The case against a criterion-shift account of false memory.
M. B. Miller and G. L. Wolford (1999) argued that the high false-alarm rate associated with critical lures in the Roediger-McDermott (H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995) paradigm results from a criterion shift and therefore does not reflect false memory. This conclusion, which is based on new data reported by Miller and Wolford, overlooks the fact that Roediger and McDermott's false-memory account is as compatible with the new findings as the criterion-shift account is. Furthermore, a consideration of prior work concerned with investigating the conditions under which participants are and are not inclined to adjust the decision criterion suggests that the criterion-shift account of false memory is unlikely to be correct.
Wixted
J T
JT
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109, USA. jwixted@ucsd.edu
Stretch
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D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity