The impersistence of false memory persistence

When subjects study lists of thematically related words they sometimes fals ely recognise non-presented words related to the theme. The gist extraction account of these findings provided by fuzzy trace theory suggests that fal se recognition should decline substantially more slowly than true recogniti on across a delay. In two experiments we demonstrated that corrected recogn ition of targets and critical lures can decrease by equivalent amounts acro ss a 48-hour delay. However the results for uncorrected recognition were mi xed. In Experiment 1 we found evidence that uncorrected recognition of targ ets declined more rapidly than uncorrected recognition of critical lures. I n Experiment 2, we found evidence that uncorrected recognition of targets a nd critical lures declined at equivalent rates. Results are discussed in te rms of their implications for fuzzy trace and source monitoring accounts of false memories.