Associative relatedness enhances recall and produces false memories in immediate serial recall.

The influence of permanent lexical network in immediate serial recall is well established. The corresponding influence of permanent semantic networks is less clear, although such networks are known to both facilitate memory in long-term memory tasks and to produce false memories in those same tasks. The current experiment involves the study of Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists for immediate serial recall. The trials in the experiment involved presenting the six strongest items from the DRM lists either in intact associatively related lists or where those items had been randomly mixed to produce unrelated lists. The results of the experiment indicated that the associatively related lists were better recalled in order than unrelated lists and the nonpresented critical lure was falsely recalled relatively frequently. The results of the experiment confirm the importance of associative semantic networks in short-term memory.