Can suggestions of non-occurrence lead to claims that witnessed events did not happen?

In three experiments, we examined whether general suggestions of non-occurrence -suggestions that experienced events did not occur- would lead participants to claim that events they witnessed never happened. Participants viewed a video depicting the investigation of a child kidnapping case and subsequently were exposed to suggestions of non-occurrence either once (Experiments 1 and 3) or three times (Experiments 2 and 3). The results provided no evidence that single suggestions of non-occurrence influenced participants' memories or belief (Experiments 1 and 3).

A mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies.

Understanding that suggestive practices can promote false beliefs and false memories for childhood events is important in many settings (e.g., psychotherapeutic, medical, and legal).

Evidence that photos promote rosiness for claims about the future.

When people rapidly judge the truth of claims about the present or the past, a related but nonprobative photo can produce "truthiness," an increase in the perceived truth of those claims (Newman, Garry, Bernstein, Kantner, & Lindsay, 2012). What we do not know is the extent to which nonprobative photos cause truthiness for the future. We addressed this issue in four experiments.

Getting at the source of distinctive encoding effects in the DRM paradigm: evidence from signal-detection measures and source judgments.

Studying Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists using a distinctive encoding task can reduce the DRM false memory illusion. Reductions for both distinctively encoded lists and non-distinctively encoded lists in a within-group design have been ascribed to use of a distinctiveness heuristic by which participants monitor their memories at test for distinctive-task details. Alternatively, participants might simply set a more conservative response criterion, which would be exceeded by distinctive list items more often than all other test items, including the critical non-studied items.

Reevaluating the potency of the memory conformity effect.

Witnesses sometimes report event details that are acquired solely from another witness. We reevaluated the potency of this memory conformity effect. After viewing a crime video, some participants learned about nonwitnessed details via discussion (dyad group), reading another participant's report (read group), or watching another version of the video (both-video group).

Generation and mnemonic encoding induce a mirror effect in the DRM paradigm.

Encoding tasks that increase memory accuracy are appealing from both practical and theoretical perspectives. Within the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, we found that generating list words from anagrams (relative to reading) produced a mirror effect: enhanced recognition of studied words coupled with a reduction in false recognition. Signal detection analyses suggest that the increase in correct recognition was due to enhanced item-specific encoding of the list words, whereas the reduction in false recognition was due to enhanced strategic monitoring at test (i.

Amplitude, frequency, and phase analysis of hippocampal theta during sensorimotor processing in a jump avoidance task.

In the current study, rats implanted with hippocampal recording electrodes were trained to avoid shock in a jump avoidance task, using three separate heights, 28, 33, and 38 cm. The objectives were to measure the progression of Type 2 (immobility-related) hippocampal theta amplitude and frequency recorded during jump avoidances at each of the levels, and determine if there was a consistent relationship between the phase of the Type 1 (movement related) theta jump wave and the moment of movement initiation at each of the jump heights. The results demonstrated that the immobility period prior to the execution of the jump could be divided into two components: a sensory processing period and a movement preparation period.