In a study, researchers showed undergraduate participants a 15-word list including "bed," "rest," "tired," "awake," "dream," "blanket," and "pillow," presented one second per word. Later, on a surprise recognition test, many participants confidently reported having seen the word "sleep," which had never appeared on the list. Their false-recognition confidence was as high as for words actually presented earlier.
The high confidence accompanying false recognition of "sleep" implies that
- A
False memories are typically held with low confidence
- B
Confidence and accuracy are perfectly correlated
- C
The list lacked semantic structure
- Dcheck_circle
Subjective confidence is not a reliable indicator of memory accuracy
Explanation
The DRM finding undermines the assumption that high confidence guarantees accuracy, with important implications for eyewitness testimony.