Research On The Test Context Effect Of False Memory

False memory is a new focal point of memory researches in recent years. Looking over the domestic and foreign researches, we discover that DRM paradigm is generally used to discuss and explore the false memory effect in the experimental investigation. This paradigm mainly provides a method to induce false memory in the laboratory, a list of thematically related words that are all related to a critical unpresented lure are presented to the participants at first, and then at the recall or recognize test, participants falsely recall or recognize the critical lures at extraordinarily high rates. In the DRM paradigm research, more and more recent experimental investigations have focused on the influence factor of false memory effect and further to demonstrate the theoretical explanation and the underlying mechanism of false memory effect.In the present study, the influence of two factors which induce false memory effect, namely semantic activation and the test context, are investigated thoroughly in three serial experiments. Furthermore, the spreading activation theory and the activation/monitoring theory are proved to be valid of explaining the false memory effect. The final purpose of the research is to demonstrate in detail how the test context influences the false memory effect.In Chapter 1, the background of false memory research which mainly reviews the early research was introduced at first. Secondly, according to the division of event-based and word-based paradigm, several paradigms were described respectively, involving misinformation effect paradigm, imagination inflation, KK (Kassin & Kieche) paradigm, Jacoby-Whitehouse paradigm, DRM paradigm. Furthermore, the experimental investigations about the influence of many factors which affect the false memory effect were discussed (i.e. based on the discrimination of inducing false memory and reducing memory). Moreover, several theories were proposed to illustrate the underlying mechanism of false memory effect, some of them based on inducing false memory: implicit activation response hypothesis, the automatic spreading activation theory, the fuzzy trace theory and processing fluency theory. In contrast, some other important theoretical implications are based on reducing false memory, including source-monitoring framework and activation/Monitoring theory. Finally, the issue of the present study was proposed.