Gist processing in free recall and recognition: Latent variable modelling of children's and adults' true and false memories

The present study was conducted to assess an important prediction of the fuzzy trace theory that both true and false memories should increase with gist processing, but that this positive correlation should be stronger when free recall is used as a memory measure than when recognition is used. Children from Grades 3 to 5 and college students learned two sets of six Deese-Roediger- McDermott (DRM) lists and after a set they received a free recall test or a yes/no recognition test. Instead of employing the traditional analysis of variance approach, a latent class analysis technique was used to investigate the relationship between gist processing and true and false free recall and recognition. The results showed that gist trace processing was positively related to true memories, and to false memories. Moreover, for true memories, this positive relationship was stronger for free recall than for recognition.

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