Imagination inflation
Imagination inflation refers to the finding that imagining an event which never happened can increase confidence that it actually occurred.[1]
This effect is relevant to the study of memory and cognition, particularly false memory. Imagination inflation is one way that techniques intended to retrieve repressed memories (i.e. via recovered memory therapy) may lead to the development of false or distorted memories.[2]
Imagination inflation may occur in two ways.If imagining an event makes it seem more familiar, this feeling of familiarity could lead to increased confidence that the event has occurred. Alternatively, imagination inflation could be the result of source confusion. When imagining a false past event, people generate information about it, and some is stored in their memory. Later they might remember the content but not its source, mistakenly attributing the information they recall to a real experience instead of to their imagination.[2]
Research on imagination inflation can be applied to other fields, such as criminal justice. There is a risk that if police interviewing techniques require suspects to repeatedly imagine committing a crime, this could lead innocent suspects to believe that they are guilty and give a false confession[1]. Richard Ofshe argued Paul Ingram was one such case; after denying accusations of raping his daughters, during intense police interrogation Ingram recovered memories of abusing his children and leading a satanic cult which sacrificed babies.[3][4]
Early research
The effect was named imagination inflation by Elizabeth Loftus.[when?] In 1996, Garry,[who?] Manning,[who?] Loftus and Sherman[who?] conducted the original imagination inflation study; Loftus gave the effect its name. This was the first study to examine what imagining false events would do to memory in the absence of other factors present in previous studies, such as social pressure to attempt to recall an incident or to report one’s past consistently with information provided by a parent.[1][2] The act of imagining unexperienced childhood events, such as being rescued by a lifeguard or breaking a window with one's hand, increased confidence that the events had occurred. After people imagined events with low initial confidence ratings, i.e. ones which they originally said they had not experienced, they became more confident that the events took place compared with unimagined ones.[1]
Due to the unreliability of memory, it is not possible to be certain whether or not someone has had a given experienced based solely on their own report.[5] This leaves open the possibility that imagination does not actually have any effect on beliefs about false past events, but simply helps people to retrieve actual memories of true experiences. However, the same imagination inflation effect is seen for events which can be confirmed to have happened, or not. When people perform some actions (such as breaking a toothpick) but not others, then imagine doing some actions out of the overall set, they are more likely to mistakenly say that they performed imagined than unimagined actions.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Garry, Maryanne (1996). "Imagination inflation: imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 3 (2): 208–214. doi:10.3758/bf03212420.
{{cite journal}}: More than one of|surname=and|last=specified (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Garry, Maryanne (2000). "Imagination and memory". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 9 (1): 6–10. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00048.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Ofshe, Richard (1992). "Inadvertent hypnosis during interrogation: False confession due to dissociative state: Mis-identified multiple personality and the satanic cult hypothesis". International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 40 (3): 125–156. doi:10.1080/00207149208409653.
- ^ McNally, Richard (2003). Remembering Trauma. Cambridge, M.A: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674018020.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check|authorlink=value (help); External link in|authorlink= - ^ a b Goff, Lyn M. (1998). "Imagination inflation for action events: Repeated imaginings lead to illusory recollections". Memory & Cognition. 26 (1): 20–33. doi:10.3758/BF03211367.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
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