Dreams and reality monitoring.

Exp I tested the counterintuitive prediction that memories for one's own dreams should not be particularly easy to discriminate from memories for someone else's dreams. 10 pairs of undergraduate and graduate students reported dreams to each other that they had either dreamed, read, or made up the night before. On a test requiring them to discriminate events they had reported from those reported by their partner, Ss had more difficulty with real dreams than with dreams they read or made up. Data from 10 new pairs of Ss in Exp II provide evidence that real dreams do not simply produce overall weaker memories; the deficit for dreams was eliminated with more time to respond and with more detailed cues. In addition, Ss' ratings of various characteristics of their memories (e.g., vividness, personal relevance) indicated that dreams were not generally weaker or impoverished. Results are interpreted within the framework for reality monitoring described by M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye (1981). A comparison of recognition and recall indicated that dreams may leave persisting memories that are difficult to access via free recall. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self–nonself-segregation and reality monitoring.

Three experiments with 144 female undergraduates tested the hypothesis that field-independent (FI) Ss would be better reality monitors and would be better able to separate the self from the nonself than field-dependent (FD) Ss. It is noted that, according to M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye (see record 1981-06694-001), reality monitoring is the process of determining whether a memory originated in thought processes (internal) or in perception (external). Ss' field dependence–independence was determined with the Group Embedded Figures Test. In Exp I, FD and FI Ss were asked to discriminate between internal and external sources of memories. FI Ss were more accurate at identifying the origin of their memories and made fewer reality monitoring confusions than FD Ss. When Ss were asked to discriminate between 2 external sources of memories in Exp II or between 2 internal sources of memories in Exp III, FI Ss did not show the source discrimination advantage. Recognition memory also varied across experiments, with FI Ss showing an advantage in some (Exps I and II) but not all (Exp III) cases. Findings are discussed in terms of an overreliance by FD Ss on the sensory, semantic, and contextual detail characteristic of externally derived memories and little awareness by these Ss of their own cognitive operations. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related deficits in reality monitoring of action memories.

The authors describe 3 theoretical accounts of age-related increases in falsely remembering that imagined actions were performed (A. K. Thomas & J. B. Bulevich, 2006). To investigate these accounts and further explore age-related changes in reality monitoring of action memories, the authors used a new paradigm in which actions were (a) imagined only, (b) actually performed, or (c) both imagined and performed. Older adults were more likely than younger adults to misremember the source of imagined-only actions, with older adults more often specifying that the action was imagined and also that it was performed. For both age groups, illusions that the actions were only performed decreased as repetitions of the imagined-only events increased. These patterns suggest that both older and younger adults use qualitative characteristics when making reality-monitoring judgments and that repeated imagination produces richer records of both sensory details and cognitive operations. However, sensory information derived from imagination appears to be more similar to that derived from performance for older adults than for younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarity-scaling studies of dot-pattern classification and recognition.

Classification performance in a dot-pattern, prototype-distortion paradigm (e.g., M. I. Posner and S. W. Keele, 1968) was modeled within a multidimensional scaling (MDS) framework. MDS solutions were derived for sets of dot patterns that were generated from prototypes. These MDS solutions were then used in conjunction with exemplar, prototype, and combined models to predict classification and recognition performance. Across 3 experiments, an MDS-based exemplar model accounted for the effects of several fundamental learning variables, including level of distortion of the patterns, category size, delay of transfer phase, and item frequency. Most important, the model quantitatively predicted classification probabilities for individual dot patterns in the sets, not simply general trends of performance. There was little evidence for the existence of a prototype-abstraction process that operated above and beyond pure exemplar-based generalization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When reality monitoring fails: The role of imagination in stereotype maintenance.

Research on reality monitoring (the process by which people distinguish memories of real events from memories of imagined events) suggests that the occurrence of imagined events can inflate the perceived frequency of corresponding real events. Two experiments examined how such failures in reality monitoring can contribute to the maintenance of social stereotypes. When subjects imagined members of occupational groups in the initial experiment, they tended to incorporate stereotyped traits into their imaginations, with specific traits determined by the contexts being imagined. This suggests that imagined events do correspond with stereotype-confirming real events. In the second experiment, subjects read sentences that presented traits (stereotyped and nonstereotyped) in association with occupations with uniform frequency. They also imagined members of each occupation in situations relevant to particular stereotypic traits. In subsequent judgments of presentation frequency, subjects overestimated their exposure to stereotypic occupation–trait combinations, which replicated earlier studies. Subjects further overestimated the presentation frequency of imagined stereotypic combinations, which indicated the failure to distinguish self-generated images from actual presentations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transference: Psychic reality and material reality.

This article explores the impact of material reality in the form of the analyst's unrecognized and enacted countertransference on a patient's psychic reality (PR) as it presents in the transference. PR refers to a patient's experience in the transference and to an organization of unconscious fantasies, encoded as compromise formations, that actively structures the present and can be inferred from the data of psychoanalysis. Clinical material is presented in support of the author's belief that PR plays the central role in the construction of the transference and that material reality can influence both the nature and form of the transference through the activation or inhibition of different sets of fantasies in the analyst and the patient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An alternative conceptualization to memory "strength" in reality monitoring.

Recently, H. G. Hoffman (1997) has proposed that reality-monitoring judgments can be made using average differences in the strength of 2 classes of studied items. The support for this claim was that the inferred recognition hit rate differed for the 2 classes of items. Hoffman argued that misattributions of new items to an old source were more frequent to the source that was weaker in memory strength. The authors of the present study have demonstrated that source misattribution biases of this sort can arise when the inferred recognition hit rate does not differ between classes of items. Their argument is that different source-monitoring situations may require different weightings of source-monitoring decision criteria and that these can provide a valid account of both their own and Hoffman's data. Arguments concerning when strength might and might not be used in tasks involving source monitoring versus unconscious plagiarism are clarified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in source forgetting: Effects on reality monitoring and on eyewitness testimony.

Age differences in memory for the source of memories were investigated using two different experimental paradigms. Experiment 1 used a reality monitoring paradigm. A series of actions were either performed, imagined, or watched, and subjects were later tested for their ability to recognize the actions and identify their origins. Elderly subjects made more false positive responses than did young subjects, and they made more source confusion errors, attributing actions to the wrong sources. Both new and imagined actions were most often misclassified as watched. Experiment 2 used an eyewitness testimony paradigm. After watching a film, subjects read a written version of the story. A recognition test showed that elderly subjects were more often misled by false information in the story than were the younger subjects, and were more confident that their erroneous responses were correct. The findings suggest that a decline in memory for sources may diminish the accuracy of elderly witnesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and reality.

Although it may be disconcerting to contemplate, true and false memories arise in the same way. Memories are attributions that we make about our mental experiences based on their subjective qualities, our prior knowledge and beliefs, our motives and goals, and the social context. This article describes an approach to studying the nature of these mental experiences and the constructive encoding, revival, and evaluative processes involved (the source monitoring framework). Cognitive behavioral studies using both objective (e.g., recognition, source memory) and subjective (e.g., ratings of memory characteristics) measures and neuroimaging findings are helping to clarify the complex relation between memory and reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time-course analysis of semantic and orthographic context effects in picture naming.

In Experiment 1, the authors used a picture-word task to investigate the time courses of semantic interference, orthographic facilitation, and their interaction. Five stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), from -200 ms (word first) to 200 ms, in steps of 100 ms were used. The results show that the semantic interference effect was restricted to a small SOA range around zero, that the orthographic facilitation effect almost spanned the whole SOA range used, and finally, that the two effects modified each other. The authors present a connectionist model based on W. R. Glaser and M. O. Glaser's (see record 1989-24812-001) model that is able to simulate the experimental results. In Experiment 2, a prediction of the model was tested and supported. The findings support a word-form retrieval account of context effects in picture naming and are discussed in relation to alternative accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time-course contingencies in perceptual organization and identification of fragmented object outlines.

To study the dynamic interplay between different component processes involved in the identification of fragmented object outlines, the authors used a discrete-identification paradigm in which the masked presentation duration of fragmented object outlines was repeatedly increased until correct naming occurred. Survival analysis was used to investigate whether and when different types of information—such as contour integration cues (proximity, collinearity, and fragment density), fragment properties (low vs. high curvature), stimulus complexity (global symmetry, number and saliency of the parts), and memory factors (natural vs. artifactual)—influenced the timing of identification. The results show that the importance of these different types of information can change over the time course of object identification, indicating so-called time-course contingencies. Most important, the straight segments of a contour played a larger role for complex outlines with high part saliency during early (bottom-up) grouping processes, whereas the curved segments of object outlines were more important during later (top-down) matching processes for simpler outlines with lower part saliency. This new insight can explain why different studies on shape-based object identification have produced seemingly contradictory results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aesthetic emotions and reality.

Comments that K. S. Walter's (see record 1990-09071-001) response to N. H. Frijda's (see record 1988-28577-001) article on laws and emotions brings up an important issue: The mystery that emotions can be evoked by imaginary events. Frijda thinks the solution is to be found in part in the complexities of the concept and the conception of "reality" and "unreality." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source monitoring during name recognition in older adults: Psychometric and electrophysiological correlates.

The hypothesis that source monitoring in older adults is specifically related to frontal lobe function was tested. In a fame-judgment task, older adults' ability to monitor the source of name familiarity was independent of their short-term recognition ability. Source errors were not related to performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a psychometric index of frontal function, or to the initial orienting response of the contingent negative variation (CNV), a frontally based electrophysiological measure, even though these "frontal" measures were reliably related to each other. Source error was predicted by the latter portion of the CNV, the expectancy response, and by the Benton Facial Recognition Test, a visuoperceptual task not typically linked to frontal function. These data suggest that the accuracy of source attribution in older adults depends on various attentional control processes, not all of which may be frontally based. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reality of deception.

Comments on the article by A. Ortmann and R. Hertwig (see record 1997-04731-011) in which the authors express concern about the increase in the use of deception in psychological research. It is noted that social psychologists in particular are interested in research questions that often can be studied only if deception is used in realistic situations. The history of the use of deception in social psychology is linked not only to changes in psychological theory and method but also to characteristics of American culture such as individualism and pragmatism. Thus, individual experimenters decide if the results of their research justify the use of deception. Moral philosophers do not agree that deception is wrong, and in our cultural context, the suggestion by Ortmann and Hertwig that all forms of deception be outlawed is unrealistic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delaying students' metacognitive monitoring improves their accuracy in predicting their recognition performance.

The accuracy of students' judgments of learning (JOLs) in predicting recognition vs recall was investigated in 4 experiments. Students studied paired associates and made JOLs, which occurred either immediately after an item had been studied or shortly after an item had been studied. Students then received tests of associative recognition or paired-associate recall. JOL accuracy was greater for delayed JOLs than immediate JOLs, and the accuracy of JOLs was lower in predicting recognition than recall. The latter finding occurred (1) regardless of whether students had anticipated a recall test or a recognition test when making JOLs and (2) regardless of whether JOLs had been cued by only the stimulus of an item or by the entire stimulus-response pair. Correct guessing was shown to contribute to the lower accuracy of students' predictions of recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lice and scabies. Myths and reality

Scabies mites are only distantly related to human lice. Nevertheless, the two groups have much in common as regards to structure and life-style. These similarities result from the two groups using parallel adaptations in order to solve some of the problems of being parasites. Understanding these adaptations may help us give better advice.     

Schizophrenia, language, and reality.

Discusses schizophrenic delusions, language patterns, and patient governments from the viewpoint of a social psychologist who spent 3 wks observing and interacting with hospitalized schizophrenics. No evidence of "schizophrenic speech" (i.e., childlike linguistic properties) was observed. It is suggested that this term is erroneously used as a synonym for "schizophrenic thought," which was evident in the content of patients' verbalizations. It is also suggested that schizophrenic delusions and thought patterns represent insufficient reality testing, and that this "reality" is culturally and historically determined. A review of the literature on interjudge reliability concerning schizophrenic vs normal linguistic productions is also presented. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)