Decoupling semantic and associative information in false memories: Explorations with semantically ambiguous and unambiguous critical lures

Veridical and false memory were examined in lists that contained 12 words that all converged onto the same meaning of a critical nonpresented word (e.g., snooze, wake, bedroom, slumber…, for SLEEP) or lists that contained 6 words that converged onto one meaning and 6 words that converged onto a different meaning of a homograph (e.g., stumble, season, trip, autumn…, for FALL). Associative strength from the list items to the critical item was equated across the two types of lists. In Experiments 1-5, patterns of veridical memory differed across the two types of lists; however, false memory of the critical item did not differ. This same pattern occurred regardless of whether the words diverging onto the two meanings of the homograph were presented blocked or intermixed, whether each list item was presented for 80 ms, 200 or 1200 ms during encoding, and whether a recall or recognition test was given. In Experiment 6, critical nonpresented items that followed lists converging onto one meaning were judged as more strongly related to the list. These results suggest that false memory in the DRM paradigm largely reflects lexical/associative activation, rather than the formation of a meaningful thematic representation.