Source Monitoring Errors Research Articles

False memories through auditory distraction: When irrelevant speech produces memory intrusions in the absence of semantic interference.

Task-irrelevant speech is known to cause disruption of short-term memory, either through specific interference with encoding processes (e.g., seriation, semantic processing) or by diverting attention from the focal task. Previous studies found that semantically related background speech can induce memory intrusions of words that were not part of the to-be-remembered list. While these findings suggest false memories due to semantic interference, the present study aims to test whether the presence of task-irrelevant speech affects the susceptibility to memory intrusions also in the absence of semantic interference. Therefore, incomprehensible to-be-ignored speech was presented during encoding of semantically related words. It was found across three experiments that incomprehensible changing-state speech increased the rate of false memories of non-presented but semantically related words in a subsequent recognition (Experiments 1 and 2) or recall test (Experiment 3), compared with white noise or steady-state speech. The findings indicate that speech interfered with serial-order processing of the to-be-remembered items, thus urging participants to rely on semantic information to encode and retrieve the presented words. While a focus on semantic information enabled participants to correctly recollect the majority of presented words, it most likely also increased the proportion of false memories of words with semantic associations to the presented words both in recall and recognition tests. In all three experiments, the presence of an auditory deviant in background speech did not increase the rate of false memories, suggesting that attentional capture alone does not necessarily induce source monitoring errors. However, Experiment 3 revealed that an increase in visual task-encoding load attenuated the changing-state effect on the production of false memories. This indicates that the semantic organisation processes initiated as a result of the loss of order information in case of changing-state speech may be sensitive to attentional control.

Cognitive correlates of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Auditory hallucinations (AHs) are one of the central symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Current cognitive models of AH implicate source monitoring, top-down processes, and inhibitory control. However, research combining these processes is limited. Our study aimed to examine how source monitoring bias, top-down processes, and inhibitory control contribute to AHs in individuals with SSD. Eighty seven patients (aged 18–45 years) with SSD were included in the analyses. Participants completed cognitive tasks assessing source monitoring (Action Memory Task), top-down processes (False Perception Task; FPT), and inhibitory control (Auditory Go/NoGo task). AH was positively associated with response bias on the FPT. Correlations between AH and the other cognitive tasks were nonsignificant. Source monitoring errors correlated positively with response bias measures and negatively with Hits on the FPT. PANSS total score was positively correlated with source monitoring bias and False Alarms on the Go/NoGo task. The severity of disorganized symptoms was related to Source Monitoring Errors and False Alarms in the Go/NoGo task. Negative symptoms were associated with Hits and False Alarms in the Go/NoGo task.Future studies are necessary to further elucidate the relationships between different cognitive processes that may be related to clinical symptoms of psychosis.

A Brief Overview of Research into the Forgot-It-All-Along Effect.

People often have difficulties remembering prior episodes of remembering, a phenomenon known as the forgot-it-all-along (FIA) effect. Although the effect was first discovered among victims of spontaneously recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, laboratory paradigms of the FIA have shown that difficulties in remembering "remembering" can be elicited when the memory was previously recalled in a different context. Although much attention has been paid to establishing the robustness of the FIA phenomenon, little emphasis has been placed on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect. The goal of the present review is, therefore, to organize the literature surrounding the FIA effect and to discuss cognitive mechanisms that may explain the effect: source monitoring errors, the Encoding Specificity principle, and dating inaccuracies. By providing a brief overview of the literature surrounding the FIA phenomenon, this review can serve as a guide for how future studies may approach the FIA effect in the context of recovered memories.

Effects of the Visual Fidelity of Virtual Environments on Presence, Context-dependent Forgetting, and Source-monitoring Error.

Advances in virtual reality technology have enabled the creation of virtual environments (VEs) with significantly high visual fidelity when compared to real environments (REs). In this study, we use a high-fidelity VE to examine two effects caused by alternating VE and RE experiences: "context-dependent forgetting" and "source-monitoring errors." The former effect is that memories learned in VEs are more easily recalled in VEs than in REs, whereas memories learned in REs are more easily recalled in REs than in VEs. The source-monitoring error is that memories learned in VEs are easily confused with those learned in REs, making discriminating the source of the memory difficult. We hypothesized that the visual fidelity of VEs is responsible for these effects and conducted an experiment using two types of VEs: a high-fidelity VE created using photogrammetry techniques and low-fidelity VE created with primitive shapes and materials. The results show that the high-fidelity VE significantly improved the sense of presence. However, the level of the visual fidelity of the VEs did not show any effect on context-dependent forgetting and source-monitoring errors. Notably, the null results of the context-dependent forgetting between the VE and RE were strongly supported by Bayesian analysis. Thus, we indicate that context-dependent forgetting does not necessarily occur, which will be helpful for VR-based education and training.

Internal Echo Chamber: Schizophrenia Source Monitoring Errors, Self-Speech, and Auditory Hallucinations

Internal Echo Chamber: Schizophrenia Source Monitoring Errors, Self-Speech, and Auditory Hallucinations

The role of the attachment relation in the pathogenesis of auditory hallucinations – literature overview

Objective: The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of the literature concerning the role of the attachment relation in the pathogenesis of auditory hallucinations. The article holistically integrates the knowledge about the attachment relation with cognitive and biological factors. Materials and method: The literature overview was compiled using the following databases: EBSCO, PsycINFO, PubMed, Google Scholar. The databases were searched using the following keywords: „secure”, „disorganized”, „epigenetic”, „genetic”, „auditory hallucinations” and the term „monoaminergic system”. These words were combined with the term „attachment style”. Results: The literature analysis suggests that neurobiological and cognitive factors mediate in the pathomechamism affiliating traumatic experience in the attachment relation with auditory hallucinations These include: dysregulation within the monoaminergic systems, atrophy of the temporal areas and cognitive distortions such as source monitoring errors and negative automatic thoughts. Discussion and conclusions: Cognitive dysfunctions along with hereditary genetic susceptibility to auditory hallucinations may constitute factors distorting the correct interpretation of traumatic intrusions of relational experience. Future research should verify to what extent auditory hallucinations are the memory marks of a relational trauma. Verification of these hypotheses will enable better understanding of the role of the attachment styles in the development of auditory hallucinations and the formation of convictions about them.

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

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).

Stealing and sharing memories: Source monitoring biases following collaborative remembering

People experience difficulties tracking the source of their memories following collaborative remembering. This results in a variety of source monitoring errors. Researchers have typically focused on one of these errors - instances of adopting information from external sources as one's own memories. They have failed to investigate the frequency of other possible source monitoring errors. Because of this, it is impossible to say whether observed instances of mistakenly adopting external information represent a true bias in remembering or whether these errors simply reflect one of many memory errors that have an equal likelihood of occurring. In two studies, we teased apart these two possibilities. Members of dyads individually studied pictures with some items appearing in both participants' pictures and some unique to each one's pictures. Participants then collaboratively recalled what items were present. After the collaborative recall, participants completed individual source monitoring tests. We found that participants displayed biases in their source monitoring errors for information discussed during collaborative remembering. They were more likely to adopt information from partners as their own memories than attribute their contributions to their partners. They also more often believed their memories (rather than their partner's) were shared, representing a false consensus. Importantly, these biases only occurred following collaborative remembering and not when individuals received comparable information in a non-social setting. These results illuminate the importance of investigating the relative, and not just absolute, frequency of source monitoring errors and provide insight into how collaborative remembering changes individual memories over time.

How deception and believability feedback affect recall

ABSTRACT While research suggests that telling lies can distort memory for the truth, the effects of receiving feedback about the believability about one's lies are not known. We hypothesised that participants who exaggerated the number of stolen items (vs. told the truth) in a mock insurance claim and then received feedback that their statement was believable (vs. not believable) would incorporate this lie into memory. In a two-phase between-subjects design, participants saw images of an office pre- and post-theft and were randomly assigned to report the number of stolen items accurately (truth-tellers) or exaggerate (liars). They were then randomly assigned to receive feedback that their statement was believable or not. Approximately two weeks later, participants’ recall of the theft was measured. Liars and truth-tellers recalled a similar number of stolen items, but liars had less accurate recall for exactly which items were stolen. Liars (vs. truth-tellers) also made more omission errors. The majority of participants who fabricated additional stolen items (65.7%) incorporated one or more of these (false) items into their memory. Results suggest that source monitoring errors may lead fabricated details to be incorporated into memory. Although no effects of believability feedback were observed, recommendations for future researchers are discussed.

Memory for the source of solutions in remote associate tasks: The role of generation effect and the Aha!-experience

The aim of the current work is to study the role of the Aha!-experience in remembering the source of solutions, either self-generated or externally presented. In memory studies there are specific source-monitoring errors, which occur whenever a participant claims to have generated an idea that was derived from different sources (unconscious plagiarism). Several previous studies have shown that experiencing the feeling of Aha! during either problem-solving or the presentation of the correct solutions can have a beneficial relationship to the subsequent recall of the material with the processing of which it was associated. However, studies of the Aha!-experience on the source monitoring task (self-generated solutions vs presented solutions) have not been conducted. In the authors’ study, the hypothesis that the feeling of Aha!, associated with the task being solved, can affect source-monitoring accuracy. During the first stage of the experiment, participants (80 people) had to solve Compound Remote Associates Task items and to estimate whether they had a feeling of Aha!, when either generating the solution or being presented with it in case they failed to generate it. At the second stage, conducted a week later, participants had to recall if the solution was generated by themselves or just presented. The results confirm the generation effect, which manifests itself in successfully recalling problems for which a solution was found (sufficient generation) compared to problems with no-solutions found (fail-to-generate). Participants quite accurately recognized the source of the solution a week later, attributing generated solutions to themselves, while attributing fail-to-generate solutions to the presented ones. However, the authors did not find any additional impact of the Aha!-experience on the problem’s recognition, nor on the sourcemonitoring task performance. In the conclusion of the article, the contradictions of different experimental data concerning the influence of the Aha!-experience on long-term memory and further areas of research is discussed.

Taking the bait: interrogation questions about hypothetical evidence may inflate perceptions of guilt

ABSTRACT During suspect interviews, police will sometimes ask about hypothetical incriminating evidence to evoke a cue to deception – a technique known as a bait question. Previous research has demonstrated such questions can distort peoples’ memory for what evidence exists in a case. Here, we investigate whether such memory distortion can also cause people to see the suspect as more likely to be guilty. Across three experiments, we find exposure to bait questions led to participants hold inflated views of a suspect’s guilt. Further, we demonstrate bait questions cause reliable, robust memory distortion, leading participants to believe non-existent, incriminating evidence exists. However, we found no evidence to support the speculated mechanisms for this inflation – namely, (1) that source monitoring errors could lead people to misremember false evidence as real evidence and (2) that bait questions provide ‘key evidence’ to fill in the gaps of an incomplete theory of a case. In sum, bait questions have the problematic potential to shift jurors towards guilty verdicts. We suggest future research directions on bait questions, including the need for different designs to clarify why bait questions inflate guilt, and recommend practitioners avoid the use of bait questions.

False Memory in Alzheimer's Disease.

Patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) not only are suffering from amnesia but also are prone to memory distortions, such as experiencing detailed and vivid recollections of episodic events that have never been encountered (i.e., false memories). To describe and explain these distortions, we offer a review to synthesize current knowledge on false memory in AD into a framework allowing for better understanding of the taxonomy and phenomenology of false memories and of the cognitive mechanisms that may underlie false memory formation in AD. According to this review, certain phenomenological characteristics of memories (e.g., high emotional load, high vividness, or high familiarity) result in misattributions in AD. More specifically, this review proposes that generalized decline in cognitive control and inhibition in AD may result in difficulties in suppressing irrelevant information during memory monitoring, especially when irrelevant (i.e., false) information is characterized by high emotion, vividness, or familiarity. This review also proposes that binding deficits in AD decrease the ability to retrieve relevant contextual details, leading to source monitoring errors and false memories. In short, this review depicts how phenomenological characteristics of memories and failures of monitoring during retrieval contribute to the occurrence of false memory in AD.

Boundaries Extend and Contract in Scene Memory Depending on Image Properties.

Boundary extension, a memory distortion in which observers consistently recall a scene with visual information beyond its boundaries, is widely accepted across the psychological sciences as a phenomenon revealing fundamental insight into memory representations [1-3], robust across paradigms [1, 4] and age groups [5-7]. This phenomenon has been taken to suggest that the mental representation of a scene consists of an intermingling of sensory information and a schema that extrapolates the views of a presented scene [8], and it has been used to provide evidence for the role of the neocortex [9] and hippocampus [10, 11] in the schematization of scenes during memory. However, the study of boundary extension has typically focused on object-oriented images that are not representative of our visuospatial world. Here, using a broad set of 1,000 images tested on 2,000 participants in a rapid recognition task, we discover "boundary contraction" as an equally robust phenomenon. Further, image composition largely drives whether extension or contraction is observed-although object-oriented images cause more boundary extension, scene-oriented images cause more boundary contraction. Finally, these effects also occur during drawing tasks, including a task with minimal memory load-when participants copy an image during viewing. Collectively, these results show that boundary extension is not a universal phenomenon and put into question the assumption that scene memory automatically combines visual information with additional context derived from internal schema. Instead, our memory for a scene may be largely driven by its visual composition, with a tendency to extend or contract the boundaries equally likely.

False fame effects emerge following an internal context shift and are abolished with contextual reinstatement

ABSTRACTPrior research has demonstrated that if you give people a list of nonfamous names and ask them to indicate if the names are famous, 24 hours later, more of these names will be incorrectly remembered as famous than without the delay. This is because while participants are no longer able to recall the specific circumstances in which they previously encountered the names, the names remain familiar and this sense of familiarity is falsely attributed to fame. The present study sought to determine whether a false fame effect would emerge if a daydreaming task, designed to shift participants’ internal context, was interpolated between a list of nonfamous names and a list of famous names. Results revealed that indeed, participants erroneously judged more nonfamous names as famous following an internal Context Change. This effect was abolished, however, when the initial context (in which the nonfamous list was studied) was reinstated. Therefore, a contextual-change account of the phenomenon may be appropriate.

The immediate and delayed suggestibility examined by the online version of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2

This study examined immediate and delayed suggestibility using the Japanese online version of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2. The results demonstrated that as many as 20% of the 218 participants incorporated misleading information into their memories of events (indicating delayed suggestibility) two days after listening to a story. Those with delayed suggestibility were more likely to have high scores for Yield 1, Yield 2, Shift, and Total suggestibility (i.e., immediate suggestibility), indicating an association between immediate and delayed suggestibility. These participants were also deemed to have the same levels of self-esteem and compliance as those without delayed suggestibility. However, they were more likely to exhibit source monitoring errors than their counterparts, suggesting that such errors (rather than psychosocial factors) may cause delayed suggestibility.

The role of individual differences in visual\\verbal information processing preferences in visual\\verbal source monitoring

ABSTRACTResearchers have long sought to understand individual differences in false memory susceptibility. One particularly interesting direction in this area looks at individual differences in visual versus verbal styles of information processing. Prior work linking individual differences in these cognitive styles with false memory susceptibility has been mixed, likely due to a lack of research that distinguishes between visual and verbal styles as independent factors. The current study addresses this issue by linking independent visual and verbal scores on the Style of Processing scale with performance on a Picture-Word source-monitoring task in which 82 participants indicated if various objects were previously presented to them as words or images. The results of this study show that higher visual style of processing preferences are associated with improved levels of visual source-monitoring ability as indexed by a reduced number of source-monitoring errors involving the misattribution of verbally presented items to a visual source.

Teaching children about self-protection from sexual abuse: could it be a cause for source monitoring errors and fantasy? (Two case reports)

BackgroundChild sexual abuse, being most of the time a hidden crime that is kept lifelong undisclosed, was found to have strong influence on the victim. Unless a hard evidence (physical evidence, eyewitness, perpetrator confession) was present, decision on the case will depend solely on the child’s account. In spite of efforts to get accurate information, children tend to mix events they have experienced with those seen on TV, heard in a story or even introduced by others while questioning about the event. Source monitoring error is the error in tagging information to its source and is a problem faced when interviewing very young children and when repeatedly rehearsing a false event. In Saudi Arabia, awareness programs were initiated and were distributed widely to educate families about consequences of abuse and the available facilities to seek if needed. These programs took part in social campaigns at malls, schools and media. Parents became more aware of the problem and concerned parents even took part in educating their children about self protection. Knowing that formal sexual health education is deficient in Saudi Arabia and in other Arab countries can put such programs in challenge.Case presentationIn this paper, two cases are presented of child sexual abuse allegations that raised the issue of source monitoring errors in children with over concerned mothers. The mothers admitted the fact that they are giving extensive detailed teaching to their girls about the sexual abuse. The possibilities of having source monitoring errors are discussed while highlighting the protocols of forensic interview and methods to minimize source monitoring errors.ConclusionTeaching self protection against sexual abuse could be the first introduction of sexual issues to children and hence could lead to source monitoring errors and false allegation of child sexual assault.

Deficits in reality and internal source monitoring of actions are associated with the positive dimension of schizotypy

People with schizophrenia have deficits in retrieving the source of memory information. Research has focused on two types of judgements: reality monitoring (discriminating internally-generated stimuli from external information) and internal source monitoring (distinguishing two different internal sources). The aim of the current study was to assess the relation between schizotypy and both types of source memory in healthy volunteers. One hundred and two participants completed two source memory tasks: one involved the completion of well-known word pairs (e.g. Fish and? ) and the other was an action based task (e.g. nod your head). At test participants needed to indicate whether the act had been performed or imagined by themselves, performed by the experimenter, or was new. The positive dimension of schizotypy was positively correlated with errors in internal source monitoring i.e. confusing participant performed and imagined acts. Furthermore, the same dimension of schizotypy was also positively associated with reality monitoring errors i.e. confusing participant performed/imagined with experimenter performed items. However, these relationships were not found in the word pair task. Our findings suggest that there might be overlap in the processes required to retrieve source information from memory, particularly for actions, and the occurrence of unusual experiences in healthy volunteers.

境界拡張におけるマルチソース・モデルに関する検討 : 虚偽記憶およびソースモニタリング・エラーの個人差との関連から

境界拡張におけるマルチソース・モデルに関する検討 : 虚偽記憶およびソースモニタリング・エラーの個人差との関連から

ソース・モニタリング課題における誤判断に関する検討 : 知覚とイメージにより記銘した事象間のクロスモーダルな誤判断について

ソース・モニタリング課題における誤判断に関する検討 : 知覚とイメージにより記銘した事象間のクロスモーダルな誤判断について