XI Conference – European Congress of Methodology

Assessing false recognition with ad hoc categorical, associative and taxonomic lists.

24 Jul 2025, 11:30

30m

Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid)/. - Foyer (Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid))

Poster Applications/Substantive areas Poster Session 3

Speaker

Verónica Benítez

Abstract

The DRM paradigm for studying false memories involves presenting lists of words that are semantically related to a critical non-presented word (CNW). Numerous experiments have demonstrated robust rates of false recall and false recognition of the CNW under various conditions and with different types of relationships between the presented words and the CNW (associative, taxonomic, phonological, etc.). However, research using lists based on ad hoc categorical relationships is very limited. Ad hoc categories are spontaneously generated based on a specific goal within a given context and group elements from different taxonomic categories (e.g., "things people take to a wedding"). To explore the contribution of different types of semantic relationships (ad hoc categorical, associative, and taxonomic) to false recognition, 70 CNWs were selected, and 210 lists were constructed (70 for each type of relationship). A total of 365 participants studied lists corresponding to each type of relationship and subsequently completed a recognition test. The d’ prime parameter (signal detection theory) was used to measure accuracy in identifying presented words by comparing the hit rate with the rate of unrelated false alarms. An analysis of variance was then conducted. The results showed that correct recognition did not significantly differ among the three list types. Regarding false recognition, associative lists exhibited a significantly higher level of false recognition than both taxonomic and ad hoc lists. However, no significant differences were found between ad hoc categorical and taxonomic lists. These findings are discussed in relation to current theories of false memory and contribute to the understanding of the nature of semantic representation and the mechanisms underlying memory distortions.