A Preliminary Study On False Memory Induced By Cognitive Dissonance

This article is composed of two main parts: cognitive dissonance and false memory. Following this logic, in theory section, as for cognitive dissonance study, we summarized the cognitive dissonance theory, reviewed the development of theory, and introduced the paradigms in this field; as for false memory section, we introduced the paradigms and then reviewed the theory development.In experiment section, with the reference to J.W.Brehm (1965) free-choice paradigm, we explore the factors that would have an impact on this kind of false memory from three perspectives: freedom of choice(self, other), manipulation style(choose, refuse), location arrangement(4-12, 4-6).In experiment one: we explore three factors under the positive emotion background with the photos as the material. Accepted items and rejected items were analyzed separately, after undertaking Chi-square; we found that as for rejected items, FREEDOM OF CHOICE has a significant impact on false memory: the quantity of false memory that was induced under SELF manipulation was significant larger than that was under OTHER manipulation; the quantity of false memory that was induced under 4-12 ARRANGEMENT was significant larger than that was under 4-6 ARRANGEMENT.In experiment two, we explore three factors under negative emotion background with the Chinese character as the material. Accepted items and rejected items were analyzed separately, after undertaking Chi-square, we found that as for rejected items, the quantity of false memory that was induced under 4-12 ARRANGEMENT was significant larger than that was under 4-6 ARRANGEMENT.In experiment three, we explore three factors under positive emotion background with the Chinese character as the material. After employing One-way ANOVA, we found that the main effect of LOCATION ARRANGMENT is significant, and the quantity of false memory that was induced under 4-12 was significant larger than that was under 4-6 arrangement. The main effect of FREEDOM OF CHOICE is significant, and the quantity of false memory that was induced under SELF manipulation was significant larger than that was under OTHER manipulation. The interactions effects between every two variables were significant as well.