Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2024
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Matthew Reysen
Second Advisor
Stefan Schulenberg
Third Advisor
Rachel Greenspan
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects that three different processing tasks had on the rate of false memories. Participants were randomly assigned into a story condition, survival condition, or a pleasantness condition. Using a word list that had three groups of ten words each connected to a nonpresented critical word, participants were asked to process the words using instructions based on their given condition. Processing occurred through written sentences, which was then followed by a short mathematical distraction test. Participants were then given time to recall all of the words presented on the list by writing them down on a sheet of paper. We predicted that deeper processing would result in greater levels of false memory, however, our results did not fully corroborate past findings or our predictions. More specifically, false memory rates were statistically equivalent across all three processing conditions. While the narrative story condition produced the best recall rate for studied words, the survival condition showed an advantage by producing the lowest number of intrusions.
Recommended Citation
Lewis, Caroline, "The Effects of Processing Tasks on False Memories" (2024). Honors Theses. 3045.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3045
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