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Imagining implausible events does not lead to false autobiographical memories: Commentary on Sharman and Scoboria (2009)
Author(s) -
Pezdek Kathy,
BlandónGitlin Iris
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1704
Subject(s) - psychology , false memory , autobiographical memory , cognitive psychology , eyewitness testimony , variable (mathematics) , cognition , developmental psychology , psychiatry , mathematics , mathematical analysis
In several studies over the past ten years, we have reported that false memories are significantly less likely to be suggestively planted for events that are relatively implausible. Recently, Sharman and Scoboria (2009) reported no effect of event plausibility on rates of planting false childhood memories; that is, imagination inflation resulted for both moderate and low plausibility false childhood events after imagining those events. However, considerable differences in methodology, differences in operational definitions of key terms, and differences in data analysis techniques between these two studies bar these conclusions. Their study is also plagued by an error of circular logic; the researchers did not define the independent variable (plausibility) independently of the dependent variable (LEI change scores). In light of these problems, the findings of Pezdek et al. (2006), and the cognitive model they proposed, remain unchallenged by the results of Sharman and Scoboria. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.