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False Memory for Trauma-related Deese-Roediger-McDermont lists in Adolescents and Adults
with Histories of Child Sexual Abuse: A Summary
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What is the research problem that is being investigated? What is the purpose of the?
research being conducted?
The Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm is used in the field of psychology to study false
human memory. It involves presenting a list of terms related to a subject, which is then required
to remember as many words from the list. Typically, the subject tends to recall a related term that
wasn't actually on the list in the first place referred to as a critical lure. The presence of a critical
lure proves that the human mind is capable of creating false memory. A research carried out by
Goodman et al. (2011) sought to look into the DRM false memory on adults and adolescents
who've had documented histories of sexual abuse and those without. The research was carried
out to determine whether the human mind creates false memories in response to traumatic
experiences like child sexual abuse. The study also sought to answer questions that regard the
applicability of DRM in the legal field on cases that involve victims of child sexual abuse.
Through the study, the researchers intended to determine if CSA victims express exaggerated or
reduced false memory effects, thus determining if DRM was suitable as a data source for legal
cases.
What is the research question?
The study was intended to answer the question, "Does the human mind create false memories
after trauma?" The authors in this article argue that the human mind can reconstruct reality and
come up with false memories that didn't happen. This deduction is backed by the study's findings
and supported by previous literary works on the same.
According to the authors, previous studies on the topic failed to examine the DRM false memory
among victims of child sexual abuse concerning trauma-related lists.
What are 2 or more theories that are discussed in the Introduction? How are they used to
motivate (or set up) the research question? Do the authors agree or disagree with these
theories?
The authors of the article argue that DRM performance could be affected by developmental
differences, emotional lists, and trauma-related psychopathology, or a history of child sexual
abuse. Regarding developmental differences, the authors argue that adults and adolescents are
more likely to process DRM false memories due to their developed gist memory and greater
associative strength. The use of emotional lists while using DRM is also a determinant of
performance. According to this study, lists that activate negative emotional themes bring about
fewer false memories than positive lists. People tend to use item-specific processing for negative
information regardless of age which in turn reduces false memories. However, it was proven that
if a participant studied an emotionally-charged item beforehand, their response to emotional
items presented during the test would shift their response bias to be relatively more liberal. In the
article, the authors also argue that individuals with a history of trauma are more likely to make
memory errors concerning positive information.
In contrast, their memory for negative trauma-related information is more accurate. On the other
hand, the study suggests that adult attachment orientation could influence a DRM false memory
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test's performance. The study argues that parents with avoidant attachment tendencies raise adult
offspring with greater false memory through the attachment theory.
How is the research question operationalized? First, identify the abstract constructs being
studied. Next identify the concrete way these are being observed or measured. This
should include your IV and DV.
For the study in question, the study's expectations included; Using a CSA list in place of other
negative lists; this is because CSA lists are distinctive and with negative valence, thus reducing
false memory by forcing item-specific processing. However, the list could result in more
significant false memory due to the gist's activation. Compared to adults, adolescents were
expected to come up with fewer false memories. This deduction was based on the fact that
associative relations for child sexual abuse increase with age. However, memory-monitoring
deficits in adolescents could cause less false memory with age. Subjects who had a history of
child sexual abuse were expected to perform better in trauma-related lists than subjects with no
documented CSA history. The CSA individuals were also expected to perform worse in non-
trauma-related lists. Younger subjects with more significant PTSD symptoms were expected to
recall non-existent words on the list that weren't part of the critical lures. In contrast, Individuals
with insecure attachment orientations were expected to have more DRM memory errors.
What is the research design (i.e. between or within subjects, what type of statistical tests
were used, what were the levels of each variable)?
Methods
For the study, 93 female participants 49 were aged between 14 and 17, and 44 were aged
between 18 and 37. Of the participants, 21.5% were African-American, 58.1% were Caucasian,
8.6% Hispanics, 2.2% were Asian-Americans, and 9.7% were "other." Twenty-two adults and 25
adolescents had a history of child sexual abuse and were recruited from district attorney offices,
university introductory psychology classes, and child maltreatment centers. The controls were
recruited at random places and screened to find any evidence of former CSA. The research
followed all standard protocols to ensure that all participants were stable and comfortable to
partake in the task. The age limit was particular since the task is sexual.
The measures and materials used for the research included A demographic questionnaire to
collect information on gender, age, ethnicity, education, SES, and foster placement. Traumatic
assessment for adults(TAA) and traumatic events were screening inventory for children(TESI-
C), Wechsler adult intelligence scale(WAIS) and Wechsler intelligence scale for
children(WISC), memory span and vocabulary subtests, Trauma symptom checklist(TSC-40 &
TSC-C), Dissociative experiences scale(DES) and the adolescent dissociative experiences
scale(ADES), Child behavior checklist (CBCL) and young adult self-report (YASR),
Posttraumatic stress disorder scale(PDS) and the child posttraumatic stress disorder scale(CPSS),
Experiences in close relationships questionnaire(ECR), State-trait anxiety inventory( STAI) and
state-trait anxiety inventory for children(STAIC), Children's trauma questionnaire(CTQ) and 40
DRM lists; 10 were assigned for each list, ie. Positive, negative, neutral, and CSA. Each list had
relevant critical lures that are age-appropriate since some participants were on the spectrum's
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younger side. Associates to the critical lures were listed chronologically from the strongest to the
weakest associate. Recognition tasks were also used in the study.
The study met the required criteria for research. Consent was obtained for invasive procedures;
thorough screening was done at experimental sessions; testing for adults and adolescents was
done privately and individually; the subjects underwent demographic questionnaires followed by
IQ and ECR tests. Finally, the DRM task required them to hear the words on the DRM lists. The
DRM tasks were divided into two segments that had short breaks between them. For the
segments, the free recall was used for the first half of the lists, while for the second half, random
criteria were used to pick a list. Participants then undertook STAI, BDI\CDI, CTQ, CDC, TSC-
C, TSC-40, YASR, DES\ADES, TAA, and the rest of the test mentioned in the materials section
in random order.
Describe the results (but not their broader implications). Were the results significant?
Which ones? Do these supports or not support the hypothesis?
For measures that varied across the age groups, mean z scores were created to enable the
researchers to achieve matching success through ANOVAs that put age against the subjects' CSA
status. CSA and control subjects differed slightly regarding the PTSD criteria met. The results
also indicated that control adolescents and CSA adolescents didn't have a significant difference,
whereas control adults met fewer PTSD criteria than the CSA adults. CSA subjects elicited more
sexual problems, depression, dissociation, and anxiety in the TSC tests compared to control
subjects. YASR\CBCL scores proved that CSA subjects had effects like internalizing and
externalizing behavior. The study used both trauma-related lists and non-trauma-related lists for
the DRM regarding the subjects' variances in adult attachment and psychopathology. The study
administered free recall and recognition tests to the participants after being exposed to positive,
negative, and neutral DRM lists. The free recall test results, child sexual abuse, and negative lists
elicited the false memory. The CSA-group of adolescents with more symptoms of PTSD
indicated higher false memory rates than non-CSA adolescents who had similar PTSD symptoms
and CSA adolescents who had lower PTSD symptom scores. The researchers also carried out a
regression analysis that elicited that people with avoidant attachment tendencies didn't have a
memory that was accomplished enough for the CSA lists.
What limitations are mentioned? Why are these limitations theoretically interesting?
According to the authors, the study's limitations included a small sample size, Random order for
word selection for the DRM lists, the number of words presented to the subjects, biased ratings
that favored non-CSA groups. According to the article, more research needs to be done on the
relationship between memory and trauma, including DRM performance. Future research also
needs s to determine if DRM information from CSA victims can be used in legal practice. In
conclusion, the study determined that the human brain is capable of creating false memories.
Still, the degree and accuracy of the same depend on factors like traumatic history,
developmental differences, and attachment tendencies. According to this study, the findings from
DRM are too meager to be used as evidence in law.
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Reference
Goodman, G. S., Ogle, C. M., Block, S. D., Harris, L. S., Larson, R. P., Augusti, E. M., Cho, Y.
I., Beber, J., Timmer, S., & Urquiza, A. (2011). False memory for trauma-related Deese-
Roediger-McDermott lists in adolescents and adults with histories of child sexual
abuse. Development and Psychopathology, 23(2), 423–438.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579411000150
