A demonstration and comparison of two types of inference-based memory errors.
Participants viewed slides depicting ordinary routines (e.g., going grocery shopping) and later received a recognition test. In Experiment 1, there was higher recognition confidence to high-schema-relevant than to low-schema-relevant items. In Experiment 2, participants viewed slide sequences that sometimes contained a cause (e.g., woman taking orange from bottom of pile) but not an effect scene (oranges on floor), or an effect but not a cause scene. Participants mistook new cause scenes as old when they viewed the effect; false alarms to cause scenes and high-schema-relevant items increased with retention interval. Experiment 3 showed that the backward inference effect was accompanied by false explicit recollection, whereas false alarms to schema-high foils were based on familiarity. This suggests that the 2 types of inferential errors are produced by different underlying mechanisms.
Hannigan
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SL
School of Medicine, Boston University, USA.
Reinitz
M T
MT
D000328:Adult; D015984:Causality; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013997:Time Factors