Scoboria Alan, Wade Kimberley A, Lindsay D Stephen, Azad Tanjeem, Strange Deryn, Ost James, Hyman Ira E
a Department of Psychology , University of Windsor , Windsor , ON , Canada.
b Department of Psychology , University of Warwick , Coventry , UK.
Memory. 2017 Feb;25(2):146-163. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2016.1260747. Epub 2016 Nov 28.
Understanding that suggestive practices can promote false beliefs and false memories for childhood events is important in many settings (e.g., psychotherapeutic, medical, and legal). The generalisability of findings from memory implantation studies has been questioned due to variability in estimates across studies. Such variability is partly due to false memories having been operationalised differently across studies and to differences in memory induction techniques. We explored ways of defining false memory based on memory science and developed a reliable coding system that we applied to reports from eight published implantation studies (N = 423). Independent raters coded transcripts using seven criteria: accepting the suggestion, elaboration beyond the suggestion, imagery, coherence, emotion, memory statements, and not rejecting the suggestion. Using this scheme, 30.4% of cases were classified as false memories and another 23% were classified as having accepted the event to some degree. When the suggestion included self-relevant information, an imagination procedure, and was not accompanied by a photo depicting the event, the memory formation rate was 46.1%. Our research demonstrates a useful procedure for systematically combining data that are not amenable to meta-analysis, and provides the most valid estimate of false memory formation and associated moderating factors within the implantation literature to date.
认识到暗示性做法会催生对童年事件的错误信念和错误记忆，这在许多情境中（如心理治疗、医学和法律领域）都很重要。由于各研究的估计结果存在差异，记忆植入研究结果的普遍性受到了质疑。这种差异部分归因于不同研究中对错误记忆的操作化方式不同，以及记忆诱导技术的差异。我们探索了基于记忆科学定义错误记忆的方法，并开发了一个可靠的编码系统，将其应用于八项已发表的植入研究报告（N = 423）。独立评分者使用七个标准对记录进行编码：接受暗示、在暗示之外进行详述、形成意象、连贯性、情感、记忆陈述以及不拒绝暗示。采用该方案，30.4%的案例被归类为错误记忆，另外23%在某种程度上被归类为接受了该事件。当暗示包含与自身相关的信息、采用想象程序且没有伴随描绘该事件的照片时，记忆形成率为46.1%。我们的研究展示了一种有用的程序，可系统地整合不适用于荟萃分析的数据，并提供了迄今为止植入文献中错误记忆形成及相关调节因素的最有效估计。
