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Lieberman, Ochsner, Gilbert, & Schacter (2001) question the role of explicit
memory and attentional resources in behaviour-induced attitude change. To test the
hypothesis that behaviour-induced attitude change does not require explicit memory or
working memory (i.e., any consciously controlled processing) these authors compare the
performance of a sample of elderly patients to a sample of amnesics on a task designed to
tap into behavioural-induced attitude change. Based on their findings that the amnesic
patients showed just as much behaviour-induced attitude change as did the matched
control participants despite the fact that they had no explicit memory for the source
(counter-attitudinal behaviour) of their attitude change, Lieberman et al. argue that
explicit memory is not important to behaviour-induced attitude change.
I believe that there are a number of problems with this study however, and in this
paper I would like to address one of these in particular. The main problem, and this is one
that we have touched on in class, deals with the use of amnesiac patients in this
experiment as “controls.” Clearly, there are more differences between the amnesics and
the other sample (elderly in this case) than simply the lack of explicit memory. In
addition, generalizing the effects found with amnesics to “normal” populations seems
problematic, for a number of reasons.
The specific argument that I would like to make against the findings presented in
this study deals with findings that suggest that although autobiographical recall is
impaired in amnesics, semantic memory related to recent autobiographical memories,
such as the ability to accurately report one’s traits based on recent behaviour, has often
been found to remain intact. For example, patients who are unable to report events that
have happened to them since the onset of their condition are nevertheless able to report
accurately on their current traits and dispositions. This suggests that although there is no
conscious recollection of recent events, there is an ability to glean information about
these events.
The fact that semantic memory can be updated with respect to trait information
despite the absence of memory for relevant events indicates that perhaps the amnesics in
this study updated trait information between the counter-attitudinal behaviour and the
final ranking task. The updated trait information could be something like, “I prefer
impressionism to modernism, except when it’s a Kandinsky,” and could be held in
conscious awareness, although the event that led to the update is not. To see if this is the
case, the present study could test for the participant’s trait descriptors, or justifications,
after making the critical rankings.