Research Of Dual-process Theory And Distinctiveness Heuristic About False Memories

False memory is an area of focus that has attracted many researchers' attention in recentyears. DRM paradigm, which uses a list of word that associated with a critical lure notappearing in the list to lure strong false memories in the laboratory, is the main paradigm inthe studies of relatedness effect of false memories. Two theories about false memories inDRM paradigm are dual-process and distinctiveness heuristic. According to dual-processtheory, false memories can be reduced by adding details of items in the list, which can arousethe recollection about the list. According to distinctiveness heuristic, distinctive informationcan be used in the test to judge weather the items in the test have been studied, if withincrease distinctive information about the study items.Two experiments were carried out in this research to study the dual-process theory anddistinctive heuristic. In Experiment 1, the method of list presenting (between-group), thematerial (between-group) and the length of word list (within-group) were manipulated tostudy correct and false memories of undergraduates. As the result of the experiment, themethod of list presenting could influence correct and false memories in different ways. Thematerial could affect false recognition but not false recall, and only some kinds of materialcould influence the correct recall and correct recognition. In Experiment 2, the method of listpresenting (within-group) and the lengteh of word list (within-group) were manipulated tostudy correct and false memories of undergraduates. As the results, the method of listpresenting could affect only the correct recall of the List of 15 Words, but could not affect thecorrect recognition, the false recall and false recognition.In a word, the results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were more supportive to thedual-process theory.