Alien Abductees and Memory Distortion

Abstract

False memory was studied in people who reported seeing UFOs and alien abduction. The Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm (H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to assess false recall and false recognition in people who reported abduction (group 1), and those who reported seeing a UFO (group 2). A total of 200 Participants will be recruited from three different states (California, New York, and Florida) with diverse backgrounds, and they will be psychologically and physically tested. Compared to previous researches, it is expected that all 3 groups score similar in the psychological phase of the experiment, and different in recall and recognition.

Alien Abductees and Memory Distortion

Reports of recovered memories on alien abduction have been controversial. Previous researches have implied that memories from traumatic events may be too disturbing to be consciously accessible and can result in amnesia (e.g., Terr, 1991; van der Kolk, 1994). Other researchers believe that memory is constructive; details may be added and adapted to increase coherence and can be created (e.g., Schacter, 1999), hence the term memory distortion. In the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm, participants are asked to recall a series of words associated with sweet (e.g., sour, candy, sugar, bitter). Then, participants are asked to recall the words and perform a recognition test of non-presented words like sweet. False recall occurs when the subject being studied recall the non-presented word, in this case it would be sweet, and false recognition occurs when participants claim that they have studied this theme word. Previews research have suggested that patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder do not show signs of memory distortion (e.g., McNally, Lasko, Clancy, Macklin, Pitman, & Orr, 2003), and if these findings are true, then there is enough room to take into consideration the following question, is memory distortion associated with people who claim to be abducted by aliens?

The first experiment which titles Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens, contains four hypotheses, basically stating that: (1) those who claim they remember being abducted are vulnerable to memory distortion, which means that the recovered group should show higher false recall and recognition than the other two groups, (2) those who repressed these memories may be vulnerable to recover false memories, and this group combined with the first group should score higher in the false recall and recognition than the control group, (3) those who repressed these memories have not or not yet recovered these memories, which means that these group should receive a lower score on the false recall and recognition compared to the first group, and a higher score than the control group, and (4) those who recovered and repressed these memories would score higher than controls on the Schizotypal test. Participants were contacted via newspaper (Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lensenweger, & Pitman, 2002). The first group included 6 men and 5 women (M=47, SD=12.4). This was the recovered memory group who reported memories of being abducted by aliens. The second group had 5 men and 4 women (M=40.4, SD=14.8) and consisted of those who claim to have been abducted by aliens but have no memory of the event. Finally, the third group with 7 men and 6 women (M=46.1, SD=12.3) represented by people who deny contact, the control group. Participants where measured in a variety of symptoms with the following tests: Dissociative Experiences scale contains items related to memory lapses, depersonalization, and absorption. The Beck Depression Inventory assesses symptom of depression. The Civilian Mississippi assesses symptoms related to PTSD. The Absorption subscale measures the hypnotic susceptibility. The Perceptual Aberration scale measures body image. The Magical Ideation scale measures belief in reincarnation or special powers. The Referential Thinking scale is for those who feel that strangers are talking about them or songs on the radio are meant for them. Paranoid Schizophrenia scale is for those who think there is someone who has control over their mind. After these measures were taken into account, the scientists proceeded with a version of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm which measures the false recall. The participants were given pencils and booklets to answer each question and a sheet of paper to use as scratch for simple mathematical problems. A new word was read every three seconds. After the words where completely read, they were given a simple two-digit math problem to distract their memory, then they were told they had 1.5 minutes to recall the words. This same procedure was repeated for 20 lists, four lists of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 words. Finally, an 80 item test was given to the participants where there were 2 items from each of the first lists and the other 40 were new non-studied items. Half of these 40 items were lures (or false targets), the remaining 20 where control words. According to the results, the data showed concordance with the 2nd and 3rd hypotheses (Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lensenweger, & Pitman, 2002). Although the limitation included the sample size being too small and

the participants not being screened for traumatic events, it was enough to conclude that, those who recall being abducted by aliens had a greater probability for false recall and recognizing the critical lures.

The second experiment was a continuation of the first one (McNally, Lasko, Clancy, Macklin, Pitman, & Orr, 2003). Half of the staff designed the first experiment, and measurements from the first experiment where also taken into account. In their study, McNally, Lasko, Clancy, Macklin, Pitman, and Orr (2003) hypothesized that, "People who have developed posttraumatic stress disorder usually exhibit heightened psychophysiological reactivity when recalling their trauma in the laboratory." Researchers contacted the participant through a newspaper advertisement, where they manage to collect 6 women and 4 men (M=47.5, SD=11.9) who represented the abductee group, and 7 women and 5 men (M=49.9, SD=13) who were assigned as a control group. The participants went through a couple of interview sessions that assessed any Axis I disorders (depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and schizophrenia) and PTSD. In their interview the abductees showed similar symptoms of sleep paralysis and hallucinations of objects hovering close to their beds, flashing lights, buzzing sounds, and tingling sensations. Following the interview, five individualized scripts were