Related Concept Videos
False Memories
One primary source of false memories is misattribution, where individuals incorrectly associate external information...
Eyewitness Memory
One such error is memory distortion, which occurs because human memory does not function...
Hindsight Biases
Self-Report Tests of Personality
Beck's Cognitive Therapy
Arbitrary Inference
Arbitrary inference involves making conclusions without sufficient...
Repressed Memory
You might also read
Related Articles
Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.
The Limits of the Primacy of Morality Hypothesis: Are Global Impressions of Experts Based Mainly on their Competence or Morality?
If you express it in the form of a negation, you can expect an effect similar to misinformation.
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 13, 2025

Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories
Published on: November 14, 2018
Memory distrust and imagination inflation: A registered report.
Iwona Dudek1,2, Romuald Polczyk2
1Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Memory distrust does not increase susceptibility to imagination inflation, even when aware of discrepancies. Individuals distrusting their memory show similar effects to those who trust their memory.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Research
Background:
- Imagination inflation is a phenomenon where imagining an event increases confidence it occurred.
- Understanding factors influencing this memory distortion is crucial for memory research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between memory distrust and imagination inflation.
- To examine if traits like disengagement from reality moderate this effect.
- To test if memory distrust mediates the link between self-esteem and imagination inflation.
Main Methods:
- 279 participants assessed and reassessed confidence in childhood events after imagining them.
- A memory distrust induction procedure was applied to half the participants.
- Sensitization to discrepancies between actual and imagined memories was employed.
Main Results:
- Memory distrust, as a trait, was not correlated with the imagination inflation effect.
- Memory distrust, as a state, did not influence susceptibility in sensitized groups.
- No significant moderation or mediation effects were found for the tested variables.
Conclusions:
- Individuals distrustful of their memory are not more prone to imagination inflation.
- Awareness of discrepancies does not heighten the effect in memory-distrusting individuals.
- The study challenges assumptions about the role of memory distrust in memory distortions.

