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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Not All False Memories Are UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Not All False Memories Are Created Equal DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Psychology and Social Behavior by Rebecca Michelle Nichols Dissertation Committee: Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D., Chair Professor Peter H. Ditto, Ph.D. Professor Linda J. Levine, Ph.D. 2014 © 2014 Rebecca Michelle Nichols TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii CURRICULUM VITAE viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xiii INTRODUCTION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 2 The Misinformation Effect 2 The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm 4 Rich False Memories: Imagination Inflation 9 Relatedness of Paradigms 13 AIMS OF THE RESEARCH 17 METHOD 18 Participants 18 Materials: False Memory Paradigms 19 Materials: Individual Difference Measures 23 Procedure 24 RESULTS: False Memory Paradigms 26 The Misinformation Paradigm 27 The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm 28 The Imagination Inflation Paradigm 30 Discussion 34 RESULTS: Relationships Among False Memories in All Three Paradigms 35 The Misinformation and DRM Paradigms 35 The Misinformation and Imagination Inflation Paradigms 36 The DRM and Imagination Inflation Paradigms 37 Confidence 39 Discussion 39 RESULTS: Individual Difference Predictors 43 The Misinformation Paradigm 43 ii The DRM Paradigm 43 The Imagination Inflation Paradigm 45 Discussion 47 GENERAL DISCUSSION 50 Practical Implications 54 Strengths, Limitations, and Future Directions 55 Concluding Remarks 59 REFERENCES 60 FOOTNOTES 76 APPENDIX A: Misinformation Narrative 77 APPENDIX B: Misinformation Recognition Test 82 APPENDIX C: DRM Lists 90 APPENDIX D: DRM Recognition Test 93 APPENDIX E: Imagination Inflation Action Statements for Session 1 97 APPENDIX F: To-Be-Imagined Action Statements for Session 2 98 APPENDIX G: Imagination Inflation Recognition Test 100 APPENDIX H: Basic Demographics Questionnaire 102 APPENDIX I: The Big Five Inventory (BFI) 103 APPENDIX J: Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) 104 APPENDIX K: Need for Cognition (NFC) Scale 110 APPENDIX L: Faith in Intuition (FI) Scale 111 APPENDIX M: Cognitive Reflection Task (CRT) 112 APPENDIX N: Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) 113 APPENDIX O: Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) 115 APPENDIX P: Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) 121 iii APPENDIX Q: Creative Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ) 123 APPENDIX R: Age Universal Religious Orientation Scale (AUROS) 125 APPENDIX S: Anomalous Experiences Inventory (AEI) 126 APPENDIX T: Attention Check 128 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Procedural Flowchart 129 Figure 2 Mean Accuracy Rates for Items in the Misinformation Paradigm 130 Figure 3 Mean Accuracy Rates for Individual Items in the Misinformation 131 Paradigm Figure 4 Mean Total and Robust Recognition Rates For Misleading Items 132 When Presented In The Misinformation And Control Conditions in the Misinformation Paradigm Figure 5 Mean Total and Robust Recognition Rates for Critical, Studied, 133 and Distractor Items in the DRM Paradigm Figure 6 Mean Rates of Heard judgments for Imagination Inflation 134 Items by Session 1 Presentation and Session 2 Imagination Figure 7 Mean Rates of Performed Judgments for Imagination Inflation 135 Items by Session 1 Presentation and Session 2 Imagination Figure 8 Pearson R Correlations Between Confidence Judgments for 136 False Memories in the Misinformation, DRM, and Imagination Inflation Paradigms v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Pearson R Correlations Between False Memory Measures 137 in the Misinformation and DRM Paradigms Table 2 Pearson R Correlations Between False Memory Measures 138 in the Misinformation and Imagination Inflation Paradigms Table 3 Pearson R Correlations Between False Memory Measures 139 in the DRM and Imagination Inflation Paradigm Table 4 Pearson R Correlations Between Signal Detection Measures 140 in the DRM and Imagination Inflation Paradigms Table 5 Descriptive Statistics for the Individual Difference Measures 142 Table 6 Pearson R Correlations Between Demographic/Personality 143 Variables and Misinformation Variables Table 7 Pearson R Correlations Between Demographic/Personality 145 Variables and DRM Variables Table 8 Pearson R Correlations Between Demographic/Personality 147 Variables and Imagination Inflation Variables vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first and foremost must express considerable gratitude to my committee chair and dear advisor, Elizabeth F. Loftus. There is far too little space here to describe what a remarkable scholar, mentor, and friend she is. I am continually grateful for her unwavering guidance, support, kindness, and “all-purpose” advising, and I feel so incredibly fortunate to have spent my graduate training under her tutelage. I will never be able to adequately thank her for everything she has done for me. I admire her greatly, and she will always find a lifelong friend in me. I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee: Pete Ditto and Linda Levine. They have welcomed me since my first day at UCI and never have hesitated to lend a helping hand. They also, like Beth, are downright genius, hilarious, and tremendously kindhearted. This dissertation as well as my general scholarship has matured, in large part, through their expertise and support. I must also thank Toni Browning, Roxane Cohen Silver, De Gallow, Ray Novaco, Karen Rook, John Whiteley, and Joanne Zinger, who have provided invaluable mentorship and support in various forms over the years at UCI. Finally, I also must acknowledge my high school psychology teacher, Dean Herbst, and my undergraduate (and current) mentor, Geoff Loftus, who both instilled in me a love for psychological science very early on. I am so thrilled that I have been able to share my journey with both of them. This research also would not have been possible without contributions from my fellow lab members and research assistants. In particular, I would like to thank Steven Frenda, Daniel Bogart, Zoe Klemfuss, and Eryn Newman for their collaborations, general brilliance, and friendships in the lab. I have also been fortunate to work with incredible undergraduate research assistants, and I owe heaps of gratitude to Sang Do, Debra Safaee, Kristin Sparks, Stephanie Bernal, Jhamiela Summerfelt, Karen Tyson, Tim Banh, and Maria Cardenas, who worked tirelessly to collect lab data in a time when many studies are run online instead. I simply could not have conducted my research without you. I also realize that I wouldn’t be here without a little help from my friends. I am thankful for the many bonds I have formed over the years, and I wish I could tell each of you here just how much I love you. I owe special thanks, however, to Christina Pedram and Robin Kaplan, with whom I’ve laughed, cried, danced, and eaten lots of honey butter. There is no one else with whom I would rather close down Souplantation, and I’m so glad we’ve been able to travel this road together. I also do not have enough words to adequately thank Massimo Lupascu for his steadfast support and companionship. His love, laughter, kindness, and zest for life can brighten even the cloudiest day. Finally, I must thank my mom and Jim, who also have supported me in every endeavor. Financial support was provided through the University of California, Irvine Social Ecology Dean’s Dissertation Writing Fellowship and an American Psychology-Law Society (APA Division 41) Grant-in-Aid. vii CURRICULUM VITAE Rebecca M. Nichols Education 2014 Ph.D., Psychology and Social Behavior; University of California, Irvine, - Thesis title: Not All False Memories Are Created Equal - Committee: Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus (Chair), Dr. Linda Levine, Dr. Peter H. Ditto 2006 B.S., Psychology; University of Washington - Baccalaureate honors: cum laude - Member: Phi Beta Kappa, Psi Chi, National Society of Collegiate Scholars Publications Journal Articles Patihis, L., Frenda, S. J., LePort, A. K. R., Petersen, N., Nichols, R. M., Stark, C. E. L., … Loftus, E. F. (2013). False memories in highly superior autobiographical memory individuals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(52), 20947–20952. doi:10.1073/pnas.1314373110 Frenda, S. F., Nichols, R. M., & Loftus, E. F. (2011). Current Issues and Advances in Misinformation Research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 20-23. Joslyn, S. L., & Nichols, R. M. (2009). Probability or frequency? Expressing forecast uncertainty in public weather forecasts. Meteorological Applications, 16(3), 309-314. Joslyn, S., Nadav-Greenberg, L., & Nichols, R. M. (2009). Probability of Precipitation: Assessment and Enhancement of End-User Understanding. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 90(2), 185-193. Joslyn, S., Nadav-Greenberg, L., Taing, M., & Nichols, R. M. (2009). The Effects of Wording on the Understanding and Use of Uncertainty Information in a Threshold Forecasting Decision. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(1), 55-72. Encyclopedia Articles Nichols, R. M., Bogart, D., and Loftus, E. F. (in press). False Memory. In International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Oxford, UK: Elsevier. Presentations Bogart, D., Newman, E. J., Nichols, R. M., Garry, M. G, & Loftus, E. F. (2014, May). Photos Lead People to Respond “True" Less Often to Memory Test Questions. Poster presented at the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA. viii Bogart, D., Newman, E. J., Nichols, R. M., Garry, M. G, & Loftus, E. F. (2013, May). Photographs and the misinformation effect: A
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