Memorial distortions in donation data

In this study, participants' memory for charitable acts, including the amou nts they donated to charity and the frequency of such donations, and also t he processes associated with the recall of charitable acts was explored. Pa rticipants were Australian students who earned money for responding correct ly to a decision-making task and then were given the opportunity to make a donation to a charity. Five weeks later they attempted to recall how much t hey had donated. Recall of the amount donated produced significant overesti mations. A 2nd study examined estimates of donating frequency, and results suggested that the frequency of donating was overestimated. The discussion focuses on the validity of survey data on donation size and frequency and t he processes associated with the recall of charitable acts.