ABSTRACT
Many studies have demonstrated the power of schema or knowledge structure in organizing incoming information, which led to various kinds of memory errors. This chapter examines how participants’ prior knowledge affects memory errors and explores the DRM paradigm to examine false memory produced by a group of industrial design experts as compared to the control group. C. L. McEvoy, D. L. Nelson, and T. Komatsu looked at the influence of preexisting knowledge on the production of false memory. The chapter investigates whether domain specific knowledge would induce or reduce false memories. A group of experts and novices were tested on words either related or unrelated to their knowledge of expertise. Age had an effect on the false recognition of commo n words, while the rate of false recognition of design-related terms was mainly determined by participants’ domain knowledge. These results support the view that domain knowledge plays an important role in creating false memory.
