When Belief Becomes False Memory: A Processing Account

描述（由申请人提供）：记忆工作的大部分时间。 不幸的是，记忆有时也会让我们失望。虽然现在实际上 毫无疑问，错误的记忆可以而且确实会发生，但不清楚到底是如何发生的， 为什么它们会出现。Mazzoni、洛夫图斯和Kirsch（2001年）最近提出了一个 错误记忆发展的三步模型根据模型， 1)一个事件必须被认为是可信的; 2）一个人必须获得一个个人的信念 该事件可能发生在他/她身上; 3）必须解释思想 并把这件事幻想成记忆拟议的工作探讨如何 相信一个似是而非的（例如，被蛇咬伤）或难以置信（例如，摇动 与总统的手）一般主题可以加强，然后转换 变成个人记忆六个实验中提出的主题来， 相信或不相信他们经历了各种事件， 孩子们，基于他们处理这些事件的方式。是 假设一个人开始相信一个 他/她过去发生的事件取决于事件发生的难易程度。 最初处理或经历。此外，有人提出， 归因是造成错误记忆的原因。最后，建议A 单一的、普遍的过程是信念和自传体记忆的基础。的 拟议的工作将有助于澄清信念和记忆之间的关系， 从而揭示了一些导致错误记忆的机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Memory works most of the time. Unfortunately, memory also fails us at times. While it is now virtually uncontested that false memories can and do occur, it is unclear exactly how and why they emerge. Mazzoni, Loftus and Kirsch (2001) have recently proposed a three-step model for the development of false memories. According to the model, 1) an event must be seen as plausible; 2) one must obtain a personal belief that the event likely occurred to him/her; and 3) one must interpret thoughts and fantasies about the event as memories. The proposed work explores how belief in a plausible (e.g., bitten by a snake) or implausible (e.g., shaking hand with the President) general topic can be enhanced and then transformed into a personal memory. Six experiments are proposed in which subjects come to believe or disbelieve that they have experienced a variety of events as children, based on the way in which they process those events. It is hypothesized that the probability that an individual comes to believe that an event occurred in his/her past depends on the ease with which the event is initially processed or experienced. Moreover, it is proposed that errors in attribution are responsible for false memory. Finally, it is suggested that a single, general process underlies both belief and autobiographical memory. The proposed work will help clarify the relationship between belief and memory, thereby delineating some of the mechanisms responsible for false memory.