A mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies

Scoboria, Alan; Wade, Kimberley A.; Lindsay, D. Stephen; Azad, Tanjeem; Strange, Deryn; Ost, James; Hyman, Ira E.

doi:10.1080/09658211.2016.1260747

Cited by 144 publications

(146 citation statements)

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“…People entering therapy because of potential psychopathology may be particularly motivated to find explanations for their mental state. As suggested in past research, these people might then be particularly suggestible (Scoboria et al, 2017). This could then explain why we found (i) it was mainly the clients who started the discussion on repression, and (ii) an association between discussion of repression and memories recovered during therapy.…”

Section: Consequences Of Discussion and Recovered Memoriessupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Research has shown that it is also possible, under certain circumstances, to develop false memories for entire events (e.g., Loftus and Pickrell, 1995), including criminal events (Shaw & Porter, 2015; but see also Wade, Garry, & Pezdeck, 2018;Shaw, 2018). Systematic reviews of false memory research have seen rates ranging from 15% (Brewin & Andrews, 2017; but see Otgaar, Merckelbach, Jelicic, & Smeets, 2017;Nash, Wade, Garry, Loftus, & Ost, 2017) to 30% (Scoboria et al, 2017) of participants developing false memories.…”

Section: Recovered Memory Therapy and Beliefs About Repressed Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, we explored the association between beliefs in repressed memory and in the recovered memory therapies' effectiveness and the report of recovered memories during therapy. Because false beliefs regarding how memory works may encourage therapists to rely on unsupported suggestive therapeutic techniques (Lynn, Evans, Laurence, & Lilienfeld, 2015), and because people entering therapy generally have the motivation to find explanations for their symptoms, making them potentially suggestible (Scoboria et al, 2017), we expected more reports of recovered memories during therapy in participant who believed in repressed memory and in the recovered memory therapies' effectiveness.…”

Section: Correlates Of Recovered Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Dodier

Patihis

Payoux

2019

Memory

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Recovered memories of abuse in therapy are especially controversial if the clients were not aware they were abused before therapy. In the past, such memory recovery has led to legal action, as well as a debate about whether such memories might be repressed, forgotten, or false memories. More than two decades after the height of the controversy, it is unclear to what degree such memories are still recovered today, and to what extent it occurs in France.In our French survey of 1312 participants (M age = 33; 53% female), 551 reported having done therapy at some point. Of that 551, 33 (6%) indicated they had recovered memories of abuse in therapy that they did not know about before therapy. Sexual abuse was the most commonly reported type that was recovered in therapy (79%). As in past research, discussing the possibility of repressed memories with therapists was associated with reports of recovered memories of abuse. Surprisingly, memory recovery occurred just as much in behavioural and cognitive therapies as it did in therapies focused on trauma. We found recovered memories in a proportion of clients who began therapy recently. Recovered memories in therapy appears to be an ongoing concern in France.

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Section: Consequences Of Discussion and Recovered Memoriessupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Recovered Memory Therapy and Beliefs About Repressed Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Correlates Of Recovered Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Dodier

Patihis

Payoux

2019

Memory

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“…In response to suggestive procedures, some participants come to show substantial increases in belief ratings, while others show small increases in belief ratings, and others show no increases at all (Mazzoni, Loftus, & Kirsch, 2001; Scoboria, Lynn, Hessen, & Fisico, 2007; Scoboria, Mazzoni, Jarry, & Shapero, 2012). Some of the earliest studies on the formation of rich false memories took the view that suggestions sometime result in "partial" and sometimes "complete" false recollection (Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995), a concept revisited in a recent mega-analysis of false-memory implantation studies (Scoboria et al, 2016). Whereas it has been valuable to study the conditions under which suggestions lead people to develop false autobiographical beliefs of varying strength, it is also valuable to consider the conditions under which disconfirming feedback affects autobiographical beliefs, to greater or lesser extents.…”

Section: Belief In Occurrence (Autobiographical Belief)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-types of nonbelieved memories reveal differential outcomes of challenges to memories

Scoboria

Nash

Mazzoni

2016

Memory

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Nonbelieved memories (NBMs) highlight the independence between distinct metamemorial judgments that contribute to the experience of remembering. Initial definitions of NBMs portrayed them as involving the withdrawal of belief in occurrence despite sustained recollection. While people rate belief for their NBMs as weaker than recollection, the average difference is too small to support the idea that autobiographical belief is completely withdrawn in all cases. Furthermore, autobiographical belief and recollection ratings vary considerably across NBMs. In two studies, we reanalyzed data from prior studies to examine whether NBM reports reflect a single category or multiple sub-categories using cluster analytic methods. In Study 1, we identified three sub-types of NBMs. In Study 2 we incorporated the concept of belief in accuracy, and found that two of the clusters from Study 1 split into two clusters apiece. All clusters were characterized by higher recollection than belief in occurrence ratings, and clusters were differentiated by the degree of difference between these variables. In both studies the clusters were discriminated by a number of memory characteristic ratings and by reasons reported as leading to the alteration of belief. Implications for understanding the remembering of past events and predicting the creation of NBMs are discussed.Keywords: nonbelieved memory, subtype, cluster analysis, belief in occurrence, accuracy, memory SUB-TYPES OF NONBELIEVED MEMORIES… 3 Sub-types of nonbelieved memories reveal differential outcomes of challenges to memories Nonbelieved memories (NBMs) have been described as a counterintuitive phenomenon in which a person claims to have a vivid episodic recollection of an event, despite no longer believing that the event is veridical. Anecdotal reports of NBMs have been known for some time, but this type of memorial experience has only recently become a topic of scientific study, and recognized as more common than previously thought (Mazzoni, Scoboria, & Harvey, 2010; see Otgaar, Scoboria, & Mazzoni, 2014, for a review). The purpose of this paper is to revisit the quality of fit between people's reports and ratings of naturally-occurring NBMs and theoretical characterizations of these memories. To this end, we examine the possibility that differentiating sub-types of NBMs might better elucidate the circumstances in which people's appraisals of belief in occurrence and recollection about remembered events are revised.Researchers interested in NBMs have found them relatively easy to observe in everyday experience, and easy to create artificially in the laboratory. As a consequence, several studies have been conducted that collectively reveal some typical characteristics of NBMs. First, when people report having ceased believing a memory, this belief-change frequently follows the receipt of some form of social feedback (in about half of reports; Scoboria, Boucher, & Mazzoni, 2015). Individuals also report altering belief due to reappraisal of the plausibility of event...

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“…Combining 30% with 43% yields 73%-close to Shaw and Porter's 70%. When we recoded Shaw and Porter'ʹs data usingScoboria et al's (2017) scheme, 26% of subjects met the criteria for false memories (in Scoboria et al's parlance, this figure also includes a more fervently---held level of false memories). Another 43% met the criteria for accepting the event but said they didn'ʹt remember it.…”

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confidence: 99%

Deconstructing Rich False Memories of Committing Crime: Commentary on Shaw and Porter (2015)

2018

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For 20 years, scientists have created a vast range of false autobiographical memories. Variations of the powerful "lost-in-the-mall" paradigm have led ordinary adults to appear to remember nonexistent childhood hospital visits, animal attacks, classroom pranks, and hot-air balloon rides (for a summary, see Newman & Garry, 2013). An analysis of published lost-in-the-mall studies suggests that, over time, the overall rate of false beliefs-but not false memories-generated in these studies has increased (see Fig. S1 in the Supplemental Material available online). Yet a recent demonstration was nonetheless surprising: When Shaw and Porter (2015) suggested to young adults that, as adolescents, they had committed a crime resulting in a brush with police, 70% constructed "rich false memories." As Shaw told PBS's NOVA on the "Memory Hackers" episode, the false memories "just kept coming and coming and coming" (Bicks & Strachan, 2016, 4 min, 13 s).Yet that 70% finding should give researchers pause, because it is markedly outside the central tendency of the lost-in-the-mall literature. In a recent mega-analysis comprising 423 memory reports, 22% of subjects were classified as having developed "full" or "robust" false memories (Scoboria et al., 2017). How, then, did Shaw and Porter create so many false memories? In this Commentary, we provide evidence that they did not.In lost-in-the-mall studies, two or more independent judges typically read transcripts of subjects' memory reports to determine whether subjects reject the suggestion outright, appear to believe the suggestion, or even seem to remember something about the false event. To date, 13 of 16 of these studies have distinguished between people who appear to develop false beliefs and those who appear to develop false memories. 1 Although different labs have defined and classified beliefs and memories differently, the gist of the distinction is this: People with false beliefs appear to accept that the false event occurred, or they imagine or speculate about it. People with false memories provide further evidence that they "genuinely" remember the event. For instance, they might elaborate on the suggested event, talk about emotions, or confidently state that they "remember the event occurring."Shaw and Porter said they did not distinguish between false beliefs and memories in their research. Nor did they use any one of several established coding schemes that distinguish between false beliefs and false memories, because they feared that these schemes might not meaningfully differentiate among their subjects' reports. Instead, they developed a new coding scheme that they described as "very conservative" (p. 295). At first glance, this new coding scheme does indeed look conservative: Subjects had to meet six criteria to be judged as reporting a false memory. For instance, subjects had to report details about the event in the final interview session, including "critical pieces of false information" (p. 295), and provide a basic account of how the event occurred. During debr...

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A mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies

Cited by 144 publications

References 93 publications

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Sub-types of nonbelieved memories reveal differential outcomes of challenges to memories

Deconstructing Rich False Memories of Committing Crime: Commentary on Shaw and Porter (2015)

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