TRUE AND FALSE RECOGNITION IN MINERVA2 - EXPLANATIONS FROM A GLOBAL MATCHING PERSPECTIVE

This paper investigates false recognition of semantically related dist racter items. Using the Deese (1959) false memory paradigm, we investi gated the predictions that MINERVA2 (Hintzman, 1988) makes for true (e xemplar) and false (prototype) recognition. In MINERVA2, exemplar reco gnition is primarily due to a high degree of similarity to a single me mory trace and prototype recognition is due to the summing of smaller amounts of similarity across many memory traces. MINERVA2 predicts tha t: (1) while performance for exemplars and prototypes increases at app roximately the same rate at low levels of learning, additional learnin g produces a greater increase in performance for exemplars than for pr ototypes; (2) reducing the number of exemplars studied will decrease p erformance more for prototypes than for exemplars; and (3) decreasing associative strength of an exemplar to a prototype should increase exe mplar performance while decreasing prototype performance. The results of four experiments support the predictions of the model and are consi stent with the notion that true recognition is primarily due to a high degree of match to a single trace, while false recognition is due to the summing of smaller amounts of similarity to numerous traces. (C) 1 998 Academic Press.