Judgements of other people's memory reports: differences in reports as a function of imagery vividness

✍ Scribed by Lara Keogh; Roslyn Markham

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 157 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199804)12:2<159::aid-acp506>3.0.co;2-j

✦ Synopsis

People reporting vivid imagery may be expected to describe events dierently from those with less vivid imagery. The study reported here examined the relationship between imagery vividness and descriptions of an item that had earlier either been seen or its presence suggested. Additional participant/judges were asked to determine the veracity of these descriptions and provide the basis for reaching their decisions. Results showed that the descriptions, for memories based on external and internal sources, given by vivid imagers diered from nonvivid imagers along a number of dimensions. High imagery people included more sensory details of the critical item that low imagers for both memory source conditions. More mention of cognitive processes were made by low imagers than high in the suggested condition but not in the real. Judgements about the veracity of descriptions based on memories that had dierent sources were found to be aected by imagery vividness of participants; rationales given for these decisions tended to be consistent with the objective ratings, although additional criteria emerged.