False recognition in children aged 5, 8, and 11 years was
investigated using the standard version of the Deese-Roediger-
McDermott (DRM) procedure and an alternative version in which
the DRM stimuli were embedded in stories designed to emphasize
their overall theme. Relative to the 8- and 11-year-olds, the
5-year-olds falsely recognized fewer critical lures when the DRM
stimuli were presented in lists, but falsely recognized more
critical lures when the stimuli were presented in stories.
Levels of false recognition in the 8- and 11-year-olds were not
affected by study format. We argue that the story context
enhanced the ability of the 5-year-olds to make inferences based
on the theme of the DRM stimuli. The 5-year-olds then showed
higher levels of false recognition than the older children owing
to their inability to reject lure words consistent with the
stories.