FALSE RECOGNITION OF ASSOCIATES - HOW ROBUST IS THE EFFECT

False recognition of nonpresented words that were strong associates of 12 words in a study list was examined. Six List-a were read to subjec ts; each list contained the 12 strongest associates to a critical nonp resented word. False-alarm rates to the 6 critical nonpresented words were obtained under several different conditions. The manipulations in cluded varying the level of processing done to the study lists, varyin g the recognition-test procedure, repeating each of the study lists th ree times, and mixing the words from the six study lists together. A r eliable false-recognition effect for critical nonpresented words was o btained in all conditions. However, the effect was not impervious to a ll of the manipulations. Significantly lower false recognition was obt ained when learning was incidental as well as when the words on the si x lists were mixed together. Neither level of processing nor repetitio n significantly influenced false recognition, This last result is inco nsistent with Hintzman's (1988) MINERVA 2 global memory model, but agr ees with predictions from Shiffrin, Ratcliff, and Clark's (1990) SAM m odel.