The role of individual features of memory and impulsiveness in telling a true or false story in a realistic, clear, and reconstructible way
Abstract
Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore whether there was an interaction effect between such personal aspects and veracity on realism, clarity, and reconstructability of the story. Methods: A total of 158 participants took part in the experiment and were asked to tell a truth and a lie during an interview (veracity condition). They filled in a questionnaire measuring their metamemory performance and their level of functional and dysfunctional impulsivity. A k-means cluster analysis on metamemory and impulsivity was conducted, and three clusters were obtained: controlled-memory inefficient, controlled-memory efficient, and impulsive-average memory. Results: The results showed that participants scored higher on all three reality monitoring criteria when telling the truth than when lying. Further, a cluster membership by veracity interaction for realism was also significant, but when telling the truth, there was no difference between clusters in terms of realism used in the explanation. Follow-up analyses showed that, when lying, the level of realism in the story was significantly higher for people belonging to the cluster "impulsive-average memory" than for people belonging to the cluster "controlled-memory efficient", a result that seems to indicate that people with good memory and can control dysfunctional impulsivity have more difficulties when lying. Conclusions: Research has shown that realism, clarity, and reconstructability of the story, all part of…
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