Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:08:54.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Accuracy of Autobiographical Memory: A Replication of Barclay & Wellman (1986)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Harald Merckelbach ,
Ineke Wessel  and
Robert Horselenberg
Harald Merckelbach
Affiliation:
Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Ineke Wessel
Affiliation:
Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Robert Horselenberg
Affiliation:
Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ten volunteers kept written records of self-selected, daily events for a one-week period. After four months, they were given a surprise recognition test. This test consisted of original memories and several types of foils. In line with previous findings of Barclay and Wellman, it was found that acceptance of foils as one's own memories is a relatively common phenomenon. This suggests that pseudomemories may also occur in the absence of suggestions and repeated interviews and, more generally, that autobiographical memory is intrinsically unreliable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 103 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barclay, C.R. (1986). Schematization of autobiographical memory. In Rubin, D.C. (Ed.), Autobiographical memory (pp. 82–99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barclay, C.R. & DeCooke, P.A. (1988). Ordinary everyday memories: Some of the things of which selves are made. In Neisser, U. & Winograd, E. (Eds.), Remembering reconsidered: Ecological and traditional approaches to the study of memory (pp. 91–125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barclay, C.R. & Wellman, H.M. (1986). Accuracies and inaccuracies in autobiographical memories. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 93–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A.T., Ward, C.H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J.E., & Erbaugh, J.K. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, E.M. & Putnam, F.W. (1986). Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 727–735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewer, W.F. (1988). Memory for randomly sampled autobiographical events. In Neisser, U. & Winograd, E. (Eds.), Remembering reconsidered: Ecological and traditional approaches to the study of memory (pp. 21–90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewin, C.R. (1996). Scientific status of recovered memories. British Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 131–134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewin, C.R., Dalgleish, T., & Joseph, S. (1996). A dual representation of posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Review, 103, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceci, S.J., Crotteau Huffman, M.L., Smith, E., & Loftus, E.F. (1994). Repeatedly thinking about a non-event: Source misattributions among preschoolers. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 388–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crombag, H.F.M., Wagenaar, W.A., & van Koppen, P.J. (1996). Crashing memories and the problem of source monitoring. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 95–104.3.0.CO;2-#>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freyd, J.J. & Gleaves, D.H. (1996). Remembering words not presented in lists: Relevance to the current recovered/false memory controversy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 811–813.Google ScholarPubMed
Hyman, I.E., Husband, T.H., & Billings, F.J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 181–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, D.S. & Read, J.D. (1994). Psychotherapy and memories of childhood sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8 281–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipinsky, J.F. & Pope, H.G. (1994). Do flashbacks represent obsessional imagery? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 35, 245–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loftus, E.F. (1979). Eyewitness testimony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Loftus, E.F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American Psychologist, 48, 518–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I.M. & Mathews, A.M. (1979). Brief standard self-rating scale for phobics. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 17, 263–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCauley, R.N. (1988). Walking in our own footsteps: Autobiographical memory and reconstruction. In Neisser, U. & Winograd, E. (Eds.), Remembering reconsidered: Ecological and traditional approaches to the study of memory (pp. 126–144). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, J. (1995). Memories of abuse in borderline patients: True or false? Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 3, 10–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803–814.Google Scholar
Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1996). False perceptions of false memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 814–816.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, J.G. & Corwin, J. (1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 34–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trierweiler, S.J. & Donovan, C.M. (1994). Exploring the ecological foundations of memory in psychotherapy: Interpersonal affordance, perception, and recollection in real time. Clinical Psychology Review, 14, 301–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J.M.G. (1992). Autobiogrphical memory and emotional disorders. In Christianson, S.A. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory (pp. 451–477). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Zaragoza, M.S. & Lane, S.M. (1994). Source misattributions and the suggestibility of eyewitness memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 1–12.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.