The roles of associative strength and source memorability in the contextualization of false memory

We tested the impact of associative strength and retrieval heuristics in false source memory. We arranged 12-item associative lists in descending order of backward associative strength to a critical non-presented item and then split them into 6-item sub-lists at the median. High- and low-strength sub-lists were correlated with presentation source. Source claims for falsely remembered critical items were more often to the presentation source of high-strength items, which we have labeled the source-strength effect. With only two exceptions in Experiment 2, the source-strength effect was produced even when differences in source memorability led participants to infer generally that items lacking source evidence were presented in the low-strength source. Indeed, the influence of associative strength on source attributions was shown to be completely independent of this inference strategy in a third experiment. This study demonstrates that source details of concepts most highly related to critical items are retrieved with false memories.