A Network of Actions – Evaluating False Recall and Recognition of Objects After Studying Affordances

Presenting participants with lists of related words (e.g., climb, rock, slope, hike) often elicits false recall and recognition for a related but nonstudied critical lure (CL; mountain). This false memory illusion is often ascribed to the strong associative and/or thematic relations between the related list words and the CL. In the present study, we further evaluated this false memory effect by presenting participants with a list of affordances (e.g., arrange, pick, smell) that were related to a specific object CL (e.g., flower) via a normed database. Affordances refer to specific actions that can be completed with a given object, and the presentation of these actions may result in a false memory for a CL. Each study list was followed by either a free-recall test or a filler arithmetic task and a final recognition test. False memory for the CL was found both in the initial recall test and the final recognition test and was greater following an initial recall test. These data indicate that affordances can produce false memories for related objects which is particularly notable given affordances are verbs and CLs are nouns.