Theoretical commentary: The role of criterion shift in false memory.

Roediger and McDermott (1995) reintroduced a paradigm originally developed by Deese (1959). According to the authors, the paradigm provides a technique for the creation of false memories. The paradigm is reliable and easy to implement. Because of these characteristics and because of the current interest in false memories, the paradigm has been used in many recent studies. We replicated Roediger and McDermott’s results in two experiments. When conditions were included that allowed the computation of signaldetection parameters, we found that most of the false memories could be ascribed to criterion shifts. We discuss the possible role of criteria in defining and understanding false memories.