title: False memories in highly superior autobiographical memory individuals.
abstract: The recent identification of highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) raised the possibility that there may be individuals who are immune to memory distortions. We measured HSAM participants' and age- and sex-matched controls' susceptibility to false memories using several research paradigms. HSAM participants and controls were both susceptible to false recognition of nonpresented critical lure words in an associative word-list task. In a misinformation task, HSAM participants showed higher overall false memory compared with that of controls for details in a photographic slideshow. HSAM participants were equally as likely as controls to mistakenly report they had seen nonexistent footage of a plane crash. Finding false memories in a superior-memory group suggests that malleable reconstructive mechanisms may be fundamental to episodic remembering. Paradoxically, HSAM individuals may retrieve abundant and accurate autobiographical memories using fallible reconstructive processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, and Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Patihis
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Frenda
authors.forename: Aurora K R
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: LePort
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.forename: Craig E L
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: McGaugh
authors.forename: Elizabeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Loftus
mesh_terms: D001244:Association; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012094:Repression, Psychology
keywords: DRM; crashing memories; hyperthymesia; suggestion