Publications
Findings: Successfully planting a false memory by suggestion depends on how plausible the memory is, as well as how relevant and similar the false memory is to other true memories. A consistent pattern has been shown where plausible events are more likely to be falsely remembered than relatively implausible events. A framework is outlined for understanding false remembering based on Graesser’s schema copy plus tag model of memory.
Findings: Successfully planting a false memory by suggestion depends on how plausible the memory is, as well as how relevant and similar the false memory is to other true memories.
Only the plausible events were falsely remembered.
Findings: In an analysis of 198 articles on the subject of “false memory,” only 13.1% were found to have studied false memory within the original context of the term: planting a memory of an entirely new event never experienced before by the individual.
Kathy Pezdek
Psychologist
Imapct
Her research challenged broadly-applied famous studies that claimed to successfully implant false memories, creating a standardized framework describing the likelihood and ease of memory ‘implantation.’
Bio
Kathy Pezdek is a psychologist who specializes in eyewitness memory. Her most contested studies are those which challenged other established psychologists, such as Elizabeth Loftus. One of her studies on false childhood memories seeks to standardize the likelihood and ease with which memory can be ‘implanted’. Pezdek argues that the memories Loftus claims to have implanted in studies are plausible scenarios or ones similar to other experiences, such as the common experience of being lost in a mall or reading the word "cake" instead of "cookie." Pezdek argues that less plausible implanted memories, such as being given an enema or reading the word "penis" instead of “cookie,” are of a different caliber. Her results showed that the plausible events were falsely remembered significantly more than less plausible events, and that it is not likely for a relatively implausible event to be implanted as a false memory. From this, Pezdek outlines a framework for understanding false remembering based on Graesser’s schema copy plus tag model of memory, where more informational overlap between one’s memories and presented descriptions of false circumstances leads to a higher chance of false remembering – information which is similar to previous memories and is relatively plausible is more likely to be falsely remembered.