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A robust preference for cheap-and-easy strategies over reliable strategies when verifying personal memories
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Nash, Robert Alastair, Wade, Kimberley A. , Garry, Maryanne and Adelman, James S. (2017) A robust preference for cheap-and-easy strategies over reliable strategies when verifying personal memories. Memory, 25 (7). pp. 890-899. doi:10.1080/09658211.2016.1214280
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2016.1214280
Abstract
People depend on various sources of information when trying to verify their autobiographical memories. Yet recent research shows that people prefer to use cheap-and-easy verification strategies, even when these strategies are not reliable. We examined the robustness of this cheap strategy bias, with scenarios designed to encourage greater emphasis on source reliability. In three experiments, subjects described real (Experiments 1 and 2) or hypothetical (Experiment 3) autobiographical events, and proposed strategies they might use to verify their memories of those events. Subjects also rated the reliability, cost,
and the likelihood that they would use each strategy. In line with previous work, we found that the preference for cheap information held when people described how they would verify childhood or recent memories (Experiment 1); personally-important or trivial memories (Experiment 2), and even when the consequences of relying on incorrect information could be significant (Experiment 3). Taken together, our findings fit with an account of source monitoring in which the tendency to trust one’s own autobiographical memories
can discourage people from systematically testing or accepting strong
disconfirmatory evidence.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Psychology | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Autobiographical memory, False memory syndrome, Memory -- Psychological aspects, Least effort principle (Psychology) | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Memory | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Psychology Press | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0965-8211 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 2017 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 25 | ||||||||
| Number: | 7 | ||||||||
| Number of Pages: | 10 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 890-899 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/09658211.2016.1214280 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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