The Effect of Encoding Strategies on Recognition Memory

Successful memory decisions require distinguishing between true and false memories. VariouS strategies can be used to avoid false memories such as the Recall-To-Reject (R-R) strategy and the Distinctiveness Heuristic (DH). R-R involves rejecting false information by recalling correct information (I know this person is not Bob, because Bob has brown hair); while DH involves the rejection of false information due to failure to recollect expected information (I know I never met this person because I would remember if I had). The purpose of this study is to examine how these strategies affect recognition memory. In the present study participants were presented with a series of unrelated words at study, which were paired with either the word spoken out loud (word+spoken condition) or a colored image of the word (word+picture condition). The study task was completed under either Full-Attention (FA) or Divided-Attention (DA), the latter included completing an n-back task during encoding. At test participants completed a recognition memory test which required participants to determine if a word was old (studied) or new (unstudied). New items were either unrelated to the studied words or were very similar to previously studied items but differ in plurality. We expect the R-R strategy will be used more in the word+spoken condition under FA, and that DH will be used more in the words+pictures condition under DA. This study contributes to the understanding of how DH and R-R affect memory, and can provide more insight on which strategies aid in avoiding false memories.