Theoretical commentary: The role of criterion shift in false memory

H. L. Roediger and K. B. McDermott (1995) reintroduced a paradigm originall y developed by Deese (1959). According to the authors, the paradigm provide s a technique for the creation of false memories. The paradigm is reliable and easy to implement. Because of these characteristics and the current int erest in false memories, the paradigm has been used in many recent studies. The authors replicated Roediger and McDermott's results in two experiments . When conditions were included that allowed the computation of signal-dete ction parameters, it was found that most of the false memories could be asc ribed to criterion shifts. The authors discuss the possible role of criteri a in defining and understanding false memories.