title: Factors that influence the generation of autobiographical memory conjunction errors.
abstract: The constructive nature of memory is generally adaptive, allowing us to efficiently store, process and learn from life events, and simulate future scenarios to prepare ourselves for what may come. However, the cost of a flexibly constructive memory system is the occasional conjunction error, whereby the components of an event are authentic, but the combination of those components is false. Using a novel recombination paradigm, it was demonstrated that details from one autobiographical memory (AM) may be incorrectly incorporated into another, forming AM conjunction errors that elude typical reality monitoring checks. The factors that contribute to the creation of these conjunction errors were examined across two experiments. Conjunction errors were more likely to occur when the corresponding details were partially rather than fully recombined, likely due to increased plausibility and ease of simulation of partially recombined scenarios. Brief periods of imagination increased conjunction error rates, in line with the imagination inflation effect. Subjective ratings suggest that this inflation is due to similarity of phenomenological experience between conjunction and authentic memories, consistent with a source monitoring perspective. Moreover, objective scoring of memory content indicates that increased perceptual detail may be particularly important for the formation of AM conjunction errors.
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research , The University of Auckland , Auckland , New Zealand.
authors.forename: Aleea L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Devitt
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research , The University of Auckland , Auckland , New Zealand.
authors.forename: Edwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Monk-Fromont
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Harvard University , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Schacter
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research , The University of Auckland , Auckland , New Zealand.
authors.forename: Donna Rose
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Addis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autobiographical memory; False memory; Imagination; Memory conjunction error; Phenomenology