Planting False Childhood Memories: The Role of Event Plausibility

Abstract

Two experiments tested and confirmed the hypothesis that events will be suggestively planted in memory in the degree that they are plausible and script-relevant knowledge exists in memory. In Experiment 1, 22 Jewish and 29 Catholic high school students were read descriptions of three true events and two false events reported to have occurred when they were 8 years old. One false event described a Jewish ritual, and one described a Catholic ritual. Results for the false events showed the predicted asymmetry: Whereas 7 Catholics but 0 Jews remembered only the Catholic false event, 3 Jews but only 1 Catholic remembered only the Jewish false event. Two subjects recalled both events. In Experiment 2, 20 confederates read descriptions of one true event and two false events to a younger sibling or close relative. The more plausible false event described the relative being lost in a mall while shopping: the less plausible false event described the relative receiving an enema. Three events were falsely remembered; all were the more plausible event. We conclude by outlining a framework that specifies the cognitive processes underlying suggestively planting false events in memory.