Individual differences and the suggestibility of human memory

The present study was conducted to identify individual difference measures that correlate with memory suggestibility. An adapted version of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale was used to measure student participants' suggestibility for real, distorted and entirely fabricated autobiographical statements on a questionnaire detailing recollections of their induction week. The individual suggestibility scores for each of these events were then correlated with the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings (ICMI) scale, the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Social Desirability Scale (SDS).
Analysis indicated that both the ICMI and DES were positively correlated with suggestibility scores for misleading statements. The results also suggest that dissociation, as well as being a supposed cause of amnesia for childhood abuse, is also related to higher confidence scores for suggested events that did not occur.