Imagination and memory: Does imagining implausible events lead to false autobiographical memories?
Open accessAbstract
Previous studies have reported that imagination can induce false autobiographical memories. This finding has been used to suggest that psychotherapists who have clients imagine suspected repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse may, in fact, be inducing false memories for the imagined events. In this study, at Time 1 and then, 2 weeks later, at Time 2, 145 subjects rated each of 20 events on the Life Events Inventory as to whether each had occurred to them in childhood. One week after Time 1, the subjects were told that 2 target events were plausible and 2 were implausible. They were then asked to imagine 1 plausible and 1 implausible target event. Plausibility and imagining interacted to affect occurrence ratings; whereas imagining plausible events increased the change in occurrence ratings, imagining implausible events had no effect on occurrence ratings.
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It is easier to create a memory of a plausible than an implausible event.
“Similarly, it is easier to create a memory of a plausible than an implausible event (Pezdek et al., 2006).”
From People who expect to enter psychotherapy are prone to believing that they have forgotten memories of childhood trauma and abuse (2010) · cites this paper as Pezdek et al., 2006
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“Similarly, it is easier to create a memory of a plausible than an implausible event (Pezdek et al., 2006).”
- Authors
- Pezdek, K., Blandon-Gitlin, I., & Gabbay, P.
- Affiliations
- Claremont Graduate University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pezdek, Kathy
- ORCID
- Pezdek, Kathy
- Venue
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Published
- 2006-10
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 764-769
- ISSN
- 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-5320
- OpenAlex
- W1985782989
- Cited by
- 82
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 2.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Keywords
- imagination inflation, child sexual abuse, memory distortion
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Culture, Female, Humans, Imagination, Life Change Events, Male, Mental Recall, Repression, Psychology, Suggestion
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