Toward a psychology of memory accuracy

There has been unprecedented interest in recent years in questions pertaini ng to accuracy and distortion in memory. This interest, catalyzed in part b y real-life problems, marks a significant departure from the quantity-orien ted approach that has characterized much of traditional memory research. We outline a correspondence metaphor of memory underlying accuracy-oriented r esearch, and show how the features of this metaphor are manifested across t he disparate bodies of research reviewed here. These include work in the Ge stalt tradition, spatial memory, memory for gist, schema theory, source mon itoring, fluency misattributions, false recall and recognition, postevent m isinformation, false memories, eyewitness research, and autobiographical me mory. In examining the dynamics of memory accuracy, we highlight the import ance of metacognitive monitoring and control processes. We end by discussin g some of the methodological, theoretical, and metatheoretical issues inher ent in accuracy-oriented research, attempting to prepare the groundwork for a more coherent psychology of memory accuracy.