Adaptive constructive processes: evidence from priming verbal reasoning with false memories

ABSTRACT

Previous research has demonstrated that false memories produced by the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm serve adaptive functions both in related memory tasks and in various cognitive processes. The present study investigated whether memory errors induced by associated words could influence performance on verbal reasoning tasks. Participants were asked to solve sentence-based verbal reasoning problems, half of which had been primed by the presentation of word lists where the critical lures were also the solutions to the problems. The results showed that when false memories were generated, problems were solved more often and significantly faster than those that were primed without false memories or those that were unprimed, and that there was no evidence that the effect of priming with false memories observed in experiments was due to testing effects. The findings extend false memory priming effects to verbal reasoning processes, providing evidence with adaptive constructive processes.

KEYWORDS:

• False memory
• priming
• verbal reasoning
• DRM paradigm

Acknowledgements

We thank Zhenjiang Ma, Haijiang Li, Xiaochen Tang, and Chenhao Tan for assistance with various aspects of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (17ZR1420500) and the Innovation Program of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (15ZS041).