False Memory Analysis

Research prior to Deese’s 1959 study saw few account s of false recognition from a list. This created the idea that more coherent materials were needed to create false memories. Deese was interested in determining why some lists gave rise to false recognition when others didn’t. His general conclusion was that lists where the associations went in both backward and forward directions tended to elicit false recall (Deese 1959 as cited in Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Deese’s study that used a single trial, free recall paradigm which Roediger and McDermott used to try and replicate his results, which found that people were often accurate in remembering lists after one trial. Roediger and McDermott (1995) examined the false recall and false recognition of

Memory is one of the most critical parts of cognition. It is important because it is involved in almost every aspect of cognition including problem solving, decision making, attention, and perception. Because of this importance, people rely on one’s memory to make important decisions. The value of one’s memory in this society is so high that it is used as evidence to either save one’s life or kill one’s life during murder trials. But as many of the cognitive psychologists know, human’s memory can cause many errors. One of these errors is false memory which is either remembering events that never happened or remembering events differently from the actual event. This finding of false memory raised big interests among psychologists and

The DRM is of the most commonly used paradigms of inducing false memories for research. It was created when Roediger and McDermott’s (1995) improved a technique and resources first employed by Deese (1959) in a memory study to study false memory.

False memories have been studied science the early 1990’s because they have become controversial topic. In the beginning they was no thought that your memory would be unfaithful and that if you had a memory that you “recovered” it had to be true because your memory couldn’t fail you. Could it? Well one woman’s disbelief caused her, Susan Clancy, who was a Harvard University graduate student at the time decided that while everyone else was arguing over the accuracy of recovered memories, she would create a study on them (Grierson 1). Clancy first started out by interviewing her subjects that said to have recovered memories of abuse after they had gone through therapy. The stories were horrifying but she was brought up to believe that what they were telling her was true. But, soon after she found herself wondering if they had even really went through these events that they “recovered”. When she spoke out against the recovered memory patients saying that they couldn’t of forgotten such a traumatic memory and that they had created a false memory by going to the therapy the hate mail started coming in (Grierson 3). Throughout this time many other scientists started to do more and more research on false memories and most of the studies have concluded with the same information. “The false memory researchers point to other research showing that traumatic events are normally remembered all too well. They argue that

Moreover, research also examined the effects of age on participants in regards to the onset of false memory. With materials and testing procedures that have been repeatedly found to produce higher levels of false memory, older children are more susceptible to generating false memories than younger children (Holliday, Brainerd & Reyna, 2010). This is particularly realistic in the DRM lists (Holliday, Brainerd &

Elizabeth Loftus is a psychologist that studies the way memories can be altered or implanted into someone’s mind (McLeod, Loftus and Palmer, 2010). One of the experiments she conducted was to implant a false memory of getting lost in a shopping mall as a child into the mind of a teenager (False Memories, 1992). She did this by getting the parents to write down memories their child would remember and placing a fake one in their of getting lost while shopping in a mall (False Memories, 1992). The teenager thought they remembered the time they got lost and were even telling details about that time (False Memories, 1992). After realising that she was able to plant a memory into a person’s head she realised the memory is not always accurate (False Memories, 1992). Loftus described memory in three words, suggestive, subjective and malleable (False Memories, 1992).

Based on those experiments, Loftus affirms the inaccuracy of our memory, events may be reconstructed with new information added. Applying those results into criminal investigations based on eyewitness, Loftus pointed out that witness is questioned often more than once. Also, studies have demonstrated that line-up might be a inefficient way of point a suspect since many faces are introduced to the witness. In addition to eyewitness testimony, Loftus is leading also in repressed childhood memory. Most of her experiments demonstrated that repressed childhood memories do not exist. In fact, the most traumatic memories that we experience are the ones that we tend to not forget

When a person has a fabricated or distorted recollection of an event, they are experiencing a false memory. A false memory is a mental experience that is mistaken for a veridical representation of an event from one’s personal past. (Kendra Cherry) There are two types of false memories: minor and major. A minor false memory can be some as simple as someone thinking they left their keys on the table, but actually left them in the bedroom. A major false memory could be someone believing they have been abducted from aliens. False memories occur frequently and can take control over someone’s life. Therapists have many approaches that they use to try and help one recollect their memory. While trying to help, they may actually worsen the problem. Research supports the salience of false recollections over accurate ones in people, potentially indicating that every person in a given society can fall victim to their effects. Revealing that this theory has more truth than many expect affecting many people within our societies.

Four hypotheses were given in this experiment. Results from each were consistent with its hypotheses. 1) The recovered memory group attained higher scores on the false recall and false recognition test than the control. These results are consistent with the only other experiment that measures memory distortion. This previous study dealt with memory distortion of victims of childhood sexual abuse (Clancy et al., 2000). People who are more prone to exhibit false recall and false recognition in the laboratory are more likely to do the same in real life. 2) Repressed memory and recovered memory participants exhibited more false recall and false recognition than the control group. 3) The recovered memory did score higher than any group in both false recall and false recognition.

In recent years there has been a hot debate between "repressed" vs. "false" memories. Neurobiological studies show that both suppression and recall and the creation of false memories are possible. This paper evaluates the evidence but forth by both sides of the controversy and concludes that both are feasible and separate phenomenon, which occur at significant rates in our society.

Only rarely does memory seem markedly resistent to distortion (e.g., Oeberst & Blank, 2012). Many studies have sucessfully demonstrated and replicated the implantation of episodic false memories in the minds of participants (e.g.; Bernstein et al., 2005; Laney & Loftus, 2008; Nash & Wade, 2009). Internal and external sources such as imagination and interview techniques appear to aid the construction of a false episodic memories (e.g., Frenda et al.,

In taking the memory demonstration test I scored a hit rate of 87%. My false alarm rate was at 0% and my false memory rate was at 0% as well. I found the most suprising part of the test to be the comparison of my false memory rate to the average rates listed. During the test I quickly realized that any questions asked would more than likely be about the images follwing the words than any item's size related to a shoebox. I believe this may have given me a slight advantage in the scoring.

Roediger and McDermott’ (1995), experiment based on Deese’s (1959) experiment renewed the interest in false memories and invented the Deese-McDermott-Roediger Paradigm which many studies surround. Their study focused on eliciting false memories through receiving lists of words and being asked to recall those that were present from a separate list that included a critical word that if recalled, showed presence of false memory effects. Notably many participants were sure that the

The article is about false memory. The researchers are trying to find out the effect of planting positive false memory in an individual. The authors of the article are; Cara Laney from University of Leicester, Erin K. Morris from University of California, Irvine, Daniel M. Bernstein from Kwantlen University College and University of Washington, Briana M. Wakefield from University of

Memory facilitates necessary functions in daily life activities, but it is not a perfect mechanism in operation. Goldstein (2011) states that memory is, “…the process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present” (p.116). There are many adaptive functions within the complexities of the human memory system and the interlinked constructs between each function leave room for doubt in the accuracy of recollection. Study of the human mind has opened avenues of discovery on the inner workings of our brains and the resulting knowledge suggests that humans are prone to creating false memories and even remembering things that never actually happened. A great deal of information has been written explaining the nature of memory errors and within the following pages a real-life case offers a glimpse into how recall distortions and memory errors can wield unpleasant consequences. Memory errors can be avoided with a significant effort, but the truth remains that no one is perfect and memories are subject to individual bias.