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Confidence in memory has a positive correlation with accuracy
a) True
b) False

1 Answer

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Final answer:

Confidence in memory is not always correlated with accuracy, as false or altered memories can be held confidently, which is demonstrated by Elizabeth Loftus's research on the misinformation effect.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement that confidence in memory has a positive correlation with accuracy is generally considered to be false. While people often believe that confident memories are more likely to be accurate, research has shown that this is not always the case. The concept of a positive correlation simply means that as one variable increases, the other variable also increases. However, this does not indicate any health benefits to the variable under investigation, as the concept of health benefits is context-specific and not directly linked to statistical terms like positive correlation.

Furthermore, cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has extensively researched memory and found that people can confidently remember events that did not happen or remember them differently from how they actually occurred. This is known as the misinformation effect. Additionally, memories can be altered through leading questions or new information introduced after the fact. Thus, the relationship between memory confidence and accuracy is complex and not as straightforward as a simple positive correlation might suggest.

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