Memory editing: Knowledge, criteria, and alignment

Within this article, a general organisational framework for this special issue of Memory is provided. The organising structure is based on a straightforward hypothesis that editing mechanisms are based on three independent constructs: knowledge, criteria, and alignment. Supporting evidence for this general framework taken from the literature generally, and this special issue of Memory specifically, is reviewed. In the concluding section, future directions for research in the area of memory editing are outlined.     

Global gist extraction in children and adults

The DRM paradigm was used to examine the role of global gist extraction in producing false memories in children and adults. First-graders, third-graders, and adults watched a videotape of a woman reading seven DRM lists, and then took a recognition memory test. Blocked (vs random) presentation and instructions to attend to the theme of lists were manipulated to enhance gist processing. In the first experiment, blocked presentation increased false recognition relative to random presentation in adults but not in first-graders or third-graders. In the second experiment, instructions to attend to list themes increased false recognition in third-graders and not in adults or first-graders. The results suggest a developmental pattern in which children become more adept at global gist extraction as they get older. These results are consistent with fuzzy trace theory's prediction of better gist processing as children grow older.     

The Role of Temporal and Spatial Information Cues in Locating Missing Persons

Prospective person memory refers to the search for a missing or wanted person. Performance on prospective person memory tasks has been found to be poor in field‐based experiments. Prior research suggests that the size of the search space may influence success on prospective person memory tasks. In the present research, we gave participants randomly assigned temporal and spatial cues about a mock missing person's whereabouts. Participants were offered a monetary reward for accurately reporting seeing the missing person. Participants who were told the missing person would appear in the building, where they were, had higher expectations of encountering the missing person and made more sightings than participants told the missing person would appear on the university campus. Expectations of encounter predicted participants' intent to look for the missing person, which predicted actual looking behavior, which ultimately predicted accurate sightings.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of context expectations and cost of reporting on prospective person memory performance

Prospective person memory refers to the task of being on the lookout for a missing or wanted person. In both laboratory and field‐based tasks, prospective person memory performance has been poor. In the current study, we examined two factors that could be manipulated in the real world to increase successful recovery of missing or wanted persons: expectations of encounter and the cost of reporting wanted persons. Participants completed a computer task that simulated normal day‐to‐day tasks (i.e.., grocery shopping) while looking for four “wanted” persons. Participants who were given accurate context expectations made more accurate sightings and more inaccurate sightings than participants who were given inaccurate context expectations. The cost of reporting a sighting did not affect sighting rates. These findings indicate that people are more likely to notice a wanted person in their environment when they expect to encounter the wanted person in that environment.     

Depicting the Missing: Prospective and Retrospective Person Memory for Age Progressed Images

One approach that has been used to help recover missing children is forensic age progression. In forensic age progression, outdated photographs of missing children are aged to provide an estimate of the current appearance of the child. We examined the effectiveness of age progressed images in the context of both prospective person memory and retrospective person memory. Memory for outdated and age progressed images did not significantly differ. Moreover, there was some indication that age progressed images were associated with a more conservative response bias. The results failed to demonstrate an advantage for age progressed pictures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the effectiveness of warnings and the phenomenological characteristics of false memories

The phenomenology of false memories was investigated in three experiments in which participants heard two experimenters read lists of items that were related to critical nonpresented items. In Experiments 1, following a recognition memory test, participants rated the phenomenological characteristics of their memories immediately and after a 48-hour delay. False recognition was prevalent and on several dimensions participants rated their true memories as more vivid than their false memories. In Experiments 2 and 3, following the study phase, participants were warned about the phenomenological differences between true and false memories and were instructed to use this information to avoid reporting nonpresented items. This type of warning was ineffective at reducing false recall (Experiment 2) and false recognition (Experiment 3) relative to unwarned participants. Importantly, the inability of explicit warnings to impact illusory recollections demonstrates that the false memories cannot be attributed simply to a criterion shift.     

Memory conjunction errors for autobiographical events: More than just familiarity

Two diary studies investigated the prevalence of memory conjunction errors for real‐life events. In both studies, participants completed detailed diary pages over the course of several weeks. Participants in both diary studies committed memory conjunction errors on a later recognition memory test. In the second diary study participants also made remember/know judgements. For a large proportion of their memory conjunction errors participants indicated that they “remembered” the event occurring in that context. These diary studies demonstrate that memory conjunction errors do occur for autobiographical memories, and these errors can seem compelling.     

The effect of presenting multiple images on prospective and retrospective person memory for missing children

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sometimes present multiple images of the same child on missing-child posters. In the present research, we examined the effect of including multiple pictures of missing children on posters in the context of both prospective and retrospective person memory. Improvements in both prospective person memory and retrospective person memory were obtained in the multiple-image condition. Additionally, in retrospective person memory, participants who were presented with multiple-image posters showed an increased tendency to indicate that a child was previously seen regardless of whether the child actually was previously seen. We discuss these findings as well as policy implications of these results.     

Compelling untruths: the effect of retention interval on content borrowing and vivid false memories

False memories are sometimes vivid and detailed. We proposed that the details that come to be associated with false memories may be produced by a process called content borrowing. In content borrowing, details from presented items are erroneously borrowed to corroborate the occurrence of the false memory item. In the present research we used think-out-loud protocols at both study and test to provide evidence for content borrowing in the DRM paradigm. We also demonstrated that content borrowing was more common after a 2-week delay, and was more common for critical lures than for missing exemplars.