Repeated Exposure to Suggestion and the Creation of False Memories

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 294-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria S. Zaragoza ◽  
Karen J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Repeated Exposure ◽  
Single Exposure ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Eyewitness Suggestibility ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Video Experiment ◽  
Retention Intervals ◽  
Suggested Events

The purpose of the present study was to extend research on repetition and illusory truth to the domain of eyewitness suggestibility Specifically, we assessed whether repeated exposure to suggestion, relative to a single exposure, facilitates the creation of false memory for suggested events After viewing a video of a burglary, subjects were asked questions containing misleading suggestions, some of which were repeated Their memory for the source of the suggestions was tested The results show that following repeated (relative to a single) exposure to suggestion, subjects were more likely to (a) claim with high confidence that they remembered the suggested events from the video (Experiment 1) and (b) claim that they consciously recollected witnessing the suggested events (Experiment 2) The effects of repeated exposure were highly reliable and were observed over retention intervals as long as 1 week

scholarly journals Sleep deprivation enhances false memory on the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-130
Author(s):  
Kedarmal Verma ◽  
Naveen Kashyap
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Optimal Conditions ◽  
Semantic Association ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Consolidation Process ◽  
Recovery Sleep

False memories are memories that people report to be true with high confidence, even though they had never encountered the fact behind the memory in reality. Such memories possess strong semantic association with already existing encoded memories which hence appear to be familiar. Sleep is known to provide optimal conditions for the consolidation of long-term memories whereas the deprivation of sleep is known to hinder memory’s consolidation process. The role of sleep in the formation and enhancement of false memories was tested. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task was used to induce false memory in thirty-nine male volunteers who either slept or remained awake following learning. Following a night of recovery sleep both groups returned for retrieval of memory. It was found that sleep deprivation in comparison to sleep led to higher false memory.

scholarly journals Rich false memories of autobiographical events can be reversed

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (13) ◽  
pp. e2026447118
Author(s):  
Aileen Oeberst ◽  
Merle Madita Wachendörfer ◽  
Roland Imhoff ◽  
Hartmut Blank
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Family Narratives ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Repeated Interviews ◽  
Potential Damage ◽  
False Accusations ◽  
Suggested Events

False memories of autobiographical events can create enormous problems in forensic settings (e.g., false accusations). While multiple studies succeeded in inducing false memories in interview settings, we present research trying to reverse this effect (and thereby reduce the potential damage) by means of two ecologically valid strategies. We first successfully implanted false memories for two plausible autobiographical events (suggested by the students’ parents, alongside two true events). Over three repeated interviews, participants developed false memories (measured by state-of-the-art coding) of the suggested events under minimally suggestive conditions (27%) and even more so using massive suggestion (56%). We then used two techniques to reduce false memory endorsement, source sensitization (alerting interviewees to possible external sources of the memories, e.g., family narratives) and false memory sensitization (raising the possibility of false memories being inadvertently created in memory interviews, delivered by a new interviewer). This reversed the false memory build-up over the first three interviews, returning false memory rates in both suggestion conditions to the baseline levels of the first interview (i.e., to ∼15% and ∼25%, respectively). By comparison, true event memories were endorsed at a higher level overall and less affected by either the repeated interviews or the sensitization techniques. In a 1-y follow-up (after the original interviews and debriefing), false memory rates further dropped to 5%, and participants overwhelmingly rejected the false events. One strong practical implication is that false memories can be substantially reduced by easy-to-implement techniques without causing collateral damage to true memories.

scholarly journals The impact of ego-involvement in the creation of false childhood memories

Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Zezelj ◽  
Sofija Pajic ◽  
Neda Omanovic ◽  
Jasmina Ninkovic ◽  
Julija Grcic
Keyword(s):  
False Memories ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
Testing Stage ◽  
Ego Involvement ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Suggested Events

An experiment employed a 'familiar-informant false-narrative procedure' to examine the effects of ego involvement manipulation on the creation of false memories for suggested events. Our main sample consisted of 54 Serbian adolescent students. During the pre-testing stage, students' parents (N=54) provided details from their children childhoods, which were used to create stimuli for the subsequent stages. Half of the participants were given an ego-involving suggestion- a short written statement that claimed that people with higher intelligence have a better and more detailed memory of their childhood. We hypothesized that ego-involved group would recollect more childhood events in general, create more false memories and be more confident in its' authenticity and clarity. Implanted event was recognized as autobiographic by 24% respondents in the testing stage and by 44.4% respondents in the retesting stage. There were significant qualitative differences between authentic and false memories: authentic memories were assessed as more reliable and clearer than the false ones. Ego-involvement manipulation had no impact on the frequency or quality of false memories reported by the participants. Even though the specific ego-involvement manipulation was not successful, our findings suggest that other motivating strategies we employed pushed the respondents into accepting false memory suggestion in the retesting stage. Future research could benefit from testing more elaborate ego-involving procedures.

Intact Priming for Novel Perceptual Representations in Amnesia

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan B. Hamann ◽  
Larry R. Squire
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Single Exposure ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Perceptual Representations ◽  
The Creation ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Brain

Recent studies have challenged the notion that priming for ostensibly novel stimuli such as pseudowords (REAB) reflects the creation of new representations. Priming for such stimuli could instead reflect the activation of familiar memory representations that are orthographically similar (READ) and/or the activation of subparts of stimuli (RE, EX, AR), which are familar because they occur commonly in English. We addressed this issue in three experiments that assessed perceptual identification priming and recognition memory for novel and familiar letter strings in amnesic patients and control subjects. Priming for words, pseudowords, and orthographically illegal nonwords was fully intact in the amnesic patients following a single exposure, whereas recognition memory was impaired for the same items. Thus, priming can occur for stimuli that are unlikely to have preexisting representations. Words and pseudowords exhibited twice as much priming as illegal nonwords, suggesting that activation may contribute to priming for words and wordlike stimuli. Additional results showed that priming for illegal nonwords resulted from the formation of new perceptual associations among the component letters of each nonword rather than the activation of individual letter representations. In summary, the results demonstrate that priming following a single exposure can depend on the creation of new perceptual representations and that such priming is independent of the brain structures essential for declarative memory.

scholarly journals Fuzzy-Trace Theory, False Memory, and the Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Brainerd ◽  
Valerie F. Reyna
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Trace Theory ◽  
Fuzzy Trace Theory ◽  
Rules Of Evidence ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Simple Change ◽  
The Law ◽  
Eyewitness Identifications

Fuzzy-trace theory (FTT) provides well-researched scientific principles that explain worrisome forms of false memory in the law. False memories are of great legal concern because memory reports are frequently the evidence that determines guilt/innocence and are sometimes the only evidence that crimes have been committed. FTT’s principles reveal errors in commonsense theories that jurors use to judge the credibility of witnesses’ memory reports. This science versus commonsense disconnect is salient in cases involving child witnesses, eyewitness identifications, and confessions. The consequences of this disconnect for justice could be ameliorated by a simple change in federal rules of evidence.

Retractors of false memories: The evolution of pseudo-memories

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold I. Lief ◽  
Janet Fetkewicz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Telephone Interview ◽  
Family Members ◽  
False Memories ◽  
False Memory Syndrome ◽  
Reality Testing ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Study Population

The formation of pseudomemories and the subsequent methods used by subjects to eventually distinguish between true and false memories are the primary foci of this study. A survey instrument was distributed to 100 “retractors” after an initial telephone interview with False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) staff. Forty respondents (40% of the subjects) who returned the questionnaire comprise our study population. The survey inquired about personal and family information, events surrounding the subject's accusations of sexual abuse, childhood history, and the subject's reflections on his or her experience. The process of the development of pseudomemories is highlighted. Subjects also described their feelings and experiences in open-ended questions, including their subjective experience as memories evolved, factors influencing thoughts, feelings and doubts, the process of questioning memories, the process of restoring relationships with family members, and uncertainties about views of memories currently held. We focus on the evolution of pseudomemories, especially the influence of the therapist; we explore the nature of therapy, one that makes an ill patient much worse and that eventually becomes so onerous that patients who still have some remaining reality-testing flee from therapy.

False Memory in a Short-Term Memory Task

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer H. Coane ◽  
Dawn M. McBride ◽  
Bascom A. Raulerson III ◽  
J. Scott Jordan
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Latency Data ◽  
Single Probe

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995 ) paradigm reliably elicits false memories for critical nonpresented words in recognition tasks. The present studies used a Sternberg (1966) task with DRM lists to determine whether false memories occur in short-term memory tasks and to assess the contribution of latency data in the measurement of false memories. Subjects studied three, five, or seven items from DRM lists and responded to a single probe (studied or nonstudied). In both experiments, critical lures were falsely recognized more often than nonpresented weak associates. Latency data indicated that correct rejections of critical lures were slower than correct rejections of weakly related items at all set sizes. False alarms to critical lures were slower than hits to list items. Latency data can distinguish veridical and false memories in a short-term memory task. Results are discussed in terms of activation-monitoring models of false memory.

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