scholarly journals Individual differences in susceptibility to false memories: The effect of memory specificity

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 1637-1644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A Dewhurst ◽  
Rachel J Anderson ◽  
Donna M Berry ◽  
Sarah R Garner
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
False Recognition ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Correct Recognition ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
The Past

Previous research has highlighted the wide individual variability in susceptibility to the false memories produced by the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) procedure. This study investigated whether susceptibility to false memories is influenced by individual differences in the specificity of autobiographical memory retrieval. Memory specificity was measured using the Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT). Memory specificity did not correlate with correct recognition, but a specific retrieval style was positively correlated with levels of false recognition. It is proposed that the contextual details that frequently accompany false memories of non-studied lures are more accessible in individuals with specific retrieval styles.

Autobiographical Memory Impairments as a Transdiagnostic Feature of Mental Illness: A meta-analysis of autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality amongst people with psychiatric diagnoses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Joseph Barry ◽  
David John Hallford ◽  
Keisuke Takano
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Memory Impairments ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Causal Mechanisms

Decades of research has examined the difficulty that people with psychiatric diagnoses, such as Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, have in recalling specific autobiographical memories from events that lasted less than a day. Instead, they seem to retrieve general events that have occurred many times or which occurred over longer periods of time, termed overgeneral memory. We present the first transdiagnostic meta-analysis of memory specificity/overgenerality, and the first meta-regression of proposed causal mechanisms. A keyword search of Embase, PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO databases yielded 74 studies that compared people with and without psychiatric diagnoses on the retrieval of specific (k = 85) or general memories (k = 56). Multi-level meta-analysis confirmed that people with psychiatric diagnoses typically recall fewer specific (g = -0.864, 95% CI[-1.030, -0.698]) and more general (g = .712, 95% CI[0.524, 0.900]) memories than diagnoses-free people. The size of these effects did not differ between diagnostic groups. There were no consistent moderators; effect sizes were not explained by methodological factors such as cue valence, or demographic variables such as participants’ age. There was also no support for the contribution of underlying processes that are thought to be involved in specific/general memory retrieval (e.g., rumination). Our findings confirm that deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval are a transdiagnostic factor associated with a broad range of psychiatric problems, but future research should explore novel causal mechanisms such as encoding deficits and the social processes involved in memory sharing and rehearsal.

Specificity and detail in autobiographical memory retrieval: A multi-site (re)investigation.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David John Hallford ◽  
Tom Joseph Barry ◽  
Eline Belmans ◽  
Filip Raes ◽  
Sam Dax ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Severe Depression ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Specific Event ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Cue Words

This investigation examined conflicting suggestions regarding the association between problems retrieving specific autobiographical memories and the tendency to retrieve the details of these memories. We also examined whether these tendencies are differentially related to depression symptoms. U.S., Belgian, Hong Kong and Japanese participants retrieved memories related to cue words. Responses were coded for if they referred to a specific event (i.e., an event lasting less than 24 hours) and their details (What? Where? Who?). Across sites, and in meta-analyses, the retrieval of more specific memories was associated with retrieval of more details. Memories that were specific included more detail than non-specific memories. Across sites, retrieval of more specific memories and more detail was associated with less severe depression symptoms. Episodic specificity and detailedness are related but separable constructs. Future investigations of autobiographical memory specificity, and methods for alleviating problematic specificity, should consider measures of episodic detailedness.

Elevated Cortisol at Retrieval Suppresses False Memories in Parallel with Correct Memories

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 772-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Diekelmann ◽  
Ines Wilhelm ◽  
Ullrich Wagner ◽  
Jan Born
Keyword(s):  
Response Bias ◽  
False Recognition ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Crossover Design ◽  
Stress Hormone ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Double Blind Placebo ◽  
Reconstructive Process ◽  
Abstract Shapes

Retrieving a memory is a reconstructive process in which encoded representations can be changed and distorted. This process sometimes leads to the generation of “false memories,” that is, when people remember events that, in fact, never happened. Such false memories typically represent a kind of “gist” being extracted from single encountered events. The stress hormone cortisol is known to substantially impair memory retrieval. Here, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design, we tested the effect of an intravenous cortisol infusion before retrieval testing on the occurrence of false memories and on recall of correct memories using a modified Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. Subjects studied sets of abstract shapes, with each set being derived from one prototype that was not presented during learning. At retrieval taking place 9 hr after learning, subjects were presented with studied shapes, nonstudied shapes, and the prototypes, and had to indicate whether or not each shape had been presented at learning. Cortisol administration distinctly reduced susceptibility to false memories (i.e., false recognition of prototypes) and, in parallel, impaired retrieval of correct memories (i.e., correct recognition of studied shapes). Response bias as well as confidence ratings and remember/know/guess judgments were not affected. Our results support gist-based theories of false memory generation, assuming a simultaneous storage of the gist and specific details of an event. Cortisol, by a general impairing influence on retrieval operations, decreases, in parallel, retrieval of false (i.e., gist) and correct (i.e., specific) memories for the event.

scholarly journals Routes to the past: Neural substrates of direct and generative autobiographical memory retrieval

NeuroImage ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 2908-2922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Rose Addis ◽  
Katie Knapp ◽  
Reece P. Roberts ◽  
Daniel L. Schacter
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
The Past

scholarly journals Temporal Self-Extension: Implications for Temporal Comparison and Autobiographical Memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Grabowski ◽  
Philip Broemer
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Temporal Comparison ◽  
The Past ◽  
Comparison Research ◽  
Time Extension ◽  
Self Knowledge

Abstract Research on temporal comparison has shown that people dissociate themselves from their past to attain a positive self view. Social comparison research has demonstrated that the distinctness of contextually activated information determines whether a recalled self exerts assimilation or contrast effects on the current self. However, hardly any study addressed individual differences. Also, very little is known about whether the ease or difficulty to date past events and experiences influences current self-judgments. We present a new scale capturing the degree of the current self time extension. Three studies support the notion that temporal self-extension determines how past selves are accessed and processed, regarding both the abstractness with which self-knowledge is retrieved and the experienced temporal distance to the past. These findings have important implications for temporal as well as social comparison processes.

Individual Differences in Autobiographical Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Palombo ◽  
Signy Sheldon ◽  
Brian Levine
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Full Description ◽  
The Past

Although humans have a remarkable capacity to recall a wealth of detail from the past, there are marked inter-individual differences in the quantity and quality of our mnemonic experiences. Such differences in autobiographical memory may appear self-evident, yet there has been little research on this topic. In this review, we synthesize an emerging body of research regarding individual differences in autobiographical memory. We focus on two syndromes that fall at the extreme of the ‘remembering’ dimension, Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) and Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM). We also discuss findings from research on less extreme individual differences in autobiographical memory. This avenue of research is pivotal for a full description of the behavioral and neural substrates of autobiographical memory.

scholarly journals Preprint Averting Repulsion? Body-Directed Self-Disgust and Autobiographical Memory Retrieval

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula von Spreckelsen ◽  
Ineke Wessel ◽  
Klaske A. Glashouwer ◽  
Peter J. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
Schematic Representation ◽  
Memory Processing ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Body Image Concerns ◽  
Cue Words

The repulsive body image (RBI) describes a schematic representation of the own body marked by body-directed self-disgust and other body image concerns. This RBI may bias autobiographical memory processing towards RBI-congruent memories, which would be expected to be overgeneral, because disgust may promote the avoidance of specific memories. In the current study, women with high (HRBI; n = 61) and low (LRBI; n = 64) RBI levels retrieved memories in response to abstract body-related cue words in a minimal instructions Autobiographical Memory Test. Compared to the LRBI group, the HRBI group recalled a higher number of autobiographical memories that involved appraisals of the own body as disgusting, and reported elevated habitual tendencies to prevent experiencing disgust towards the own body. Neither RBI scores nor tendencies to prevent experiencing body-related disgust were found to be statistically significant predictors of memory specificity. In light of the low memory specificity in the whole sample, more sensitive measures of autobiographical memory specificity may be needed to examine disgust-driven avoidance at the memory level. Nevertheless, the current results may indicate that disgust-related memories and the prevention of experiencing disgust towards the own body could play a role in the persistence of body image concerns.

scholarly journals The multilevel memory–reward coactivation framework of nostalgia: a literature review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kentaro Oba ◽  
Motoaki Sugiura
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Reward System ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Psychological Models ◽  
Multilevel Memory

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, has attracted attention in the fields of psychology and marketing in recent years. Although these studies have identified what nostalgia is, including its triggers and functions, the question of how nostalgia is induced remains unanswered. In this article, we review existing psychological models and recent neuroimaging studies that have investigated the neural correlates of nostalgia and propose a provisional framework of nostalgia induction. The multilevel memory‒reward coactivation framework expects that different types of autobiographical memory (AM), such as episodic AM and semantic AM, activate the associated mesolimbic reward system. This framework also assumes a working self, a complex set of active goals and associated self-images, which enables us to explain individual differences in nostalgia experience by influencing what is remembered and how the retrieved information is evaluated. This framework is advantageous in that it can integrate existing psychological models into one model and can explain individual differences in nostalgia that are important for the use of nostalgia, especially in clinical situations.

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