Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Role of Causal Connections in the Development of False Memories for Entire Fabricated Events

Abstract Details

2010, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.

Chrobak and Zaragoza (2008) demonstrated that participants were prone to developing false memories for entire fictitious events that they had earlier been forced to fabricate. The current research was designed to test the hypothesis that participants would be more likely to develop false memories for their forced fabrications when they provided a causal explanation for observed events than when the fabrications did not serve this explanatory role (the explanatory role hypothesis).

Experiments 1 and 2 employed similar methodologies, differing only in the memory measure administered at final test. Participants viewed an eyewitness event, were forced to fabricate an entire fictitious event during a subsequent interview, and then returned 6 weeks later for a memory test. The primary manipulation involved the nature of the relationship between the fabricated and witnessed events. In the Explanatory condition, participants’ fabrications helped explain outcomes witnessed in the video. However, in Non-Explanatory condition, the fabrications no longer filled this same role – because the related consequence scenes were replaced by unrelated scenes. Overall, participants were more likely to freely report (Experiment 1) and falsely assent to (Experiment 2) their fabrications when they helped explain events witnessed in the video. In Experiment 3, all participants viewed the same eyewitness event. The explanatory strength of participants’ forced fabrications was manipulated by varying whether or not participants received an alternative explanation for the events their fabrication helped to explain. Immediately following the forced fabrication interview, participants read narratives that provided additional information about several characters in the video. In the Alternative Explanation (AE) condition, some of the information in the narrative could be used to provide an alternative explanation for the viewed critical outcomes in the video (fabrication had low explanatory strength). In the No Alternative Explanation (NE) condition, participants read about similar information that could not be used to explain the viewed outcome (fabrication had high explanatory strength). At test, participants were less likely to report their forced fabrications in the Alternative Explanation condition, where the explanatory power of their forced fabrications had been reduced. Collectively, the current experiments provide strong support for the explanatory role hypothesis.

Maria Zaragoza, Ph.D. (Advisor)
William Merriman, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Katherine Rawson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Christopher Was, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Nancy Docherty, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
121 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chrobak, Q. M. (2010). The Role of Causal Connections in the Development of False Memories for Entire Fabricated Events [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1278623190

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chrobak, Quin. The Role of Causal Connections in the Development of False Memories for Entire Fabricated Events. 2010. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1278623190.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chrobak, Quin. "The Role of Causal Connections in the Development of False Memories for Entire Fabricated Events." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1278623190

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)