ABSTRACT

While research suggests that telling lies can distort memory for the truth, the effects of receiving feedback about the believability about one's lies are not known. We hypothesised that participants who exaggerated the number of stolen items (vs. told the truth) in a mock insurance claim and then received feedback that their statement was believable (vs. not believable) would incorporate this lie into memory. In a two-phase between-subjects design, participants saw images of an office pre- and post-theft and were randomly assigned to report the number of stolen items accurately (truth-tellers) or exaggerate (liars). They were then randomly assigned to receive feedback that their statement was believable or not. Approximately two weeks later, participants’ recall of the theft was measured. Liars and truth-tellers recalled a similar number of stolen items, but liars had less accurate recall for exactly which items were stolen. Liars (vs. truth-tellers) also made more omission errors. The majority of participants who fabricated additional stolen items (65.7%) incorporated one or more of these (false) items into their memory. Results suggest that source monitoring errors may lead fabricated details to be incorporated into memory. Although no effects of believability feedback were observed, recommendations for future researchers are discussed.

摘要

虽然研究表明说谎会扭曲对真相的记忆，但接受关于谎言可信度的反馈的影响尚不清楚。我们假设参与者在模拟保险索赔中夸大了被盗物品的数量（而不是说真话），然后收到反馈说他们的陈述是可信的（而不是不可信的），他们会将这个谎言记入记忆中。在一个两阶段的受试者间设计中，参与者看到了盗窃前后的办公室图像，并被随机分配准确报告被盗物品的数量（说真话的人）或夸大的（说谎者）。然后他们被随机分配接受反馈，即他们的陈述是否可信。大约两周后，测量了参与者对盗窃的回忆。说谎者和说真话的人回忆起被盗物品的数量相似，但说谎者对被盗物品的准确回忆不太准确。说谎者（与说真话的人相比）也犯了更多的遗漏错误。大多数制造额外被盗物品的参与者（65.7%）将这些（虚假）物品中的一件或多件纳入他们的记忆中。结果表明，源监控错误可能导致捏造的细节被纳入记忆。虽然没有观察到可信度反馈的影响，但讨论了对未来研究人员的建议。结果表明，源监控错误可能导致捏造的细节被纳入记忆。虽然没有观察到可信度反馈的影响，但讨论了对未来研究人员的建议。结果表明，源监控错误可能导致捏造的细节被纳入记忆。虽然没有观察到可信度反馈的影响，但讨论了对未来研究人员的建议。