The thin line between reality and imagination: The imagination inflation effect in Korsakoff's syndrome

The imagination inflation effect, which is a form of memory distortion, occurs when imagining an event that never happened may increase the tendency to falsely remember that it really occurred. We investigated this effect in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Our procedures consisted of 2 sessions and a recognition test. In Session 1, patients with Korsakoff's syndrome and controls listened to statements of actions (e.g., "hold the pen"), enacted the actions, or imagined performing the actions. In Session 2, participants imagined statements of actions from Session 1 as well as new statements of actions once or 3 times. On the recognition test, participants had to decide whether statements of actions were or were not enacted during Session 1.

Analysis demonstrated that imagining performing the actions increased the tendency of both patients with Korsakoff's syndrome and controls to falsely recall the actions as having been enacted.

Our findings suggest that patients with Korsakoff's syndrome are prone to the imagination inflation effect, an effect that can be attributed to difficulties with source monitoring. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).