False recognition modality effects in short-term memory: Reversing the auditory advantage

The auditory advantage in short-term false recognition – reduced false memories for auditory compared to visually presented words (Olszewska, Reuter-lorenz, Munier, & Bendler, 2015), has been attributed to greater item distinctiveness in auditory compared to visual memory traces. If so, varying auditory trace distinctiveness should influence false recognition rates. Phonologically and semantically related words were presented visually or aurally. The auditory advantage for semantic lists was replicated but a reversal was observed for phonological lists. Reducing modality-specific acoustic and phonological distinctiveness by increasing phonological similarity led to increased false memory. The findings are consistent with a framework positing the generation of input-dependent memory traces and the role of relative distinctiveness in influencing short-term memory.