Yue Yaqi, Afzal Muhammad Imran, Wang Lijuan
School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, No. 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130024, China.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Sep 4. doi: 10.3758/s13421-024-01632-6.
Observing others performing an action can lead to false memories of self-performance-the observation-inflation effect. Previous research has indicated that this phenomenon might impact the memory of actions in real-world interactions. However, whether direct observation without interaction can lead to observation inflation remains unclear. In Experiment 1, participants passively observed the experimenter performing actions live. In subsequent memory tests, they indeed reported false memories regarding their performances. Building on this, Experiment 2 investigated the causes of the observation-inflation effect induced by "real" actions. Participants underwent imitation-inhibition training with the individuals they observed previously. The results revealed that participants who completed imitation-inhibition training reported fewer false memories in memory tests than those who completed imitation training. These findings suggest that even passive observation of "real" actions can lead to observation inflation, and the simulation of others' actions by individuals may be a potential underlying cause of their occurrence in real-life situations.
观察他人执行某个动作可能会导致对自我执行的错误记忆——即观察膨胀效应。先前的研究表明，这种现象可能会影响现实世界互动中动作的记忆。然而，没有互动的直接观察是否会导致观察膨胀仍不清楚。在实验1中，参与者被动地观看实验者现场执行动作。在随后的记忆测试中，他们确实报告了关于自己表现的错误记忆。在此基础上，实验2研究了由“真实”动作引起的观察膨胀效应的原因。参与者对他们之前观察的个体进行模仿抑制训练。结果显示，完成模仿抑制训练的参与者在记忆测试中报告的错误记忆比完成模仿训练的参与者少。这些发现表明，即使是对“真实”动作的被动观察也会导致观察膨胀，而个体对他人动作的模拟可能是其在现实生活情境中出现的一个潜在根本原因。
