Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Presenting lists that share semantic or phonemic associations has been shown to elicit incorrect recall of a specific non-presented item; the false memory effect studied in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Previous research indicates phonemic lists produce more false memories than semantic lists, and forward recall produces better recall accuracy than backward recall. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of recall direction and association on recall within the DRM paradigm. Participants were randomly allocated to forward (n=20) or backward (n=20) serial recall and were presented with six-item word lists containing semantic and phonemic associates of a non-presented lure. Results demonstrated an association effect for forward recall in lure occurrence, both recall direction and association for serial recall. Key findings support the notion that semantic association is a driver of recall accuracy and protects from memory errors.