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 via increased familiarity: imagining a false event makes it feel more familiar, and people mistake this feeling of familiarity for evidence that they have experienced the event[2] < ref name=Loftus00>Loftus, Elizabeth F. (2001). "Imagining the past". The Psychologist. 14 (11): 584–587.</ref>. 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 can 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. The police interrogation practices of asking suspects to repeatedly imagine committing a crime[1] or explaining how they could have done it [3] (via [4]) are claimed to be causes of false confessions. See, for example, the case of Paul Ingram; after denying accusations of raping his daughters, during intense police interrogation using such techniques Ingram recovered memories of abusing his children and leading a satanic cult which sacrificed babies.[5] (via [6])
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.[7] 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.[7]
Implications
In another interrogation technique, suspects explains how a crime might have been committed or how they themselves could have done it. This practice has been claimed to be another cause of self-generated false confessions, by forcing an innocent suspect to create a believable narrative in which they are guilty [3] (via [4]). This claim is supported by research showing that the act of explaining how a false childhood event could have occurred can inflate confidence that it happened.[4]
Criticisms
Regression to the mean
Kathy Pezdek and Rebecca M. Eddy claimed based on a replication[8] that the original findings of the 1996 imagination inflation study[1] did not in fact reflect changed beliefs about the past via imagination, but were instead a product of regression to the mean[8]. That is, events with confidence ratings at the extreme (low or high) ends of the scale at the first time of measurement happened to have such scores due only to observational error, so they became more moderate at post-test[8]. The authors of the '96 paper disagreed with this interpretation[9], pointing out several issues that they found in Pezdek’s reasoning. In particular, they agreed that regression to the mean was present in their own data and contributed to the overall changes in confidence at the second test. But this could not explain the finding that imagining events that were low in confidence led to a greater increase in ratings than for unimagined low-confidence events, as there regression to the mean should affect all events equally [9].
References
- ^ a b c d e 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 d 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) - ^ a b Davis, D. (2004). O'Donohue, W.T.; Laws, P.R.; Hollin, C. (eds.). "The road to perdition: Extreme influence tactics in the interrogation room". Handbook of Forensic Psychology. NY: Elsevier, Academic Press: 897–996. ISBN 0471177717.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Sharman, Stefanie J. (2005). "Explain this: Explaining childhood events inflates confidence for those events". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 19: 67–74. doi:10.1002/acp/1041.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); 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) - ^ a b c Pezdek, Kathy; Eddy, Rebecca M. (2001). "Imagination inflation: A statistical artifact of regression toward the mean". Memory & Cognition. 29 (5): 707–718. doi:10.3758/BF03200473.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ a b Garry, Maryanne (2001). "Imagination inflation is a fact, not an artifact: A reply to Pezdek and Eddy". Memory & Cognition. 29 (5): 719–729. doi:10.3758/BF03200474.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
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