False memory at the movies: Experimentally inducing false visual memories through sound design in two cuts of a creative narrative fiction film

Resumen

In film some important narrative events are presented by sound alone leading some audience members to remember seeing events that were not presented visually. The ability of off-screen sound to evoke false visual memories of unseen narrative events has never been empirically tested in an ecologically valid setting. In a unique collaboration between cognitive psychologists and professional filmmakers, we created two experimentally manipulated versions of a narrative film in which different events were depicted on screen or by sound alone. Adult participants from the broader university community were invited to view a film in a cinema (Stage One, N=59 Age: M = 32.4, SD = 10.7) or online (Stage Two N=68, Age: M = 50.3, SD = 11.7). Recognition for visual content was tested immediately after the film screening (Stage One), or after a delay of at least one hour (Stage Two), by presenting short scenes from the film in which some of the previously unseen visual content was presented. In general, people did not report higher confidence for previously unseen visual content presented by sound alone, however, we identified a subset of test events that were susceptible to this effect. In an iterative preregistered design, the test events identified in Stage One of the study were preregistered as targets for analysis in Stage Two, where we replicated the false visual recognition memory effect. Confidence for seen/unseen events also differed according to the narrative salience of different events, and audience empathy for the character played a role. These findings are the first to suggest the presence of psychologically real sound-evoked false visual memory in film audiences.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Williams, R. A., Maus, G., & Styles, S. J. (2023). False memory at the movies: Experimentally inducing false visual memories through sound design in two cuts of a creative narrative fiction film. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/mhvq5