The influence of encoding style on the production of false memories in the DRM paradigm: New insights on individual differences in false memory susceptibility?

Recent research has shown that there are individual differences in how preexisting schemata (internal vs. cues from the outside world) affect encoding processes, which can be reliably assessed with the internal and external Encoding Style Questionnaire (ESQ, Lewicki, 2005). Since reliance on preexisting schemata at encoding has been found to increase the production of false memories in the “Deese-Roediger-McDermott” paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995), while item-specific encoding has been shown to reduce it (see Gallo, 2006), we wished to examine whether individual differences in encoding style might affect the production of such false memories. To this purpose, normal participants were asked to complete a French version of the ESQ questionnaire (Billieux, D’Argembeau, Lewicki, & Van der Linden, 2009) and were presented with a modified DRM procedure (Brédart, 2000) assessing false recall. Results showed that encoding style influenced the production of DRM false memories. Indeed, compared to external encoders, internal encoders produced more false memories while monitoring less critical lures.