False memories of childhood experiences

Abstract

We conducted two experiments to investigate if college students would create false memories of childhood experiences in response to misleading information and repeated interviews. In both experiments we contacted parents to obtain information about events that happened to the students during childhood. In a series of interviews we asked the students to recall the parentreported events and one experimenter-created false event. In the second experiment we varied the age at which we claimed the false event occurred. In both experiments we found that some individuals created false memories in these circumstances and in the second experiment we found no effect of age of attempted incorporation. In the second experiment we also found that those who discussed related background knowledge during the early interviews were more likely to create a false recall. Generalizations to therapy contexts are discussed.Can adults create false memories of childhood experiences in response to misleading information and the demands of an interview? Psychologists who work with people recovering from childhood abuse and trauma have contended that most memories recovered during therapy are accurate (Bass and Davis, 1988;Fredrickson, 1992;Olio, 1994). Memory psychologists, in contrast, have expressed concern that many recovered memories may be false memories (Kihlstrom, 1993;Lindsay and Read, 1994;Loftus, 1993). Thus investigation of factors that contribute to our understanding of the recovery of childhood memories is important. If adults can create false childhood memories, then therapists will need to exercise caution in their interviews with clients, and the courts may need to view memories recovered through therapy as having been contaminated by potentially biasing influences. Research on false memories may also provide information concerning the processes involved in memory creation-whether memory creation involves integration, source confusion, or some combination of both.The focus on memories of childhood experiences is an old concern in the psychoanalytic tradition (Erdelyi, 1990;Freud, 1957Freud, ,1974. Freud viewed childhood memories as an important source of information about an individual and he emphasized the interpretation of childhood memories. Freud was also interested in childhood, or Correspondence concerning this article should be directed to

“You and your best friend Suzy put Slime in Ms. Smollett’s desk”: Producing false memories with self-relevant details

“…Thus, we hypothesized that the provision of self-relevant information may elevate false memory rates. This view is supported by Hyman, Husband, and Billings's (1995) finding that participants whose imagery included self-knowledge were more likely to endorse false events as true. Hence, it may have been the unconstrained nature of narratives, differences in self-relevant information, or both that resulted in differences between narratives and photographs in Garry and Wade's study.…”

Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.

“…Indeed, false remembering may arise from repeated attempts at retrieval, as shown in Experiment 2 and elsewhere (e.g., Ceci, Huffman, Smith, & Loftus, 1994;Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995;Roediger et al, 1993). Retrieval processes may contribute significantly to the false recall and false recognition phenomena we have observed.…”

Actually, a picture is worth less than 45 words: Narratives produce more false memories than photographs do

“…Because narratives allow and even demand that subjects generate their own details, narratives should give subjects freedom to generate their own images, incorporate personal knowledge, and require deeper processing. By contrast, photographs impose more constraints on imagination because they depict specific details, people, and settings (see also Hyman, Husband, & Billings, 1995, who showed that subjects who incorporated self-knowledge into their imagery were more likely to develop false memories). Taken together, research suggests that narratives should establish more familiarity than should photos and make subjects more likely to falsely remember events.…”