School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Jul;52(5):1079-1092. doi: 10.3758/s13421-024-01524-9. Epub 2024 Jan 29.
In rich false memory studies, familial informants often provide information to support researchers in planting vivid memories of events that never occurred. The goal of the current study was to assess how effectively we can retract these false memories via debriefing - i.e., to what extent can we put participants back the way we found them? We aimed to establish (1) what proportion of participants would retain a false memory or false belief following debriefing, and (2) whether richer, more detailed memories would be more difficult to retract. Participants (N = 123) completed a false memory implantation protocol as part of a replication of the "Lost in the Mall" study (Loftus & Pickrell, Psychiatric Annals, 25, 720-725, 1995). By the end of the protocol, 14% of participants self-reported a memory for the fabricated event, and a further 52% believed it had happened. Participants were then fully debriefed, and memory and belief for the false event were assessed again. In a follow-up assessment 3 days post-debriefing, the false memory rate had dropped to 6% and false belief rates also fell precipitously to 7%. Moreover, virtually all persistent false memories were found to be nonbelieved memories, where participants no longer accepted that the fabricated event had occurred. Richer, more detailed memories were more resistant to correction, but were still mostly retracted. This study provides evidence that participants can be "dehoaxed", and even very convincing false memories can be retracted.
在丰富的虚假记忆研究中，家族知情者经常提供信息来支持研究人员种植从未发生过的事件的生动记忆。本研究的目的是评估通过汇报（debriefing）来有效地撤回这些虚假记忆的效果，即我们能在多大程度上让参与者回到我们发现他们的状态？我们旨在确定：（1）汇报后有多少参与者会保留虚假记忆或虚假信念；（2）更丰富、更详细的记忆是否更难撤回。参与者（N=123）完成了虚假记忆植入协议，作为对“迷失在商场”研究（Loftus 和 Pickrell，《精神病学纪事》，25，720-725，1995）的复制的一部分。在协议结束时，14%的参与者自我报告对编造的事件有记忆，还有 52%的参与者相信事件已经发生。然后，参与者接受了全面的汇报，再次评估对虚假事件的记忆和信念。在汇报后的 3 天随访评估中，虚假记忆率下降到 6%，虚假信念率也急剧下降到 7%。此外，几乎所有持续的虚假记忆都被发现是不被相信的记忆，即参与者不再接受编造的事件已经发生。更丰富、更详细的记忆更难纠正，但仍被撤回了大部分。这项研究提供了证据表明，参与者可以被“拆穿骗局”，即使是非常令人信服的虚假记忆也可以被撤回。
