Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred
Open accessAbstract
Counterfactual imaginings are known to have far-reaching implications. In the present experiment, we ask if imagining events from one's past can affect memory for childhood events. We draw on the social psychology literature showing that imagining a future event increases the subjective likelihood that the event will occur. The concepts of cognitive availability and the source-monitoring framework provide reasons to expect that imagination may inflate confidence that a childhood event occurred. However, people routinely produce myriad counterfactual imaginings (i.e., daydreams and fantasies) but usually do not confuse them with past experiences. To determine the effects of imagining a childhood event, we pretested subjects on how confident they were that a number of childhood events had happened, asked them to imagine some of those events, and then gathered new confidence measures. For each of the target items, imagination inflated confidence that the event had occurred in childhood. We discuss implications for situations in which imagination is used as an aid in searching for presumably lost memories.
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Social pressure, personal expectancy, misleading information, leading questions, and imagery inflation can all contribute to false memory formation.
“Social pressure, personal expectancy, misleading information, leading questions, and imagery inflation can all contribute to false memory formation (Garry et al., 1996; Hirt et al., 1999; Loftus, 1975; Reysen, 2007).”
From Remembering what did not happen: the role of hypnosis in memory recall and false memories formation (2025) · cites this paper as Garry et al., 1996
The Results report increased confidence after imagining a childhood event, and the Discussion says imagination may strengthen belief that an event occurred. The authors caution that increased confidence does not establish a fully developed false memory. The paper does not substantiate the other listed factors—social pressure, personal expectancy, misleading information, and leading questions—as causes of false memory formation. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredFailures of source or reality monitoring occur because remembered and imagined events are often very similar in content and phenomenology, for instance when imagined events are elaborate, vivid, and plausible.
“By the continuist view, failures of source/reality monitoring occur because remembered and imagined events are often very similar in content and phenomenology, for instance, when imagined events are elaborate, vivid, and plausible (Devitt, Monk-Fromont, Schacter, & Addis, 2016;Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996;Johnson et al., 1993).”
From Mental Time Travel? A Neurocognitive Model of Event Simulation. (2020) · cites this paper as Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996
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Sedikides, C. (2021) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2021.2004812 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Brigard, F. D. (2014) · Philosophy Compass · doi:10.1111/phc3.12133 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Children's memory for traumatic experiences
Howe, M. L. (1997) · Learning and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/s1041-6080(97)90004-2 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
False claims about false memory research.
Wade, K., Sharman, S. J., Garry, M., Memon, A., Mazzoni, G., Merckelbach, H., & Loftus, E. (2007) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2006.07.001 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Self-citationFalse beliefs about fattening foods can have healthy consequences
Bernstein, D. M., Laney, C., Morris, E. K., & Loftus, E. F. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0504869102 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Self-citationMemory for a Past That Never Was
Loftus, E. F. (1997) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep11512654 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Self-citationSleep Deprivation and False Memories
Frenda, S. J., Patihis, L., Loftus, E. F., Lewis, H. C., & Fenn, K. M. (2014) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797614534694 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Self-citationImagery Rescripting in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Hackmann, A. (2011) · Cognitive and Behavioral Practice · doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2010.06.006 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Creating Non-Believed Memories for Recent Autobiographical Events
Clark, A. L., Nash, R. A., Fincham, G., & Mazzoni, G. A. L. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032998 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Emotional content of true and false memories
Laney, C., & Loftus, E. F. (2008) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658210802065939 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Self-citationStone, C. B., & Wang, Q. (2018) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/tops.12369 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
When lying changes memory for the truth
Otgaar, H., & Baker, A. (2017) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2017.1340286 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories.
Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Mitchell, K., & Ankudowich, E. (2012) · Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-1195-6_2 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Gleaves, D. H., Smith, S. M., Butler, L. D., & Spiegel, D. (2004) · Clinical Psychology Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy.bph055 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
- Authors
- Garry, M., Manning, C. G., Loftus, E. F., & Sherman, S. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Garry, Maryanne
- Manning, Charles G.
- Venue
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Published
- 1996-06
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 208-214
- ISSN
- 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-5320
- OpenAlex
- W1965929030
- Cited by
- 648
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 8.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CogPrints (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- imagination inflation, counterfactual imagination, childhood memories, memory confidence, source monitoring, cognitive availability, daydreaming, memory retrieval, false memory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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