Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

Scientific Research on False Memories

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As the notion of repression became more popular,

some psychological scientists began asking them-

selves if these “recovered memory therapy” (RMT)

techniques might be dangerous. Would it be possible,

they wondered, for people to “recover” memories for

false childhood events?

The answer was yes. In a landmark study in 1995,

Elizabeth Loftus and Jacquie Pickrell showed that

they could implant a false childhood memory using a

seemingly innocuous RMT technique: asking people

to try to remember a childhood experience. They

asked people in their study to read descriptions of four

childhood events. Three descriptions were genuine—

having been provided by a family member—and one

description was false. The false event described the

reader being lost in a shopping mall and being rescued

by an elderly lady. For example, one person in the

study read this description:

You, your mom, Tien, and Tuan all went to the

Bremerton K-Mart. You must have been 5 years old

at the time. Your mom gave each of you some money

to get a blueberry Icee. You ran ahead to get into the

line first, and somehow lost your way in the store.

Tien found you crying to an elderly Chinese woman.

You three then went together to get an Icee.

People were asked to write everything they could

remember about all four events, and then they were

interviewed twice over as much as 2 weeks. By the

end of the study, approximately 25% of the people

reported at least some information about the false

shopping mall episode. Some of the memories were

rich narratives, while others were less so—although

perhaps even these may have developed if they had

had more time to incubate.

The “Lost in the Mall” study was the first demon-

stration that everyday people could come to recall

entirely false events, a finding that showcased the

malleability of autobiographical memory and ques-

tioned the legitimacy of some of the recovered mem-

ories emerging in therapy. It also gave rise to a

number of studies using the same basic paradigm.

Since then, scientists have shown that people can

recover memories of a wide range of false experi-

ences, from being attacked by an animal to being

saved by a lifeguard.

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Another RMT technique is photographic review, in

which people look through photo albums as a way of trig-

gering recall of their buried abuse memories. Scientists

asked two questions about this technique: (1) Are pho-

tos powerful enough to elicit memories of false events?

(2) Do photos add power to a false suggestion?

To answer the first question, Kimberley Wade and

colleagues followed the “Lost in the Mall” procedure

but swapped the written event descriptions for pho-

tographs. Again, one of the events was fake: taking a

hot-air balloon ride. The people who took part in the

study each saw a doctored photograph of themselves

and at least one family member in the basket of a hot-

air balloon. Each person was interviewed three times

over approximately 2 weeks and asked to work at

remembering the experience. Even in the absence of

any narrative suggestion, by the end of the study, half

the subjects came to remember something about the

balloon ride. In short, photographs can lead people to

remember experiences that never really happened.

Of course, as dubious an RMT technique as photo-

graphic review might be, it does not call for the use of

doctored photos—instead, clients are encouraged to

review family albums in concert with the suggestion that

they might be repressing memories for childhood abuse.

But suppose that suggestion is false. We have already

seen that false suggestions can lead people to report

false experiences. Would the combination of a false sug-

gestion and a real childhood photo be especially danger-

ous? Stephen Lindsay and his colleagues addressed this

question by asking one group of people to read descrip-

tions about some grammar school experiences. One of

the events was false and described getting in trouble for

playing a prank on a schoolteacher. A second group also

read descriptions—including the false story about the

school prank—and received class photos corresponding

to the age at which each event took place. As in previ-

ous studies, nearly half the “descriptions-only” people

remembered something about the prank, but more than

three quarters of the “descriptions-plus-photo” people

remembered something. This study shows that the com-

bination of familiar real photos and a false suggestion

can be especially dangerous.

How Do False Memories Develop?

The scientific research now clearly shows that it

is possible to change people’s autobiographies by

False Memories——— 311

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