The role of emotional elaboration in the creation of false memories |
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| Authors: | Sarah B Drivdahl Maria S Zaragoza Dianne M Learned |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Northwest University, USA;2. Department of Psychology, Kent State University, USA;3. Department of Psychology, Western Washington University, USA |
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| Abstract: | Two experiments employed an eyewitness suggestibility paradigm to examine the effects of emotional elaboration on the creation of false memories for suggested events. The results of both experiments converge in showing that reflectively elaborating on the emotional consequences of suggested events increases both false belief and false memory in having witnessed the suggested events. Moreover, the results also showed that emotional elaboration leads to higher false memory than other types of meaningful elaboration, thus providing evidence that the emotional content of the elaboration plays a role in promoting false memory development. The results have several real‐world implications for forensic and therapeutic interviews. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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