False recognition production indexes in Spanish for 60 DRM lists with three critical words.

A normative study was conducted using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm (DRM) to obtain false recognition for 60 six-word lists in Spanish, designed with a completely new methodology. For the first time, lists included words (e.g., bridal, newlyweds, bond, commitment, couple, to marry) simultaneously associated with three critical words (e.g., love, wedding, marriage). Backward associative strength between lists and critical words was taken into account when creating the lists. The results showed that all lists produced false recognition. Moreover, some lists had a high false recognition rate (e.g., 65%; jail, inmate, prison: bars, prisoner, cell, offender, penitentiary, imprisonment). This is an aspect of special interest for those DRM experiments that, for example, record brain electrical activity. This type of list will enable researchers to raise the signal-to-noise ratio in false recognition event-related potential studies as they increase the number of critical trials per list, and it will be especially useful for the design of future research.