Borrowing Personal Memories
Abstract
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The present investigation documents memory borrowing
in college-age students, defined as the telling of others' autobiographical stories
as if they are one's own. In both pilot and online surveys, most undergraduates admit
to borrowing personal stories from others or using details from others' experiences
to embellish their own retellings. These behaviors appear primarily motivated by a
desire to permanently incorporate others' experiences into one's own autobiographical
record (appropriation), but other reasons include to temporarily create a more coherent
or engaging conversational exchange (social connection), simplify conveying somebody
else's interesting experience (convenience), or make oneself look good (status enhancement).
A substantial percentage of respondents expressed uncertainty as to whether an autobiographical
experience actually belonged to them or to someone else, and most respondents have
confronted somebody over ownership of a particular story. Documenting memory borrowing
is important as the behavior has potential consequences for the creation of false
memories.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10380Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1002/acp.3130Publication Info
Brown, AS; Croft Caderao, K; Fields, LM; & Marsh, EJ (2015). Borrowing Personal Memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 29(3). pp. 471-477. 10.1002/acp.3130. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10380.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Elizabeth J. Marsh
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Why do people sometimes erroneously think that Toronto is the capital of Canada or
that raindrops are teardrop-shaped? How is it that a word or fact can be “just
out of reach” and unavailable? What changes, if anything, when you read a novel
or watch a movie that contradicts real life? Have you ever listened to a conversation
only to realize that the speaker is telling your story as if it were their own personal
memory? Why do some listeners fail to notice when

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