Hiroshi Ito

Summary The paper presents the memory conformity effect phenomenon, which assumes that information about the same event that a witness acquires from another witness (misinformation) is incorporated into the first witness' memory of the event (original information). The study has two goals: (1) to verify the existence of people with the memory conformity effect who are aware of discrepancy between original information and misinformation; (2) to determine why they choose misinformation despite the correctness of their own memories. In addition, we examine the relationship between susceptibility to social influence, compliance, suggestibility and memory conformity. Importantly, these relationships will be analyzed in interaction with awareness of discrepancy, which has not yet been examined in previous studies. More precisely, we will apply a new research approach to further investigate the causes of memory conformity. To this end, we will specifically analyze participants' awareness of discrepancies between the details of an observed event and the misinformation presented by another witness. In order to examine the memory conformity effect, we will use the MORI technique, which ensures high ecological validity. The two members of each pair of participants will sit next to each other and each will not be aware that the other watched a different version of the same event. Then, the participants will answer related questions and discuss the contradictory details. Subsequently, the subjects will complete an individual recognition test. Importantly, after the main part of the study (i.e., the MORI procedure), participants will be explicitly informed about the different versions of the event and they will be asked to complete awareness of discrepancy questionnaires. This will allow us to further examine the driving forces underlying the memory conformity effect. We expect the study's results to expand the knowledge on the mechanisms and determinants of the strength of the memory conformity effect and to contribute to the development of effective techniques that reduce the effect of this phenomenon.

To examine facilitative effects of experiential cognition in imitation learning, we conducted three experiments using varied observation and imitation tasks of a nursing action involving the movement of a sham patient (university student) from a bed to a wheelchair. The basic imitation task was to observe a videotape of the nursing action performed by an expert, and then to imitate it with the patient. Participants in Experiment 1 (N = 75) saw photographs of the patient in the bed and then in the wheelchair and based only on this information moved the patient without observing the videotape. Participants in Experiment 2 (N = 15) observed the videotape and imitated the movement of the patient. Thereafter, participants in Experiments 1 and 2 received the basic imitation task. Participants in Experiment 3 (N = 17) observed the videotape as many times as they wanted, and imitated the nursing action with pantomiming without the patient, and then with the patient. The results showed that preceding experiential cognition, i.e., estimation of actions (Exp. 1), repetition of the observation and performance (Exp. 2), and self-paced repetition of the observation (Exp. 3) improve performance in the successive imitation task. We conclude that the combination of estimation, observation, and pantomime of actions is a promising method for imitation learning of such pragmatic skills as nursing actions.