A new study combines false memory research with the effects of sleep deprivation. It is becoming increasingly clear that sleep plays a major role in memory formation and consolidation. Steven J. Frenda of the University of California, Irvine and his colleagues asked a simple question – would sleep deprivation increase the formation of false memories?
The had subjects view photos of a crime, then read a written description of the crime (with some details conflicting with the photos), and then asked them questions about details. Different groups of subjects had different patterns of sleep deprivation.
Those who were sleep deprived during memory encoding, when viewing the photos, had an increase rate of false memories compared to those who were well slept during memory encoding. There was no difference, however, in performance between well-slept and sleep deprived during the suggestion phase, when reading the written description, or the recall phase, when answering questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment