Guided visualization and suggestibility: Effect of perceived authority on recall of autobiographical memories

The purpose of this study was to investigate a possible component process i n the formation of childhood pseudomemories in adults. Participants recount ed a childhood event, the details of which came from hearing others tell it (a know event) rather than from their personal experience (a remember even t). Then participants were placed in 1 of 4 possible conditions: They compl eted a guided visualization task led by an expert, a guided visualization t ask led by a nonexpert, a visual search task, or a verbal list-learning tas k. For the guided visualization task, participants listened to a middle-age d man on audiotape, who asked them to imagine details about their know even t. Half believed the person on the tape was a well-known and esteemed psych ologist (an expert), and half were led to believe that he was someone who h ad gone back to school to study communications (a nonexpert). As predicted, guided visualization led participants to rate their know event closer to a remember event. Planned comparisons demonstrated that the effect was signi ficantly greater for the expert versus nonexpert conditions. Results were a pplied to the process of false memory formation and the use of visualizatio n procedures in psychotherapy.