Abduction By Aliens
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
2002, Vol. 111, No. 3, 455– 461
Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
0021-843X/02/$5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0021-843X.111.3.455
Memory Distortion in People Reporting Abduction by Aliens
Susan A. Clancy, Richard J. McNally,
Daniel L. Schacter, and Mark F. Lenzenweger
Roger K. Pitman
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard University
False memory creation was examined in people who reported having recovered memories of traumatic events that are unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. A variant of the Deese/Roediger–
McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to examine false recall and false recognition …show more content…
False recall occurs when participants incorrectly recall a nonpresented theme word, and false recognition occurs when participants incorrectly claim to have studied a nonpresented theme word.
Using a variant of this paradigm, we found that women reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse were more prone to exhibit memory distortion than were control participants, or women who had always remembered their childhood sexual abuse (Clancy, Schacter, McNally, & Pitman, 2000). Unfortunately, we were unable to establish whether the recovered memories were false or genuine and, therefore, whether the recovered memory group’s susceptibility to memory distortion was a function of cognitive impairments related to abuse or a function of cognitive characteristics rendering them susceptible to developing false memories.
The purpose of the experiment reported here was to examine memory distortion in people who report recovered memories of traumatic events that seem unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. Claims of abduction by space aliens are …show more content…
Results
Because we had specific hypotheses, we conducted focused contrasts that take the form of one-tailed t tests, and we computed the effect-size correlation for each contrast (Rosenthal & Rosnow,
1985). As research has already demonstrated that false recall and false recognition rates increase as a function of the number of semantic associates presented (e.g., Robinson & Roediger, 1997), we analyzed the data for the 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic associate lists combined. One-way analyses of variance showed that the groups did not differ in their performance on the 0 semantic associate lists: for false-target controls, F(2, 28) ϭ 1.41, p ϭ .26, and for true-target controls, F(2, 28) ϭ 1.27, p ϭ .30. False recall
(proportion of critical lures recalled as being studied) and false recognition (proportion of critical lures called “old” on the recognition test) rates as a function of group (recovered, repressed, and control) and of list type (3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic associates) are shown in Table 3. Also presented in Table 3 are false recall and false recognition rates for the 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic
2002, Vol. 111, No. 3, 455– 461
Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
0021-843X/02/$5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0021-843X.111.3.455
Memory Distortion in People Reporting Abduction by Aliens
Susan A. Clancy, Richard J. McNally,
Daniel L. Schacter, and Mark F. Lenzenweger
Roger K. Pitman
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard University
False memory creation was examined in people who reported having recovered memories of traumatic events that are unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. A variant of the Deese/Roediger–
McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to examine false recall and false recognition …show more content…
False recall occurs when participants incorrectly recall a nonpresented theme word, and false recognition occurs when participants incorrectly claim to have studied a nonpresented theme word.
Using a variant of this paradigm, we found that women reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse were more prone to exhibit memory distortion than were control participants, or women who had always remembered their childhood sexual abuse (Clancy, Schacter, McNally, & Pitman, 2000). Unfortunately, we were unable to establish whether the recovered memories were false or genuine and, therefore, whether the recovered memory group’s susceptibility to memory distortion was a function of cognitive impairments related to abuse or a function of cognitive characteristics rendering them susceptible to developing false memories.
The purpose of the experiment reported here was to examine memory distortion in people who report recovered memories of traumatic events that seem unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. Claims of abduction by space aliens are …show more content…
Results
Because we had specific hypotheses, we conducted focused contrasts that take the form of one-tailed t tests, and we computed the effect-size correlation for each contrast (Rosenthal & Rosnow,
1985). As research has already demonstrated that false recall and false recognition rates increase as a function of the number of semantic associates presented (e.g., Robinson & Roediger, 1997), we analyzed the data for the 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic associate lists combined. One-way analyses of variance showed that the groups did not differ in their performance on the 0 semantic associate lists: for false-target controls, F(2, 28) ϭ 1.41, p ϭ .26, and for true-target controls, F(2, 28) ϭ 1.27, p ϭ .30. False recall
(proportion of critical lures recalled as being studied) and false recognition (proportion of critical lures called “old” on the recognition test) rates as a function of group (recovered, repressed, and control) and of list type (3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic associates) are shown in Table 3. Also presented in Table 3 are false recall and false recognition rates for the 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 semantic