Can Sleep Be a Source of False Memories? A Literature Review
In this project, I examined how sleep affects the accuracy of our memories. Sleep is usually linked to better memory, but I focused on a less intuitive aspect: whether the same processes that help us remember can also lead us to remember things that never happened. To explore this, I reviewed experimental studies in which people learned information and were later tested after either sleeping or staying awake. I compared different types of tasks, from classic word-list experiments to more realistic situations where misleading information is introduced.
This work was carried out as my Bachelor’s thesis in Psychology, supervised by Dr. Katinka Dijkstra.
Abstract
Sleep is a fundamental process for physical health, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning. It also plays a role in memory consolidation since it facilitates the integration of new information into long-term memory storage. However, sleep-related processes can blend with existing memories and may result in the formation of false memories. Post-sleep false memories have been tested mainly through the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, although several limitations (e.g. the heavy reliance on semantic memory) call the test into question, especially concerning ecological validity. This literature review aims to investigate the impact of sleep on the formation of false memories and provide an overview of the recent empirical research in the field. To do so, studies with different methods were discussed and compared, including recognition and free recall DRM tasks, misinformation tasks, the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, and category exemplars. The findings of this review show that sleep, relative to wakefulness, might reduce susceptibility to false memories in recognition DRM paradigms, but enhance false memories in free recall DRM paradigms. Additionally, the influence of sleep on the promotion of false memories might depend on individual factors, such as age or general memory performance. In this regard, findings suggest increased false memories in younger adults, and in adults with low general memory performance. Further research should focus on investigating the individual differences that might moderate the relationship between sleep and false memory, as well as using tests with more naturalistic settings.
Keywords: False memory, Sleep, Memory consolidation, DRM paradigm, Literature review