False Memories and Cognitive Flexibility

Abstract

This study examined false memories, which occur when people misrecognize words that are not presented to them during the recall phase, along with cognitive flexibility, which is thought to be related to metacognitive processes such as attention, reasoning, and decision making.  Performance in recognizing the critical words of the DRM lists of the high and low scoring groups of subjects who had applied the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis & Vander, 2010) was compared. Subjects were asked to complete a remember/know assessment for their responses so that recognition memory processes were examined. The results showed that while there was no significant difference in revealing more false memories compared to low or high cognitive flexibility, there were significant differences in the remember/know assessment. Individuals with high cognitive flexibility were more likely to remember their correct answers than those with low cognitive flexibility. On the other hand, the low cognitive flexibility group reported more know responses about their correct answers. These results show that in recognition memory, the subjective processes of consciousness in the retrieval of information are influenced by cognitive flexibility.