Laypeople's beliefs about memory
Disentangling the effects of age and time
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21601959 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kimberley Wake (University of Otago), James A Green (0000-0001-8692-0163, University of Limerick), James Green (0000-0002-7309-0751, University of Limerick), Rachel Zajac (0000-0003-3040-4906, University of Otago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 589-597 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Memory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0965-8211 • E-ISSN: 1464-0686 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09658211.2020.1733023 |
| PMID | 32378455 |
| OpenAlex | W3022008530 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 48 |
Cognitive scientists have firmly established that memory is vulnerable to decay and distortion. Yet laypeople - who may be required to evaluate memory evidence as jurors - have shown less awareness of memory fallibility. Although we might expect laypeople's knowledge of memory to have improved over time, research has yet to explore this issue while accounting for possible age-related changes. We administered a modified version of the Beliefs about Memory Survey (BAMS) to a community sample, investigating patterns of beliefs relating to memory permanence, repression of traumatic memories, and memory reconstruction. Older participants were more likely than younger participants to believe that traumatic memories can be repressed, while younger participants were more likely than their older counterparts to believe that memory is permanent, but also that memory is malleable. We assessed whether these beliefs were stable over time, by comparing our data to a sample of data collected 25 years earlier. Although contemporary beliefs about the repression of traumatic memories and memory reconstruction were more aligned with expert opinion than those of 25 years ago, beliefs about memory permanence were not. These findings highlight the need for continued education about memory and its shortcomings. We discuss ways of improving decisions about memory evidence
Childhood memory · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Episodic memory · Eyewitness memory · Implicit memory · Memory errors · Recall · Reconstructive memory · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Memory Processes and Influences · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Psychology
Laypersons’ beliefs and knowledge about human memory
What do people really think of when they claim to believe in repressed memory? Methodological middle ground and applied issues
Laypeople’s perceptions of the effects of event repetition, reporting delay, and emotion on children’s and adults’ memory
An exploration of Italian laypeople’s belief in how human memory works
What do laypeople believe about the voluntary and involuntary retrieval of memories
Who believes in repressed memories? The roles of gender, age, and education in a national sample of United States adults
Beliefs about inaccessible memories of childhood sexual abuse
The Science of False Memory
Planting misinformation in the human mind
Reconstruction of automobile destruction
The seven sins of memory
Memory
The "general acceptance" of psychological research on eyewitness testimony
Memory as evidence
The ‘common sense’ memory belief system and its implications
The reality of repressed memories
On the permanence of stored information in the human brain
On the "general acceptance" of eyewitness testimony research
The case for expert testimony about eyewitness memory
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |