Abstract
The present study attempts to investigate the effects of levels of processing on false memory. False recall and false recognition were induced by presenting participants with words closely associated with a critical lure, a nonpresented word. In the experiment reported here, participants engaged in either a deep processing task of estimating usage frequency or a shallow processing task of letter counting. The participants were tested in a recall test immediately after the study phase and in recognition tests both immediately and one week later. The results demonstrate that the participants who engaged in the deeper level of processing recalled and recognized significantly more list items, but not critical lures. Moreover, a reliable decrease in old or remember judgments for list items was obtained over the retention interval, but not for critical lures.
