FMRI Evidence for the Role of Recollection in Suppressing Misattribution Errors: The Illusory Truth Effect

Jason P Mitchell,Daniel L Schacter,Chad S Dodson

doi:10.1162/0898929053747595

Jason P Mitchell, Daniel L Schacter + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1162/0898929053747595

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Abstract

Misattribution refers to the act of attributing a memory or idea to an incorrect source, such as successfully remembering a bit of information but linking it to an inappropriate person or time [Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C., Brown, J., & Jasechko, J. (1989). Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 326-338; Schacter, D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54, 182-203; Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin]. Cognitive studies have suggested that misattribution errors may occur in the absence of recollection for the details of an initial encounter with a stimulus, but little is known about the neural basis of this memory phenomenon. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the hypothesized role of recollection in counteracting the illusory truth effect, a misattribution error whereby perceivers systematically overrate the truth of previously presented information. Imaging was conducted during the encoding and subsequent judgment of unfamiliar statements that were presented as true or false. Event-related fMRI analyses were conditionalized as a function of subsequent performance. Results demonstrated that encoding activation in regions previously associated with successful recollection--including the hippocampus and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC)--correlated with the successful avoidance of misattribution errors, providing initial neuroimaging support for earlier cognitive accounts of misattribution.

Highlights

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided a new way to examine the neural correlates of episodic encoding by allowing examination of the brain regions in which activity predicts the memorial fate of individual items
These regions comprise the set of loci observed by previous event-related fMRI studies that have identified brain regions in which encoding activation correlates with successful memory (Davachi et al, 2003; Davachi & Wagner, 2002; Paller & Wagner, 2002; Strange et al, 2002; Otten, Henson, & Rugg, 2001; Kirchhoff et al, 2000; Henson, Rugg, et al, 1999; Brewer et al, 1998; Wagner, Schacter, et al, 1998)
Consistent with the notion that these regions contribute to encoding by subserving recollection, almost all of these studies have restricted imaging analyses to items later associated with contextual recollection, whether indexed by free recall (Strange et al, 2002); items that are recognized with high confidence (Otten, Henson, & Rugg, 2001; Kirchhoff et al, 2000; Wagner, Schacter, et al, 1998); ‘‘remember’’ responses in the remember/know procedure (Henson, Rugg, et al, 1999; Brewer et al, 1998); or by accurate source memory (Ranganath, Yonelinas, et al, 2004; Davachi et al, 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Event-related fMRI has provided a new way to examine the neural correlates of episodic encoding by allowing examination of the brain regions in which activity predicts the memorial fate of individual items. In such subsequent memory designs (first developed in electrophysiological research; see Paller & Wagner, 2002, for discussion), brain activation during the encoding of subsequently remembered items is compared to activation during the encoding of subsequently forgotten items, allowing the identification of brain regions in which processing correlates with the successful formation of episodic memories on a trial-by-trial basis.

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