Laboratory studies of memory and distress in abduction claimants

Witness account

Clancy and colleagues compared laboratory memory performance among people reporting recovered alien-abduction memories, people who believed they had been abducted without recovered memories, and controls. Their 2002 paper reported greater false recall or recognition on a word-list task in the recovered-memory group. A separate 2004 paper by McNally and colleagues measured physiological responses while participants imagined their reported abductions and other experiences.

Public record

These are published experimental studies with explicit procedures and comparison groups. The later study measured heart rate, skin conductance and facial-muscle activity, finding substantial emotional responses to abduction narratives. They provide evidence about memory processes and experienced distress, not external observations of the alleged encounters.

Sources

• Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens, 2002
• Full Clancy et al. paper, institutional teaching copy
• Psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery in people reporting abduction by space aliens, 2004