LANEY et al

THE PSYCHOLOGY BEING STUDIED

The psychology being studied was the false memories.

Experiment1
The aim of the study was to investigate whether false memories for
loving asparagus can be implanted into people and then change their
childhood memories.
METHOD
The method used was lab experiment as it took place in an artificial
environment. There was a total of 128 undergraduate that were used
for the study and they all received course credit for participating. 77
percent of the participants where female. The mean age of the
participant was 20.8 years. The where randomly assigned to either the
love group (n=63) or the control group (n=65).
The moment they arrived at the laboratory, the participants were told
that they would be completing a series of questionnaires to help study
the relationship between food preference and personality. In order to
reduce the influence of demand characteristics, they were not
informed about false memories.
There were two main questionnaires; the first was the Food History
Inventory (FHI) consisting of 24 items. The 16th item was crucial, it read
“loved asparagus the first time you tried it”. The second one was
restaurant questionnaires, it accessed the desire to eat 32 separate
dishes. Added in this was the critical item of “sautéed asparagus spears
“. The questionnaires was laid out like a menu with appetizers, soups,
dessert etc. The participants had to rate how likely it was for them to
order each of the items no matter the price.
About week later all the participant came back. They were given false
feedback about their responses to the original feedback. They told
them that their responses had been entered into a computer program
which created a profile of their childhood experience with food which
was false. Profiles were presented as if they had been made to fit each
participant. 5 questionnaires were completed: FHI, RQ, Personality
measure, Social desirability and Eating Habit. The last three
questionnaires were distracter questionnaires to cover up the aim of
the study.
They returned to the lab in Week 2 and were assigned at random to the
love or control conditions. Based on their questionnaire responses, a
report was issued to them regarding their formative years. Participants
in the love condition were required to declare that they "liked to eat
cooked asparagus." The control group received three filler items.
In order to make sure that the participants had processed the feedback,
questions about the profile were asked of them. The FHI and RQ were
then completed by the participants in order to gauge any reactions and
changes. Additionally, they finished the FPQ, FCQ, and MBQ.

Result
When the FHI of the two groups were compared, the average
responses for the love group (n=46) increased by 2.6 points.
Respondents in the control group (n=51) scored 0.2 points higher.
Since 31 people gave an FHI score of 5 or higher and claimed to adore
asparagus, their data were removed.
They were able to recall specific events with some detail.
Belief - less detailed retrieval of an event.
Love group has a greater chance of generating a false memory/belief.

Conclusions
According to Laney et al in this study, Positive false memories can be
implanted. False beliefs have consequences on behavior and food
preference.
False belief effects:
• increased rating on loving asparagus
• increased willingness to spend on asparagus
• Intention to eat in the future

EXPERIMENT2
To investigate the consequence of planting positive false memory in
terms of the effect it has on liking asparagus and choosing asparagus.
AIM
To replicate and extend the results of Experiment.
To examine a possible underlying mechanism for false memory

METHOD
103 undergraduate students from the University of Washington who
received course credit. 64 females and 39 males with a mean age of
19.9. The love group had 58 participants; the control group had 45
participants.
After arriving at the lab, the participants were told that their data
would be entered into a computer that would generate a profile for
them. There deception or cover story was used. Participants completed
the FHI, RQ, FPQ, PM and SDS. Most of the first experiment’s procedure
was repeated.
During week 2, participants were randomly assigned to the love or
control condition. The report of the participants in the love condition
consisted of the feedback: “you loved asparagus the first time you ate
it”. After participants read their profile, they were required to give
details about their memory of eating asparagus. If they did not, they
were asked what might have happened. The control group did not do
this. All participants then were asked their most important food-related
childhood event that the food profile did not report.

Then participants were shown a slideshow that displayed 20 photos,

each for 30 seconds. They were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 8 the
following:
• How appetizing they found it.
• How disgusting they found it.
• The artistic quality.
• The expertise of the photographer.
Participants then completed the FHI, RQ, FPQ and MBQ. They were
debriefed afterwards.

Result
For the love group the mean confidence increased by an average of 2.5
points. Control group response increased by 1.0 point. 30 participants
were excluded from the analysis.

Conclusion
Participants can be given false positive food beliefs and these beliefs
have consequences on behavior, food preference, and food memories.
Believers are more likely to rate asparagus as more appetizing and less
disgusting.
On the RQ, neither believers nor non-believers had an increased desire
to eat asparagus.
On the FPQ, believers reported a greater desire to eat asparagus.
On the photograph ratings, believers rated asparagus as more appetizing
and less disgusting than the ratings of non-believers.
EVALUATION
The population sample of the study cannot be used in a bigger
population in terms of false memory.
The study was done in a laboratory which means it has high
level of standardization so it has high level in reliability