Date of Award
8-11-2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Heather Kleider-Offutt
Second Advisor
David Washburn
Third Advisor
Christopher Conway
Abstract
False memories for events that never actually occurred can have detrimental effects, particularly in eyewitness testimony. The current study is used to explore how individual differences in imagery ability and working memory capacity may contribute to the formation of false memories and the phenomenological experience of both true and false memories. Results suggest that although imagery ability does not appear to affect overall false memory rate, individuals with high imagery ability appear to have more vivid memories of both experienced and imagined events than individuals with low imagery ability. Results involving working memory capacity suggest that the effect of imagery ability on the phenomenological experience of memory is not influenced by working memory capacity; however the working memory capacity scores in the sample were of limited range. Results are discussed in the context of both the Source Monitoring Framework and the Dual Process Theory.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/7345767
Recommended Citation
Hegerty, Shanna E. A., "The Effects of Individual Differences in Imagery Ability and Working Memory Capacity on False Memories for Imagined Actions." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/7345767