Skip to main content
Download PDF

A picture is worth a thousand lies: Using false photographs to create false childhood memories

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review volume 9, pages 597–603 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Because image-enhancing technology is readily available, people are frequently exposed to doctored images. However, in prior research on how adults can be led to report false childhood memories, subjects have typically been exposed to personalized and detailed narratives describing false events. Instead, we exposed 20 subjects to a false childhood event via a fake photograph and imagery instructions. Over three interviews, subjects thought about a photograph showing them on a hot air balloon ride and tried to recall the event by using guided-imagery exercises. Fifty percent of the subjects created complete or partial false memories. The results bear on ways in which false memories can be created and also have practical implications for those involved in clinical and legal settings.

References

  • Belli, R. F., &Loftus, E. F. (1996). The pliability of autobiographical memory: Misinformation and the false memory problem. In D. C. Rubin (Ed.),Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory (pp. 157–179). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ceci, S. J., Huffman, M. L., &Smith, E. (1994). Repeatedly thinking about a non-event: Source misattributions among preschoolers.Consciousness & Cognition,3, 388–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dolan, Y. M. (1991).Resolving sexual abuse: Solution-focused therapy and Ericksonian hypnosis for adult survivors. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finke, R. A., Johnson, M. K., &Shyi, G. C.-W. (1988). Memory confusions for real and imagined completions of symmetrical visual patterns.Memory & Cognition,16, 133–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J., &Hayne, H. (1999). Drawing facilitates children's verbal reports after long delays.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied,5, 265–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grumet, T. (1997, December). When seeing isn't believing.Popular Mechanics, pp. 98–99.

  • Hyman, I. E., Jr., &Billings, F. J. (1998). Individual differences and the creation of false childhood memories.Memory,6, 1–20.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, I. E., Jr.,Husband, T. H., &Billings, F. J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences.Applied Cognitive Psychology,9, 181–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, I. E., Jr., &Kleinknecht, E. E. (1999). False childhood memories. In L. M. Williams & V. L. Banyard (Eds.),Trauma and memory (pp. 178–188). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, I. E., Jr., &Loftus, E. F. (1998). Errors in autobiographical memory.Clinical Psychology Review,18, 933–947.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, I. E., Jr., &Pentland, J. (1996). The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 101–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacoby, L. L., Kelley, C. M., &Dywan, J. (1989). Memory attributions. In H. L. Roediger III & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.),Varieties of memory and consciousness: Essays in honour of Endel Tulving (pp. 391–422). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M. K. (1988). Discriminating the origin of information. In T. F. Oltmanns & B. A. Maher (Eds.),Delusional beliefs (pp. 34–65). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S., &Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring.Psychological Bulletin,114, 3–28.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loftus, E. F., &Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories.Psychiatric Annals,25, 720–725.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mided, J. (1998).The photographic image and the digital truth [On-line]. Available: www.users.dircon.co.uk/~migol/text/digitaltruth.html.

  • Neimeyer, G. J., &Metzler, A. E. (1994). Personal identity and autobiographical recall. In U. Neisser & R. Fivush (Eds.),The remembering self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative (pp. 105–135). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Neimeyer, G. J., &Rareshide, M. B. (1991). Personal memories and personal identity: The impact of ego identity development on autobiographical memory recall.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,60, 562–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neisser, U., &Libby, L. K. (2000). Remembering life experiences. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.),The Oxford handbook of memory (pp. 315–332). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novey, P. (1999). The family album.Transactional Analysis Journal,29, 149–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pezdek, K., Finger, K., &Hodge, D. (1997). Planting false childhood memories: The role of event plausibility.Psychological Science,8, 437–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poole, D. A., Lindsay, D. S., Memon, A., &Bull, R. (1995). Psychotherapy and the recovery of memories of childhood sexual abuse: U.S. and British practitioners' opinions, practices, and experiences.Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology,63, 426–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, S., Yuille, J. C., &Lehman, D. R. (1999). The nature of real, implanted and fabricated memories for emotional childhood events: Implications for the false memory debate.Law & Human Behavior,23, 517–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiser, J. (1990). More than meets the eye: Using ordinary snapshots as tools for therapy. In T. A. Laidlaw & C. Malmo (Eds.),Healing voices: Feminist approaches to therapy with women (pp. 83–117). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuille, J. C., Hunter, R., Joffe, R., &Zaparniuk, J. (1993). Interviewing children in sexual abuse cases. In G. S. Goodman & B. L. Bottoms (Eds.),Child victims, child witnesses: Understanding and improving testimony (pp. 95–115). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Kimberley A. Wade & Maryanne Garry

  2. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    J. Don Read & D. Stephen Lindsay

Authors
  1. Kimberley A. Wade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Maryanne Garry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J. Don Read
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. Stephen Lindsay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryanne Garry.

Additional information

This research was funded in part by a Victoria University of Wellington Strategic Development Fund to M.G. and by an operating grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to D.R. K.W. is supported by a Victoria University Targeted PhD Scholarship.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wade, K.A., Garry, M., Don Read, J. et al. A picture is worth a thousand lies: Using false photographs to create false childhood memories. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9, 597–603 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196318

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196318

Keywords

  • False Memory
  • False Recall
  • Imagery Instruction
  • False Event
  • Perceptual Detail