Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens.

Clancy, Susan A.; McNally, Richard J.; Schacter, Daniel L.; Lenzenweger, Mark F.; Pitman, Roger K.

doi:10.1037/0021-843x.111.3.455

Cited by 119 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…These studies do not confirm that participants' abuse memories were false, but they suggest a propensity to form false memories in those reporting recovered memories of CSA. Although some question the ecological validity of this paradigm (Freyd & Gleaves, 1996; but see Roediger & McDermott, 1996, for a rejoinder), individuals who report recovering (presumably false) memories of past lives (Meyersburg, Bogdan, Gallo, & McNally, 2009) and space alien abduction (Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lenzenweger, & Pitman, 2002) likewise exhibit heightened false memory effects on the DRM.…”

Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trauma model of dissociation: Inconvenient truths and stubborn fictions. Comment on Dalenberg et al. (2012).

Lynn

Lilienfeld

Merckelbach

et al. 2014

Psychological Bulletin

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129

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Dalenberg et al. (2012) argued that convincing evidence (a) supports the longstanding trauma model (TM), which posits that early trauma plays a key role in the genesis of dissociation; and (b) refutes the fantasy model (FM), which posits that fantasy proneness, suggestibility, cognitive failures, and other variables foster dissociation. We review evidence bearing on Dalenberg et al.'s 8 predictions and find them largely wanting in empirical support. We contend that the authors repeat errors committed by many previous proponents of the TM, such as attributing a central etiological role to trauma in the absence of sufficient evidence. Specifically, Dalenberg et al. leap too quickly from correlational data to causal conclusions, do not adequately consider the lack of corroboration of abuse in many studies, and underestimate the relation between dissociation and false memories. Nevertheless, we identify points of agreement between the TM and FM regarding potential moderators and mediators of dissociative symptoms (e.g., family environment, biological vulnerabilities) and the hypothesis that dissociative identity disorder is a disorder of self-understanding. We acknowledge that trauma may play a causal role in dissociation but that this role is less central and specific than Dalenberg et al. contend. Finally, although a key assumption of the TM is dissociative amnesia, the notion that people can encode traumatic experiences without being able to recall them lacks strong empirical support. Accordingly, we conclude that the field should now abandon the simple trauma-dissociation model and embrace multifactorial models that accommodate the diversity of causes of dissociation and dissociative disorders.Keywords: dissociation, dissociative disorder, dissociative identity disorder, trauma, sociocognitive modelThe notion that people dissociate to cope with trauma has its roots in the writings of Janet (1889/1973). This trauma model (TM) remains influential among some clinical scholars (e.g., Dalenberg et al., 2012), who contend that trauma is the key player in the genesis of dissociation. Nevertheless, as we discuss later, advocates of the TM have often neglected to articulate trauma's precise role in the cause of dissociation. Critics of the TM (e.g., Giesbrecht, Lynn, Lilienfeld, & Merckelbach, 2008, 2010Lynn, Lilienfeld, Merckelbach, Giesbrecht, & van der Kloet, 2012;Pope & Hudson, 1995) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Steven Jay Lynn, Psychology Department, Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY 13902. E-mail: stevenlynn100@gmail.com This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.Psychological Bulletin © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014 0033-2909/14/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0035570 896 etiology of dissociation and dissociative disorders. 1 An early alternative to the TM, the sociocognitive model (SCM; Lili...

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Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trauma model of dissociation: Inconvenient truths and stubborn fictions. Comment on Dalenberg et al. (2012).

Lynn

Lilienfeld

Merckelbach

et al. 2014

Psychological Bulletin

Self Cite

129

130

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“…First, research has shown that emotional word lists such as the ones used in the DRM paradigm evoke emotional reactions that are quite similar to the ones produced by complex real‐life events and autobiographical memories (Rubin & Talarico, 2009). Second, although there is debate about whether different false memories share similar underlying mechanisms (Ost et al ., 2013; Otgaar & Candel, 2011), there is some evidence showing that DRM false memories are positively related to (false) autobiographical memories (Clancy et al ., 2002). However, in the current study, we did not find evidence for a relationship between suggestion‐induced false memories and spontaneous false memories which implies different mechanisms probably underlie these different types of false memories.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Work in this area has produced mixed results with some studies showing no relationship between spontaneous and suggestion‐based false memories in children and adults (Ost, Blank, Davies, Jones, Lambert, & Salmon, 2013) and other studies demonstrating a positive link between spontaneous false memories and autobiographical false memories (Clancy, McNally, Schachter, Lenzenweger, & Pitman, 2002; Otgaar, Verschuere, Meijer, & van Oorsouw, 2012). Importantly, although there might be overlap in the mechanisms underlying spontaneous and suggestion‐induced false memories, one fundamental difference is the following.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maltreatment increases spontaneous false memories but decreases suggestion‐induced false memories in children

Otgaar

Howe

Muris

2017

British J of Dev Psycho

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We examined the creation of spontaneous and suggestion‐induced false memories in maltreated and non‐maltreated children. Maltreated and non‐maltreated children were involved in a Deese–Roediger–McDermott false memory paradigm where they studied and remembered negative and neutral word lists. Suggestion‐induced false memories were created using a misinformation procedure during which both maltreated and non‐maltreated children viewed a negative video (i.e., bank robbery) and later received suggestive misinformation concerning the event. Our results showed that maltreated children had higher levels of spontaneous negative false memories but lower levels of suggestion‐induced false memories as compared to non‐maltreated children. Collectively, our study demonstrates that maltreatment both increases and decreases susceptibility to memory illusions depending on the type of false memory being induced. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Trauma affects memory.It is unclear how trauma affects false memory. What does this study add? This study focuses on two types of false memories.

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“…In the late 1990s and into the twentyirst century, a team of Harvard psychologists were studying memory in people who had (after periods of forgetting) recovered memories of sexual abuse. But a control group was needed, people whose memories of traumatic events, they dryly wrote, "are unlikely to have occurred" (Clancy et al 2002). For this control group, they decided on alien abductees.…”

Section: Working With the Realmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resonance of Unseen Things

Lepselter¹

2016

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Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens.

Cited by 119 publications

References 41 publications

The trauma model of dissociation: Inconvenient truths and stubborn fictions. Comment on Dalenberg et al. (2012).

The trauma model of dissociation: Inconvenient truths and stubborn fictions. Comment on Dalenberg et al. (2012).

Maltreatment increases spontaneous false memories but decreases suggestion‐induced false memories in children

Resonance of Unseen Things

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