Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm: A Study on False Memory

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Subject Classic Studies and Practical’s
Year 1
Module CODE: MPSMD1CPP
Name ANDERSON OKPORHO
Course Convenor’s name .......................................
Assignment number or title
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Submission date 11/07/18
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(excluding appendices and reference section)

CLASSIC STUDIES & PRACTICALS 2
Background
Human memory is imperfect yet subject to various errors and illusions that similar to the
real world. Studying human psychology shows that people exhibit psychological phenomena that
come out either by sensation, perception, mental representations or cognition. Like people
usually remember words that were not part of the original list or even omission of some items in
a recall. By 1950s, few researchers were engaged in research to try to figure out human cognition
or mental processes that influence human behaviors.
This report summarizes the finding from three researchers namely James Deese, Henry L.
Roediger III and Kathleen McDermott. This is called Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM)
paradigm. James Deese started it in 1959 but later Henry L. Roediger III and Kathleen
McDermott continued the research and made it popular. Other researchers did the similar
research, for example, Baddeley (Baddeley, 1966) and others. However, our focus will be on the
DRM paradigm.
Deese (1959): Intrusions
Early researchers of false memory in individuals was James Deese in 1959 (Deese,
1959). A partial verbal intrusion occurs in an immediate recall. The research explains why
people remember words that are not in a particular list of words but it is related to them. The
procedure used was an orally presenting words that were related, for example, dream, bed,
blanket, yawn, peace. The subject was to remember as many words possible. After the
presentation, results showed that the subjects remember words that were absent from the original
list but relate to those words. This gives a clear indication a memory illusion called false

CLASSIC STUDIES & PRACTICALS 3
memory. The word ‘sleep' as presented is an intrusion since it is not from the list given. Even
before the research of James Deese, Bartlett (1932) had seen the field of memory intrinsically
connected with Social Psychology. In the book "Remembering", Bartlett reported the very
famous "War of the Ghosts Experiment". The subjects were asked to give an account of the story
as much as they could. The results showed that participants tended to remember better details
that are closely connected to the general structure of the story than details that were not
congruent with it (Bartlett, 1932).
Free Recall
In the Deese (1959) study, he found out that there were rampant false recalls and
recognition in the paradigm he was using in his research. The participants were given a free trial
to recall items in a list that was given to them in the order of their choice. The results showed
that participants usually omitted some items in the given list, that is, a free recall was usually
influenced by memory loss. Results show that the participants obviously cannot recall the full
details of a particular story. However, some tell an overview of a given story, others mix up the
stories (Wheeler & Roediger, 1992).
Word Association List
Kent & Rosanoff (1910) studied the associations in Insanity. This study shows words
related reproduction for the frequency of occurrence of these associations as intrusions using
Deese's method primarily. The results showed similarity with the Deese's paradigm where there
were false memory and instances of intrusion in immediate recall (Steyvers et al., 2004). This

CLASSIC STUDIES & PRACTICALS 4
was done by a list of researchers in order to make it simple to predict similarities between the
meanings of words (Burgess & Lund, 2000).
Roediger & McDermott (1995)
Investigation of false memory has been greatly been championed by Deese's (1959)
findings. The most common paradigm employed is the use of sentences (Bransford & Franks,
1975), prose passage (Sulin & Dooling, 1974), videotapes or even slide sequences (Loftus et al.,
1978).
Practical
In this practical, we were partly replicating the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM)
paradigm. In Experiment 1 of Roediger and McDermott (1995), the participants were presented
with a list of 12 words to study (e.g., yawn, bed, slumber, snore, nap); each list had one non-
presented word that was related to the other words in the list (e.g. sleep). When a test on
immediate recall was done, a record the times on false recall was 40% (Roediger and
McDermott, 1995). In Experiment 2, a few more words were added to the original list and then
the subjects required to recall the words. The results showed that the rate of false recall of 55%
was obtained.
Task 1: Replication of Deese (1959)