This was one of my main points in critiquing college student surveys: we can’t ask students questions as if they have a computer hard drive in their head. A similar study conducted in 1988 yielded similar results. Researchers showed participants slides depicting a burglar stealing a hammer from someone’s office. Then they read a brief report of the incident. Some of them were given reports...
False memories are terrifyingly easy to create
One of many reasons why I am skeptical about surveys that ask students about mundane events over the course of an entire academic year. Students were told about two events that happened during their teenage years. One event was true and based on information supplied by the students’ parents. The other event was fabricated, but included a smattering of true details, such as the city where they...