Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 561

Proceedings of the 2021 2nd International Conference on Mental

Health and Humanities Education (ICMHHE 2021)

The Influence of Language on False Memory

Beiyi Cai1,† Yu Zheng2,†,*
1
School of Continuing Education, SJTIU, Shanghai, China
2
Ecnuas Affiliated Bilingual School, Shanghai, China
*
Corresponding author. Email:[email protected]
†
These authors contributed equally.

ABSTRACT
False memory is often happened in life and has attracted lots of attention from researchers. The purpose of this study is
to examine the effects of different languages (i.e., mother language and other languages) on false memories. Different
word cards were prepared to test which language caused the most serious false memory between 20 female participants.
The results showed that the reaction time of the control group (mother language) is shorter, but the accuracy of the
mother language is 79%, lower compared to the reaction time of the experimental group (a second language;83%). And
the experiment concludes that the mother language is more likely to produce false memory than the other language.
However, there is not enough time for us to do more experiments with other variables, such as balance the gender or
ask foreigners to do the test, to ensure internal validity and the reliability of the experiment.

Keywords: memory, false memory, language, Chinese participants

1. INTRODUCTION of serial regeneration and repeated regeneration. From

the perspective of cognitive psychology, false memories
1.1. Structure of Memory may be caused by errors in encoding or errors in memory
retrieval.
Memory, defined in cognitive psychology, is the
process of inputting, encoding, storing, and retrieving In 1959, Deese first used the quantitative method to
information. In 1885, memory had been one of the most study false memory [2]. Until 1995, the work of Rodiger
popular topics that attract many people to investigate. and McDermott [3] led more psychologists to seek a
Information processing theory (or information location greater understanding of the false memory phenomenon.
theory), which emerged in the 1950s, viewed memory as Since then, there have been a number of experiments on
the process of encoding, storing, and retrieving input false memories. Such as Loftus and Palmer study, the
information. According to the time of storage, it can be language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory
divided into instantaneous memory (Sensory memory [4]. Different studies have also led to different research
0.24-4second), short-term memory (Working memory paradigms in the field of false memory. It can be divided
5second-1minute), and long-term memory (More than 1 into the centralized associative program paradigm, which
minute-Forever). We can make short-term memory tests false memory by semantic association, and the
becoming long-term memory by repeating it over and category associative program paradigm tests false
over again. False memories can occur when mistakes are memory by categorizing words. This research notes that
made in the process of storing memory. both of these paradigms are related to language and that
the effects of different parts of speech on false memory
1.2. False Memory have been studied before. It turns out that different parts
of speech affect false memory. This led us to realize that
In recent years, more and more people have interest language could be an important variable affecting false
in investigating the formation of memory. Kolodner said memory. False memory has mostly been studied in
it’s easy to have errors during the memory reconstructive monolingual speakers of very diverse languages, eg.
process [1]. False memory happens when people recall or Chen et al. in 2008, used Chinese as a kind of language
re-recognize events that didn’t happen or wrongly recall did a false memory experiment[6]. Whether different
events that did happen. In 1932, Bartlett discovered false languages have different effects on false memory is an
memory for the first time with the experimental methods urgent question to be investigated. It is important to note

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 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 561

that personal language proficiency depends on their control group with 10 random participants. They will
language usage and experience, so it is not a constant accept Chinese treatment which all the experiments are
feature. Bilingualism and monolingualism would be the conducted in Chinese, their native language. And the
two ends of a continuum with no clear division between experimental group includes other 10 participants who
them due to a lack of consensus on the definition of will accept the English treatment during the test which
bilingualism [7] and high variability in its measurement their tests are all conducted in English. The dependent
[8]. Therefore, we intend to investigate the false memory variable in this experiment is the rate of false memory
of first language and second language through language and reaction time.
proficiency[9].
The materials that we use are five words In each
Heredia and Brown [10] investigated how two experiment (which are 10 words in total), the Chinese
languages are represented in one brain. Besides, Francis words include Chinese words: 余(being left)，金(gold),
[11] found both languages access a shared conceptual 今(today), 戈(shake), 冷(cold)and English words: widow,
system, and, second, associations between word forms abroad, expand, beam and steel. While during the test,
and their concepts are stronger in the first language than there are also four similar words to disturb participants’
in the second language [12]. judgment. They are 佘 (the last name in Chinese),
全(whole), 令(order), 泠(cool)and English words:
1.3. Brief Introduction about This Experiment window, aboard, bean, and steal.

The study investigates the different effects of mother They are all randomly selected from the dictionary,
language and second languages on false memories. The with no preference for the words, and the standard is that
hypothesis is that the mother language has less impact on the length of words must be under 8(as easy as possible),
false memories than the second language. The study and so did we do.
examined the false memory rates of bilingual Chinese
students learning different languages (Chinese as their 2.3. Procedure
first language, English as a second language) to see if
The experiment is running on Psychopy (a tool
their first language leads to fewer false memories than
usually used to conduct a psychology experiment). The
their second language. This study uses cards with English
total experiment takes about 15 minutes. The whole test
and Chinese words and shows cards to subjects. Then
consists of four parts. (How well they can identify similar
different cards are added, and the subjects were asked to
words to the true testing words.)
identify whether they had seen the words on the cards
before. The time between seeing the word for the first The first part is about preparation for the task. When
time and seeing the word for the second time is 60 the experiment starts, each participant is asked to perform
seconds. this experiment in a room without noises and interruption
from others. The participant and the experimenter sit face
2. METHOD to face. The participants will be told before the test, "you
are going to do a memory test about how well you can
2.1. Participants remember the words." And they can withdraw from this
memory test anytime they want. Then the participant is
There are 20 volunteers (aged between 17 and 30 asked to watch the computer screen. Both experiments
years old Chinese students) recruited from Jinqiu A-level for the control group and the experimental group began
school of New Channel, including 17 women and 3 men. with an introduction. For the control group, there will be
All twenty students have got 6 on the IELTS test, and 5 Chinese words together with their meaning written in
they were randomly allocated into two groups. The Chinese (e.g., "泠" means "凉"). For the experimental
control group and the experimental group will accept group, there will be 5 English words together with their
Chinese and English treatment in this experiment to Chinese meaning (e.g., "smart" means "聪明").
determine the influences of language on false memory.
The second part is for memorizing the words, and the
All the participants are bilinguals, and we make sure they
third part is for resting. After pressing a button to start the
know the basic words of Chinese and English.
test, participants are told to pay attention to the screen and
try their best to remember all the words. Each of the
2.2. Material and Design words was presented in white font on a neutral black
The experiment we did is the single factor experiment background of psychopy for 5 seconds and disappeared.
using the between design. After all the 5 words finish revealing, they will have
The independent variable is the type of language, a break time of 60 seconds. The long-time break may
which means whether they use their native language cause a vague notion in their memory. And the final part
(Chinese)or their non-native language (English in this is to test whether they will have a false memory of the
experiment) as their testing language. To be specific, the words they have remembered in the experiment before.

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After the break, the participants are asked to So that we can say that time is not a significant
distinguish whether they have seen the words in the influence in the false memory test. 20% participants will
remembering part or not. In case the participants couldn’t be bothered by the explanation because of the word for
understand the following steps, we will explain what the test and the similar words.
participants should do to every participant in Chinese.
We can also conclude that people using different
The words show up randomly (It means they don’t show
means to remember words in our interview are mainly
up in the order of 4 seen words and 4, unlike words. E.g.,
through the shape and sound of the words.
"abroad" is changed into "aboard"). Participants should
use the keyboard to tell whether they have seen the word
before. They should also do it as fast as possible. The 4. DISCUSSION
accuracy and speed are all analyzed with excel.
4.1. Findings of This Experiment
After distinguishing the 8 words, it is the end of the
experiment. And then, we would tell him the true aim of We did a memory experiment where we asked
the study is to test whether they will form false memory participants to memorize a few words, and then after
in their brain. We will also ask the participants to have a a while, we asked them to see several words (Part is
short interview about how they feel with us. recited before, the other part never appears just from
the glyph on the very similar words. The results
3. RESULTS from this experiment fit the hypothesis: participants
spend more time thinking when they were
memorizing words in other languages, and they
made fewer mistakes than their native language.
The experiment found that when recalling
words, the participants stayed on the first word for
the longest time, and after that, if they become
proficient, the stay time would be reduced. In
addition, if the participants read out each word when
they first read the word, it will also increase their
proficiency in the word. Finally, when participants
who had lived abroad were asked to memorize these
Figure 1. The accuracy of the experiment words, it was not difficult for them.
The accuracy of the false memory test for the control
group is only 79%, and for the experimental group, there 4.2. Compare to the Previous Study
has been 83%of accuracy, according to Figure 1. It means
According to Daniel’s research, they found, the
21%of the words tested in the control go wrong while
maintenance or "preservation" of false recognition
only 17%of all the words in the experimental group go
wrong.
in younger adults under dual task conditions that
markedly depressed veridical recognition may
indicate that false recognition in younger adults is
based on a combination of familiarity and some
more specific similarity information [4]. Although
Daniel’s experiment aimed to investigate older and
younger memory, the results of this study are similar
to those of Daniel’s. False memory can easily be
caused by people’s stored memories before.
Shema’s theory can also explain this result.
Therefore, we have conducted experiments on false
memory in young people, and the reliability of the
results is very high. The main reason why people are
Figure 2. The response time of the experiment more likely to have a wrong impression of strange
There is a 4%difference between the two data in things is simple to understand, which is that they are
Figure 2, representing the time used to do both not yet familiar with new knowledge. Thus, they can
experiments. only use the stored knowledge to understand,
leading to false memories. However, we found from
The data references that the difference for average Daniel’s experimental results that, as the age
time is little, which is only 0.1 second on average. increases, the rate of false memory will be higher,

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which may be due to the deterioration of the languages. Therefore, the hypothesis is the same as a
memory of the elderly. result. This research can provide some information to
those who are studying language and memory. At the
4.3. The Strength of This Research same time, we hope that experimental groups in other
languages can be added to improve reliability in future
The strength of the experiment is listed as follows. experiments.
The most worth mentioning is that this experiment is a
laboratory experiment that states that remembering the REFERENCES
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