Individual differences in imagination inflation

Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) found that when adult subjects i magined childhood events, these events were subsequently judged as more lik ely to have occurred than were not-imagined events. The authors termed this effect imagination, inflation. We replicated the effect, using a novel set of Life Events Inventory events. Further, we tested whether the effect is related to four subject characteristics possibly associated with false memo ry creation. The extent to which subjects inflated judged likelihood follow ing imagined events was associated with indices of hypnotic suggestibility and dissociativity, but not with vividness of imagery or interrogative sugg estibility. Results suggest that imagination plays a role in subsequent lik elihood judgments regarding childhood events, and that some individuals are more likely than others to experience imagination inflation.