The false fame illusion in people with memories about a previous life.
The present study examined whether individuals with full-blown memories of highly implausible events are prone to commit source monitoring errors. Participants reporting previous-life memories and those without such memories completed a false fame task. This task provides an index of source monitoring errors (i.e., misclassifying familiar non-famous names as famous names). Participants with previous-life memories had a greater tendency to judge the names of previously presented non-famous people as famous than control participants. The two groups did not differ in terms of correct recognition of new non-famous names and famous names. Although dissociation, cognitive failures, sleep-related experiences, depressive symptoms, and signs of psychological distress were all significantly higher in participants with previous-life memories than in controls, these variables did not predict the false fame illusion.
Peters
Maarten J V
MJ
Maastricht University, The Netherlands, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Experimental Psychology, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. m.peters@psychology.unimaas.nl
Horselenberg
Robert
R
Jelicic
Marko
M
Merckelbach
Harald
H
D000328:Adult; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires