Effects of Study Variables on False Memory

Omission errors occur when we fail to remember pre-vious events; commission errors occur when we remem-ber events differently from how we initially experienced them. False memories are commission errors, and the number of studies of these erroneous memories has in-creased dramatically in recent years. One procedure that readily produces false memory was originally devised by Deese (1959) and was subsequentlymodified by Roedi-ger and McDermott (1995). It involves presenting par-ticipants with lists of semantic associates that converge on related, but nonstudied, words. For example, the list consistingof bed, rest, awake, tired, dream,wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, and nap has the converg-ing associate of sleep. After studying lists of this type, people often falsely recall or recognize the nonstudied converging associates, hereafter referred to as critical words