J. Don Read

A picture is worth a thousand lies: Using false photographs to create false childhood memories

Because image-enhancing technology is readily available, people are frequently exposed to doctored images. However, in prior research on how adults can be led to report false childhood memories, subjects have typically been exposed to personalized and detailed narratives describing false events. Instead, we exposed 20 subjects to a false childhood event via a fake photograph and imagery instructions. Over three interviews, subjects thought about a photograph showing them on a hot air balloon ride and tried to recall the event by using guided-imagery exercises. Fifty percent of the subjects created complete or partial false memories. The results bear on ways in which false memories can be created and also have practical implications for those involved in clinical and legal settings.

From a passing thought to a false memory in 2 minutes: Confusing real and illusory events

The frequency with which subjects erroneously included a nonpresented word in their recall of a study list was explored in two experiments. The intrusion error was recalled by as many as 80% of the subjects, and when it was perceived to have been presented early in the study list, it was assigned confidence ratings and phenomenological retrieval characteristics equivalent to those for presented words. As a result, subjects were often unable to discriminate memories of real study words from their memories of a related but nonpresented word. Manipulations of encoding, but not of retrieval, conditions altered both the frequencies of illusory memories and their metamemorial characteristics. The results and paradigm are discussed in terms of their relevance to the “memory-recovery” debate.

Familiarity, memorability, and the effect of typicality on the recognition of faces.

Typical faces are more poorly discriminated on tests of recognition than are atypical faces, an effect suggested to mediate similar findings for attractive or likable faces. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of typicality on recognition is a function of context-free familiarity and memorability, which function in opposition. Two orthogonal principal components were extracted from subjects’ ratings of faces for typicality, familiarity, attractiveness, likability, and memorability—one consisting of the ratings of familiarity, attractiveness, and likability, and reflecting context-free familiarity, and the other consisting of the memorability rating. As expected, typicality loaded equally (r ≈ .66), but with opposite sign, on both components. In subsequent experiments, both components were found to be significant and additive, predictors of face recognition with no residual effect of typicality. General familiarity decreased discrimination, and the memorability component enhanced it, supporting the hypothesis. The results are discussed in terms of the mirror effect.

Eyewitness memory : theoretical and applied perspectives

Contents: Preface. Part I: Overview. J.D. Read, D. Bruce, Eyewitness Memory: Themes and Variations. Part II: Eyewitness Memory. S.J. Ceci, A.M. Crossman, L.L. Gilstrap, M.H. Scullin, Social and Cognitive Factors in Childrens Testimony. J.F. Parker, L. Bahrick, B. Lundy, R. Fivush, M. Levitt, Effects of Stress on Childrens Memory for a Natural Disaster. N.E. Walker, J.S. Hunt, Interviewing Child Victim-Witnesses: How You Ask Is What You Get. G. Koehnken, A Phased Approach to Interviewer Training. J.D. Read, D.S. Lindsay, T. Nicholls, The Relationship Between Confidence and Accuracy in Eyewitness Identification Studies: Is The Conclusion Changing? A.D. Yarmey, Person Identification in Showups and Lineups. J.C. Yuille, J. Daylen, The Impact of Traumatic Events on Eyewitness Memory.

Rehearsal and Recognition of Human Faces

The question of whether or not photographs of human faces may be rehearsed was addressed in two experiments. The faces varied in perspective from the presentation to the recognition phases of the experiments. In Experiment 1, two instructional sets which favored different rehearsal modes (i.e., visual image versus verbal description) and two durations of the rehearsal period were compared. In Experiment 2, the continued observation of pictures was compared to the rehearsal of images of those pictures for equivalent periods of time. The results from both experiments demonstrated that rehearsal increased both recognition accuracy and confidence, and decreased response latency. Thus, previous research which had neglected the use of appropriate control groups had consistently underestimated the magnitude of rehearsal effects upon recognition accuracy. Further, compared to a control condition, the continued observation of a picture and the rehearsal of an image of that picture in Experiment 2 produced equivalent gains in recognition accuracy. The results were interpreted in terms of the schematic nature of visual images and the facilitatory effects of rehearsal for the generation of retrieval of such a schematic.

After 30 Years, What Do We Know about What Jurors Know? A Meta-Analytic Review of Lay Knowledge Regarding Eyewitness Factors

Surveys typically characterize lay knowledge of eyewitness factors as low and highly variable. However, there are notable differences across methodologies, samples, and individual factors. To examine these differences systematically, we took a meta-analytic approach to reviewing the findings of 23 surveys assessing lay knowledge of eyewitness issues. Our analyses examined the beliefs of 4,669 respondents. Overall, respondents correctly agreed with survey items approximately two-thirds of the time. Results revealed significant differences in performance as a function of variable type, question format, and over time. We found few differences as a function of sample type, publication status, or jurisdiction. Although performance varied, a majority of lay respondents achieved “correct” consensus for as many as 11 of the 16 items included in this review.

RECALLING MORE CHILDHOOD EVENTS LEADS TO JUDGMENTS OF POORER MEMORY : IMPLICATIONS FOR THE RECOVERED/FALSE MEMORY DEBATE

Dissociative disorders that are believed to develop from childhood sexual abuse are often considered to include amnesia for childhood events, particularly the events that involve the abuse itself. One unresolved issue is the extent to which memory recovery attempts can contribute to claims of having amnestic symptoms. Experiments with undergraduate subjects reveal that requiring more reports of childhood events will increase judgments of having poorer memory of one’s childhood. The results are consistent with the use of heuristics when one is reasoning under conditions of uncertainty, as experienced difficulty in remembering more experiences is attributed to the incompleteness of childhood memory. The findings challenge the validity of reports of childhood amnesia that follow memory recovery attempts.

Emotional arousal and memory: a test of the poststimulus processing hypothesis.

Emotional arousal is believed to enhance memory for details central to an episode but impair memory for peripheral details. However, new research suggests that arousal induced thematically (i.e., through involvement with an unfolding event) produces only memory enhancements. This article examines whether consciously controlled elaborative processing in the aftermath of an arousing experience is responsible. A dual task manipulation was used to prevent participants from ruminating over a video that depicted an abduction and attack. Several indices of recall showed greater memory for emotional event details than for details from a neutral control video, which remained the case when the opportunity for post-stimulus elaboration was prevented. Thus, superior retention of the content of emotional experiences may arise from the way in which arousal is induced rather than through immediate postevent cognitions.

Detection of Fs in a single statement: the role of phonetic recoding.

Most college-student readers have difficulty in detecting the letter F in instances of the word OF embedded in a single statement. Throughout a series of five experiments designed to clarify the basis of these detection failures, their unique and robust nature was demonstrated. The detection failures persisted in spite of repeated attempts to detect the letters by subjects who, in separate conditions and experiments, first memorized or copied the statement, or who, for purposes of comparison, also detected the O in OF, the N in ON, or the F in IF, or who read the statement in a number of physical formats, which included lower and upper letter cases, scrambled syntax, unsegmented letter strings, and vertical (list) presentation. Although many of these manipulations significantly improved performance, none produced perfect performance or performance comparable to the detection of F in IF. Several hypotheses, including those of redundancy, unitization, and phonetic recoding, were tested as explanations of the detection failures: The hypothesis that received the strongest support was that of phonetic recoding. This hypothesis focuses upon the atypical pronunciation of F as/v/(as in the word OF), rather than as the more typical/f/. In short, this reading illusion was concluded to be, in large part, a result of the subjects’ scanning their acoustic rather than their visual images of the printed word.

Adults' memories of childhood: affect, knowing, and remembering.

Adult questionnaire respondents reported, for each of a number of events, if they had experienced that event during childhood and, if so, if they remembered the experience or merely knew it had happened. Respondents also rated the emotion of each event and judged whether they would remember more about each reportedly experienced event if they spent more time trying to do so. Study 1 respondents were 96 undergraduates, whereas Study 2 tested 93 community members ranging widely in age. Respondents often reported no recollections of reportedly experienced events. Reportedly experienced events rated as emotional were more often recollected than those rated as neutral, and those rated as positive were more often recollected than those rated as negative. Predicted ability to remember more was related to current memory. Claims of remembering reportedly experienced events increased with age, but predicted ability to remember more about them declined with age.