The Use of Indirect Memory Tests to Assess Malingered Amnesia: A Study of Metamemory

Many techniques have been suggested for identifying criminal suspects who are simulating amnesia for the events surrounding a crime. The present research focuses on indirect memory tests as a potential means of discriminating between those who genuinely suffer from amnesia and those who are simulati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. General 1992-09, Vol.121 (3), p.326-351
Main Authors: Horton, Keith D, Smith, Susan A, Barghout, Nadia K, Connolly, Deborah A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Amnesia
Biological and medical sciences
Crime
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Learning. Memory
Male
Malingering
Malingering - psychology
Memory
MMPI
Neuropsychological Tests
Psychology, Experimental
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Research Design
Simulation
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Summary:Many techniques have been suggested for identifying criminal suspects who are simulating amnesia for the events surrounding a crime. The present research focuses on indirect memory tests as a potential means of discriminating between those who genuinely suffer from amnesia and those who are simulating. Subjects studied a list of words and subsequently performed either a word completion or a fragment completion task. Under normal indirect test instructions, typical priming effects were observed. When subjects were motivated to simulate amnesia for the list, target completion rates were consistently, and sometimes reliably, below baseline completion rates. This finding is contrary to the performance of genuine amnesics, whose performance on indirect tests typically mirrors that of normal subjects. Indirect tests may prove useful in discriminating genuine and simulating amnesics.
ISSN:0096-3445
1939-2222
DOI:10.1037/0096-3445.121.3.326