Publications [#24800] of Elizabeth Marsh
Journal Articles
- Marsh, E. J., & Tversky, B (2004).
Spinning the Stories of Our Lives. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 491-503.
(last updated on 2006/12/29)Abstract:
The way people talk about past events can affect the way they remember them (Tversky & Marsh, 2000). The current research explores how people naturally talk about events from their own lives. Participants recorded what, when, and how they told others about events from their lives. In general, participants talked about recent emotional events, and told them primarily to peers in order to convey facts and/or to entertain. Participants labeled a significant proportion (42%) of their retellings as inaccurate. In contrast, they labeled 61% of retellings as distorted (as containing exaggerations, omissions, minimizations, or additions); not all distorted retellings were considered ‘inaccurate.’ Social context shaped the stories people told. For example, participants cited the audience as a reason for changing their stories of the same event. People construct stories as they retrieve and use memories in a social context.