False memory.
Could you remember a word you never saw, vividly enough to be sure you saw it?
Original study
- Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(1), 17–22. Source
- Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803–814. Source
- Stadler, M. A., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1999). Norms for word lists that create false memories. Memory & Cognition, 27(3), 494–500. Source
- Gallo, D. A. (2010). False memories and fantastic beliefs: 15 years of the DRM illusion. Memory & Cognition, 38(7), 833–848. Source
- Akdoğan, M., Akırmak, Ü., & Gürsoy, İ. (2020). Türkçe kelimelerin bellek yanılması üretme oranlarının Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigması ile incelenmesi [Examining the false memory rates of Turkish words with the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm]. Türk Psikoloji Yazıları, 23(46), 31–54. Source
Our adaptation
An adaptation of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott false recognition task (Roediger and McDermott, 1995). Four of six lists are studied; each list holds the ten strongest associates of a 'critical lure' that never appears, and words are shown one at a time for 1.1 seconds (0.25 seconds apart). A 16-word recognition test follows: two words from each studied list, the four critical lures, and the lure and first word of the two unstudied lists; each word gets a four-point answer. Turkish lists come from the norms of Akdoğan et al., English lists from Stadler et al. (1999).
Differences from the original study
- The original studies had free recall before recognition; here there is none.
- Words are shown in writing, not read aloud; lists have 10 words (the originals had 12 and 15).
- Turkish and English lists differ and should be separated by the language column.
Measured variables
The columns of the open data file. List fields are expanded into numbered columns (for example rt_60, est_3); JSON columns contain only numbers and fixed stimulus names.
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
lists_1 | number | Studied lists (pool index 0–5, by language). (item 1) |
lists_2 | number | Studied lists (pool index 0–5, by language). (item 2) |
lists_3 | number | Studied lists (pool index 0–5, by language). (item 3) |
lists_4 | number | Studied lists (pool index 0–5, by language). (item 4) |
control_lists_1 | number | Unstudied (control) lists. (item 1) |
control_lists_2 | number | Unstudied (control) lists. (item 2) |
items | JSON | Test words: [[type 0 studied / 1 lure / 2 unrelated, list, position (−1 lure), answer 1–4, time in ms] × 16] (4 = sure it was there … 1 = sure it was not). |
hits | integer | Number of studied words answered 'was there' (3 or 4) (0–8). |
fa | integer | Number of unstudied words (lures + unrelated) answered 'was there'. |
net | integer | hits − fa (−8…8). |
hit | number | Share of 'was there' for studied words. |
lure | number | Share of 'was there' for critical lures (false memory). |
ctrl | number | Share of 'was there' for unrelated words. |
hit_sure | number | Share of 'sure it was there' for studied words. |
lure_sure | number | Share of 'sure it was there' for lures. |
ctrl_sure | number | Share of 'sure it was there' for unrelated words. |
conf_old | number | Mean answer (1–4) for studied words. |
conf_lure | number | Mean answer for lures. |
conf_ctrl | number | Mean answer for unrelated words. |
Columns present in every file (14)
row_id | string | Row code. Regenerated at random in every release; it does not identify a person and cannot be matched across releases or experiments. |
experiment | string | Short name of the experiment (URL slug). |
experiment_version | integer | Version of the answer format. For experiments whose format changed, only the current format is published. |
date | YYYY-MM-DD | YYYY-Www | YYYY-MM | Day the answer was given (Istanbul time). If fewer than 5 answers share the same day, language and device, it is coarsened to the ISO week, and to the month if that is still too few. |
date_precision | day | week | month | Precision of the date column. |
lang | tr | en | (boş) | Interface language. Language recording started in the first week of October 2026; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise. |
device | desktop | mobile | tablet | (boş) | Device class reported by the browser (class only; browser details are neither stored here nor published). |
source | site | embed | Where the answer came from: the balabs site or the experiment embedded on another site. The embedding site is not published. |
mode | free | daily | challenge | race | session | (boş) | Play mode in scored experiments: free play, daily round, challenge, race room, experiment session. Empty for unscored experiments and for older answers that did not store it. |
color_vision | normal | rg | by | contrast | (boş) | In color-based experiments, the color vision mode the participant chose: normal, red-green, blue-yellow or high contrast. Stimuli are generated along different axes per mode, so compare within a mode. Empty for other experiments. |
first_play | 1 | Every row is a participant’s first play of this experiment (always 1). Replays are stored only as leaderboard scores and are not part of the open data. |
seen_before | yes | no | unsure | (boş) | Participant’s own report of whether they had seen this experiment or its known answer before (in experiments that ask). |
duration_s | number | Time from the start of the experiment to submitting the answer, in seconds (measured in the browser, 0.1 s). |
play_score | number | Leaderboard score of the first play (scored experiments; defined on the method card). Empty for unscored experiments. |
Exclusion criteria
The server checks that the four studied and two control lists are distinct and that the type and list of each test word follow the plan, and computes all rates itself. We recommend reporting participants who say they had seen the experiment before (seen_before) separately.
- Only each participant's first answer to this experiment; replays are not included.
- Simulated rows, bots, banned and sample accounts are not included.
- Answers before 3 October 2026 are not included (the first day the open data notice was live).
Scoring
This experiment has no leaderboard score. The crowd result is the 'was there' rate for studied, lure and unrelated words.
Version notes
- October 2026
The interface language (lang) started being stored with each answer; for earlier answers it is known only in experiments whose stimuli depend on the language, and empty otherwise.