Can Real Photos Create False Memories? Psychologist Stephen Lindsay and his colleagues (2004a, b) had participants look at their first-grade class photo and read a description of a prank that they were led to believe had occurred in the first grade—putting slime in their teacher’s desk. After a week of trying to remember the prank, 65 percent of the participants reported vivid, detailed memories of the prank. In contrast, only about a quarter (23 percent) of participants who tried to remember the prank but did not view a school photo developed false memories of the pseudoevent. Viewing an actual school photo like the one shown here, Lindsay believes, added to the legitimacy of the pseudoevent, making it seem more probable. It also provided vivid sensory details that blended with the imagined details to create elaborate and subjectively compelling false memories. Real photos can lend credibility to imaginary events (Strange & others, 2011).

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