Final answer:
The DRM paradigm is a psychological procedure demonstrating how false memories are created due to associative activation in the brain. Evidence includes high rates of false recall of related lures, neuroimaging results, and the persistence of false memories despite warnings.
Step-by-step explanation:
The DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) paradigm is a procedure in cognitive psychology used to study false memory creation. The cause of the DRM illusion is associative activation and the spreading of activation within semantic memory. When a list of semantically related words is presented to participants, they often falsely remember a related word that was not on the list.
Evidence for the DRM Paradigm
- Participants frequently report 'recalling' the critical lure—a semantically related word not presented in the list—reflecting the effect of associative activation.
- Neuroimaging studies show increased activity in areas of the brain associated with semantic processing and memory retrieval during the DRM task, reinforcing the neural basis of the illusion.
- Studies have shown that even when participants are warned about false memories, they may still report the critical lure, illustrating the robust nature of this memory error.
By understanding the DRM paradigm, researchers can analyze the mechanisms underlying memory errors and improve our knowledge of human cognition.