Memory for true and false autobiographical event descriptions

Abstract

This study examined how participants respond to different types of false autobiographical event descriptions. Three attributes of autobiographical events (participant, location, and activity) were systematically altered to create different forms of false event description and these were examined, along with true events, to see if participants were more or less likely to rate the experience as remembered. The event attributes manipulated within false events systematically influenced the participant's memory ratings, and completely false events were the least likely to be identified as false. Mechanisms associated with access to autobiographical memory knowledge bases by which event attributes might cue an event as true or false are discussed.