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.
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
Maarten J V
MJ
Peters
Robert
R
Horselenberg
Marko
M
Jelicic
Harald
H
Merckelbach
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