RECOLLECTIONS OF TRUE AND FALSE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES

Two diarists recorded true and false events and thoughts over a period of 5 months. In recognition tests taken 7 months later, they discrimi nated between true and false diary entries and judged their state of m emory awareness as recollective experience, feeling of familiarity, or no distinct state of awareness. Correct recognition rates for true ev ents and thoughts were high. Events were associated with recollective experience and thoughts with feelings of familiarity. Incorrect recogn ition was higher for thoughts than events. False memories were associa ted with familiarity or no distinct state of awareness. For correct me mories of events only, factors influencing encoding (importance, conse quentiality, etc.) interacted with state of memory awareness at retrie val. The quality of phenomenal experience, based on the associations b etween encoding and retrieval, may be critical in leading a rememberer to accept a memory as true.