The fabricated past: intentionally fabricated autobiographical memories in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective We investigated intentionally fabricated autobiographical memories in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Method We invited AD patients and control participants to construct real events as well as fabricated events describing fictitious personal events that occurred in the past. Results Results demonstrated slower retrieval time for intentionally fabricated memories than for real ones in both AD patients and control participants. The analysis also showed similar vividness for intentionally fabricated memories and real ones in AD patients but lower vividness for intentionally fabricated memories than for real ones in control participants. Conclusions The slow retrieval time of intentionally fabricated memories may be attributed to the cognitive effort required to retrieve elements from autobiographical memory and edit them to construct a new memory. We suggest that the vividness of intentionally fabricated memories observed in AD may induce confusion with real memories. In addition to the experimental approach of our study, we offer a theoretical rationale for intentionally fabricated autobiographical memories by situating them in the wider context of different facets of false memories in AD (e.g. confabulations, source monitoring errors).