Lost in the mall again: a preregistered replication and extension of Loftus & Pickrell (1995)

ABSTRACT

The seminal Lost in the Mall study has been enormously influential in psychology and is still cited in legal cases. The current study directly replicated this paper, addressing methodological weaknesses including increasing the sample size fivefold and preregistering detailed analysis plans. Participants (N = 123) completed a survey and two interviews where they discussed real and fabricated childhood events, based on information provided by an older relative. We replicated the findings of the original study, coding 35% of participants as reporting a false memory for getting lost in a mall in childhood (compared to 25% in the original study). In an extension, we found that participants self-reported high rates of memories and beliefs for the fabricated event. Mock jurors were also highly likely to believe the fabricated event had occurred and that the participant was truly remembering the event, supporting the conclusions of the original study.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• false memory
• misinformation
• replication

View correction statement:

Notice of duplicate publication: ‘Lost in the Mall Again: A Preregistered Replication and Extension of Loftus & Pickrell (1995)’

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our participants and their family members for the huge amount of time they gave to this study. We would also like to thank Jill Nofziger for her assistance with data management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Open practices statement

The study was preregistered, including the analysis plans. The preregistration, data and materials for this project are publicly accessible at https://osf.io/krfpu/.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.