Seamon John G, Berko Jeffrey R, Sahlin Brooke, Yu Yi-Lo, Colker Jennifer M, Gottfried David H
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06549-0408, USA.
Memory. 2006 May;14(4):415-23. doi: 10.1080/09658210500420725.
Can false memories that were suppressed at one time spontaneously recover at a later time? Fuzzy trace theory and activation-monitoring theory predict that false memories in the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott (DRM) procedure become substantially reduced as list learning progresses because participants employ a memory-editing process. It follows that if the editing process is rendered less effective, false memories should spontaneously recover. We found that after DRM lists were well learned and false recognition to critical words was substantially reduced by multiple study-test trials, those false memories spontaneously recovered when participants were either rushed or delayed on a retest. We attributed the reduction in false recognition over trials to a memory-editing process that suppresses false recognition as participants gradually learn which words were in the lists and which words, though similar, were not. Rushing or delaying the participants on a retest made it more difficult for them to edit their memory, and false memories spontaneously returned.
曾经被抑制的错误记忆会在之后的某个时间自发恢复吗？模糊痕迹理论和激活监测理论预测，在迪斯、罗德尼格和麦克德莫特（DRM）程序中，随着词表学习的推进，错误记忆会大幅减少，因为参与者会采用一种记忆编辑过程。由此推断，如果编辑过程变得不那么有效，错误记忆应该会自发恢复。我们发现，在DRM词表被充分学习且通过多次学习-测试试验对关键单词的错误识别大幅降低之后，当参与者在重新测试时被催促或拖延时，那些错误记忆会自发恢复。我们将试验中错误识别的减少归因于一种记忆编辑过程，随着参与者逐渐了解哪些单词在词表中以及哪些单词虽然相似但不在词表中，这种过程会抑制错误识别。在重新测试时催促或拖延参与者会使他们更难编辑自己的记忆，错误记忆就会自发恢复。
