Did that really happen? : the influence of knowledge and plausibility on the ability to judge memory veracity

Thesis (M.A., Psychology)--California State University, Sacramento, 2015.The present study examined the effects of participant???s prior knowledge that some of the presented memories were false, and the addition of specific implausible details on perceived memory characteristics (MCQ ratings) and the veracity judgment of other individual???s memories for true and false childhood events in a group of volunteers (N = 120, 76% female), age (M = 20.54, SD = 3.66). The results revealed an interaction between knowledge and plausibility, such that when knowledge was given, participants detected implausible details at a higher rate than when knowledge was withheld. Although the overall veracity judgment accuracy was at chance level, participants were more accurate when judging memories that contained implausible details than plausible details as well as more accurate at judging true compared to false memories. Lastly, a small group of the participants who rated memories consistent with a typical true and false ???memory profile??? made fewer false alarms in veracity judgment compared to the other participants.Psycholog