Imagination inflation
The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (June 2012) |
Imagination inflation is a type of memory distortion that occurs when imagining an event that never happened increases confidence in the memory of the event.[1]
Several factors have been demonstrated to increase the imagination inflation effect. Imagining a false event increases familiarity, which may cause people to mistake this as evidence that they have experienced the event.[2][3] Imagination inflation could also be the result of source confusion or source monitoring errors. When imagining a false event, people generate information about the event that is often stored in their memory. Later, they might remember the content of the memory but not its source and mistakenly attribute the recalled information to a real experience.[2]
This effect is relevant to the study of
Research
Early research
In 1996, Elizabeth Loftus, Maryanne Garry, Charles Manning, and Steven Sherman, conducted the original imagination inflation study. The study examined the effect of imagining a childhood event on childhood memories.[1] It was the first study to examine the effects of imagining false events on memory in the absence of other factors present in previous studies, such as social pressure.[1][2] In the study, the act of imagining unexperienced childhood events, such as being rescued by a lifeguard or breaking a window with one's hand, increased confidence that the events had occurred. After people imagined events with low initial confidence ratings (i.e. ones which they originally said they had not experienced) they became more confident that the events took place compared with unimagined ones.[1]
Due to the
Further research
Later studies have used similar methods with a pre-test rating of a series of events, an intervening
Other research has investigated what types of events can show an imagination inflation effect, often using a method similar to Goff and Roediger's,[5] in which participants perform some actions but not others, then imagine some of them, and later mistakenly believe they have performed imagined actions but not control unimagined ones. One comparison found a similar imagination inflation effect for actions identical to those in Goff and Roediger's study (i.e. "break the toothpick") and altered, bizarre versions of such actions (i.e. "kiss the magnifying glass").[8] Another found an effect when people imagined a highly unusual action such as kissing a vending machine or lying on a couch and talking to Sigmund Freud.[9] Some people have developed false beliefs of having performed bizarre actions[9] or experienced more ordinary events[2] even after imagining somebody else, rather than themselves, performing them.
Causes
The cause of the imagination inflation effect is debated. There is evidence that source-monitoring framework, the familiarity misattribution theory, and the effects of sensory elaboration contribute to the formation of false memories through imagination inflation. It has been theorized that these effects, and other unknown effects, all contribute to the imagination inflation effect.[10]
Source-monitoring framework
The source-monitoring framework, developed by Thomas et al., states that memories are not specified as real or imagined. Thus, under this framework, after imaging an event, it is difficult to distinguish whether the memory is real or not.[10]
Familiarity misattribution theory
Under the familiarity misattribution theory, the imagination inflation effect is likely to occur because imagining an event increases familiarity with that event. This familiarity is then misattributed and interpreted as evidence that the event actually occurred.[11]
Sensory elaboration
Thomas et al. argue that perceptual components of imagining events confuse actual lived memories because of elaboration. When participants included sensory details while recalling imagined events, participants were more likely to falsely remember the imagined events. Participants were thought to confuse imagined events with actual events because of the specific and elaborate nature of their imagination. The results of the study argue that elaboration (in the form of vivid sensory details) leads to increased formation of false memories.[12]
Implications
False confessions
Imagination inflation has implications for the
In another interrogation technique, interrogators ask suspects to explain how a crime might have been committed or how they themselves could have done it. This practice has been suggested as another cause of self-generated false confessions because it forces an innocent suspect to create a believable narrative of their own guilt.[4][15] This is supported by research in which people explained how a false childhood event could have occurred, and, after, became more confident that it had really happened.[15]
Criticisms
Regression to the mean
A 2001 critique argued that the original findings of the 1996 imagination inflation study did not in fact reflect changed beliefs about the past via imagination, but were instead a product of
References
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