PSYC Seminar: The truth is not that easy to remember: Generating lies produces crossed double dissociations between memory and memory predictions
Assistant Professor Miri Besken
Date: Wednesday, November 4
Time: 12:40 p.m.
Place: A-130, FEASS Building
Most manipulations that induce disfluency during encoding reduce memory predictions for the more disfluent condition. Similar to other manipulations of fluency, lying generally takes longer and requires more mental effort than telling the truth. However, the effects of lying on memory predictions have not been investigated systematically. In a series of four experiments, participants told the truth and generated plausible lies to general knowledge questions and made item-by-item predictions about their subsequent memory performance during encoding, followed by a free recall test. The manipulation consistently yielded crossed double dissociations between predicted and actual memory performance: Participants predicted that the truth would be better recalled, despite better actual memory for the lies. Moreover, response latency for generating lies was slower than telling the truth, providing objective evidence of disfluency. The results demonstrate that lying might be similar to other manipulations of fluency, with the more disfluent condition producing lower memory predictions.