Credible suggestions affect false autobiographical beliefs

Abstract

False memory implantation studies are characterised by suggestions indicating that specific unremembered events occurred, attributing suggested events to a knowledgeable source (e.g., parents), and including true events that provide evidence that this source was consulted. These characteristics create a particular retrieval context that influences how individuals come to believe that false events occurred. Two studies used a variant of implantation methods to vary the proportion of events attributed to parents and the presence of true events within the suggestion. In Study 1 participants received six false events, and were told that all or some events came from parents. Participants told that all of the events came from parents formed more and stronger false beliefs. In Study 2 participants also received two true events, and a third group was told that half of the events came from their parents. Participants given the specific ratio ("half") endorsed more false beliefs, and beliefs between the other groups no longer differed. Across both studies participants told that some events came from parents reported stronger memory phenomenology. The effect of suggestions on false beliefs in implantation studies depends partly on the credibility of suggestions derived from providing information about the source of suggested events.

The role of belief in occurrence within autobiographical memory.

“…False belief ratings can increase quickly when people are told that a family member said that an event occurred, when a credible expert provides evidence that an event happened, or when individuals are told that an event occurred frequently in a self-relevant reference group (Mazzoni et al, 2001(Mazzoni et al, , 1999Scoboria, Mazzoni, Kirsch, & Jimenez, 2006;van Golde, Sharman, & Candel, 2010). The credibility of the social source of suggestions influences the acceptance of suggested information (Echterhoff, Hirst, & Hussy, 2005;Meade & Roediger, 2002) and the formation of false autobiographical beliefs (Scoboria, Wysman, & Otgaar, 2012). Conversely, recollection ratings remain largely unchanged following such social manipulations.…”

The consequences of suggesting false childhood food events

“…Studies that use brief non-elaborative suggestions, such as those used in the current work, produce very few subjective endorsements of memory. Typically researchers must use elaborate and time-intensive procedures to produce detailed and robust false memories (see Hyman & Pentland, 1996;Loftus & Pickrell, 1995;Otgaar, Scoboria, & Smeets, 2013;Scoboria, Wysman, & Otgaar, 2012 for examples and further discussion; see Nash, Wade, & Lindsay, 2009 for a method that produces vivid 'miniature' false memories more rapidly). The few false memories that result from the brief suggestions analyzed herein are not amenable to statistical analysis within their single studies.…”

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

“…This pattern indicates that implantation procedures promote a notable degree of false belief formation in a majority of participants, and that a high level of belief is not uncommon following these procedures. The level of autobiographical belief results from the procedure regardless of the degree of development of false recollection, which varies across the false-memory categories as discussed above in the analysis of reliving and remember-know ratings (see Scoboria, Wysman, & Otgaar, 2012, for further discussion).…”