highly shallow levels of processing. The results showed that false recognition did not occur when the presented words were read intentionally.

Thus, this study proved that the effects of levels of processing are greater on accurate memories than the false memories. For this reason, Rhodes and Anastasi (2000) argue that the level of processing does not always affect false recall and false recognition.In conclusion, the participants who engaged in the deep level of processing that included the concrete ratings had a high probability of recalling and recognizing more items from the list compared to the participants who engaged in the counting of vowels, which was a shallow level of processing.

According to Thapar and McDermott (2001), false memories can occur from either conscious or elaborative processes; thus, the level of processing does not always affect false recall and false recognition.ReferencesAnastasi, J. S., and Rhodes, M. R. (2000). The effects of a level-of-processing manipulation on false recall. Psychological Review, 7, 158-162.Thapar, A., and McDermott, K. B. (2001). False recall and false recognition induced by presentation of associated words: Effects of retention interval and level of processing.

Memory & Cognition, 29, 424-432.