Category Cueing: Increasing Recall to Reduce FalseRecognition

Memory is subject to a range of distortions. Butmechanisms that protect memory against distortion also exist. Thisbook focuses on recall-to-reject, one of the central memory editingmechanisms thought to prevent the occurrence of false memories.Recall-to-reject occurs when recall of a studied item is usedto correctly reject an associated distractor despite its highfamiliarity. The theoretical part of this dissertation gives an overview of memoryediting mechanisms and reviews experimental research on therecall-to-reject process. In the empirical part a series offour experiments is reported, where the ability of category cues toincrease the probability of the recall-to-reject process isinvestigated. Furthermore, moderating factors for the effectivenessof recall-to-reject are investigated. Overall, the results provideevidence for recall-to-reject and demonstrate its potential toreduce false recognition errors. Theoretical, methodological, aswell as practical, implications are discussed. This book is recommendedto people interested in experimental memory research.

Dr. rer. nat.: Study of Psychology at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. Research assistant, Department of ExperimentalPsychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany.