Cara Laney

Memory for thematically arousing events.

Many studies have indicated that emotional arousalimproves memory for thecenter, or gist, of an event butundermines memory for the event’speriphery. However, all of these studies have elicited emotion by showing participants some salient visual stimulus intended to arouse them (e.g., the sight of a wound). This stimulus may have served as anattention magnet, and this, not the arousal, may have been the cause of the observed narrowing of memory. In this article, we examine how participants remember events that involvethematically induced arousal, arousal produced by empathy, rather than by a visual emotional stimulus. The data show that emotionality improves memory for all aspects of these events, with no memory narrowing.

Emotional Content of True and False Memories

Many people believe that emotional memories (including those that arise in therapy) are particularly likely to represent true events because of their emotional content. But is emotional content a reliable indicator of memory accuracy? The current research assessed the emotional content of participants’ pre-existing (true) and manipulated (false) memories for childhood events. False memories for one of three emotional childhood events were planted using a suggestive manipulation and then compared, along several subjective dimensions, with other participants’ true memories. On most emotional dimensions (e.g., how emotional was this event for you?), true and false memories were indistinguishable. On a few measures (e.g., intensity of feelings at the time of the event), true memories were more emotional than false memories in the aggregate, yet true and false memories were equally likely to be rated as uniformly emotional. These results suggest that even substantial emotional content may not reliably indicate memory accuracy.

Asparagus, a Love Story: Healthier Eating Could Be Just a False Memory Away

In two experiments, involving 231 subjects, we planted the suggestion that subjects loved to eat asparagus as children. Relative to controls, subjects receiving the suggestion became more confident that they had loved asparagus the first time they tried it. These new (false) beliefs had consequences for those who formed them, including increased general liking of asparagus, greater desire to eat asparagus in a restaurant setting, and a willingness to pay more for asparagus in the grocery store. Ratings of photographs made after the suggestion reveal that the altered nutritional choices may relate to the fact that the sight of asparagus simply looks more appetizing and appealing. These results demonstrate that adults can be led to believe that they had a positive food-related experience as children, and that these false beliefs can have healthy consequences.

Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories.

Some therapists, as well as other commentators, have suggested that memories of horrific trauma are buried in the subconscious by some special process, such as repression, and are later reliably recovered. We find that the evidence provided to support this claim is flawed. Where, then, might these memory reports come from? We discuss several research paradigms that have shown that various manipulations can be used to implant false memories—including false memories for traumatic events. These false memories can be quite compelling for those who develop them and can include details that make them seem credible to others. The fact that a memory report describes a traumatic event does not ensure that the memory is authentic.

Ripple effects in memory: Judgments of moral blame can distort memory for events

Can judging an individual as being morally responsible for a negative act affect memory for details of the act? We presented participants with a story describing an individual (Frank) who committed a crime (he walked out on a restaurant bill). Some participants were told that the negative act was not intentional and that Frank was essentially a good person. Others were told that the negative act was intentional and that Frank actually enjoyed it. Control participants were given no extra information. All the participants then judged Frank’s moral responsibility for walking out on the bill. When asked a week later to recall information about the event, the participants who had received negative information about Frank remembered that Frank had walked out on a larger restaurant bill than he actually had. Moreover, the degree of memory distortion was predicted by the degree of moral blame that had been attributed to Frank.

Effects of Discrete Emotions on Young Children's Suggestibility

Two experiments investigated the effects of sadness, anger, and happiness on 4- to 6-year-old childrens memory and suggestibility concerning story events. In Experiment 1, children were presented with 3 interactive stories on a video monitor. The stories included protagonists who wanted to give the child a prize. After each story, the child completed a task to try to win the prize. The outcome of the childs effort was manipulated in order to elicit sadness, anger, or happiness. Childrens emotions did not affect story recall, but children were more vulnerable to misleading questions about the stories when sad than when angry or happy. In Experiment 2, a story was presented and emotions were elicited using an autobiographical recall task. Children responded to misleading questions and then recalled the story for a different interviewer. Again, childrens emotions did not affect the amount of story information recalled correctly, but sad children incorporated more information from misleading questions during recall than did angry or happy children. Sad childrens greater suggestibility is discussed in terms of the differing problem-solving strategies associated with discrete emotions.

Pluto behaving badly : False beliefs and their consequences

We exposed college students to suggestive materials in order to lead them to believe that, as children, they had a negative experience at Disneyland involving the Pluto character. A sizable minority of subjects developed a false belief or memory that Pluto had uncomfortably licked their ear. Suggestions about a positive experience with Pluto led to even greater acceptance of a lovable ear-licking episode. False beliefs and memories had repercussions; those seduced by the bad suggestions were not willing to pay as much for a Pluto souvenir. These findings are among the first to demonstrate that false beliefs can have repercussions for people, meaning that they can influence their later thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

Recent Advances in False Memory Research

In the last few years, substantial gains have been made in our understanding of human memory errors and the phenomenon of false memory, wherein individuals remember entire events that did not happen at all. Research had established that false memories can be consequential and emotional, that they can last for long periods of time, and that they are not merely the product of demand characteristics or the recovery of extant but hidden memories. These recent advances are discussed as extensions of earlier foundational research.

Truth in Emotional Memories

So said Jackson Browne in his 1974 track “Fountain of Sorrow.” The album containing this track stayed for 29 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Album Chart. While we know rather little about changing the future, we do know quite a bit about how to change the past. Since witnesses in legal proceedings are routinely asked to recall the past, it is crucial to understand how accurate these recollections are, how prone to distortion they might be. Moreover, witnesses in legal proceedings are often asked to recall a past event that was quite emotional in nature. Thus it is crucial to also understand the nature of emotional memories. Fortunately, we have made considerable progress in this endeavor, and some of that progress is described in this chapter.

History of Forensic Interviewing

When a person, whether a child or an adult, makes an accusation of sexual abuse (or is suspected of being a victim in the absence of a specific accusation), forensic interviews are used to explore what really happened. The history of interviews of abuse victims (and purported victims) is complicated, and this history has led directly to many of the specific practices used in forensic interviewing today. Human memory is a central player in this complexity and its tendency to err is central to the need for precise techniques. In this chapter, we discuss some of the key events of recent decades that have helped shape the modern forensic interview. We also describe some of the research that is relevant to the practice.