False Memory Syndrome

False memory refers to a phenomenon that makes an individual believe that they remember events in their lives but in real sense, these events have never occurred. In most cases, these events are traumatic, and relate to sexual abuse. False memory syndrome was postulated in 1992 in an attempt to explain the theory of adult childhood memory. Adults who remember sexual abuse events when they were young may be creating an occurrence that never happened or information that is not correct.

The sudden recovery of repressed memories from a traumatic event such as childhood sexual abuse can be both validating and confusing for clients that are seeking help with various problems. These new memories might be able to help client identify the cause of their feelings and issues that are affecting their life. However for others it can be a very difficult time because of the conflicting emotions about the abuser. Worst of all when dealing with the recovery of repressed memories they may be all together false. The accuracy of recovered memories in regards to sexual abuse is low and can come with significant consequences. These false memories can be very harmful to the client as

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

Currently in the news, there is a major event that pertains to the topic of the psychology of trauma. This event is the investigation of Jerry Sandusky and his alleged conviction of sexual abuse. Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach at Penn State University, has been accused of sexually abusing boys in the basement of his home and in the school workout room and locker room. This investigation was triggered by one of the victims who went to the police and since then, more victims have come out as well. This boy stated that the attacks lasted for about four years. Jerry Sandusky met the boys though a foundation he started to help at-risk youths in 1977 called The Second Mile. So far there have been eight

False memories are an apparent recollection of an event that did not actually occur. The reason why false memories happen are due to the fact that one's brains can only handle so much.There has been several experiment pertaining to the phenomenon, to find how it works.In the next part of the experiment the psychologist showed the participants a word list.False memories are very common and can happen to anyone. On very rare occasions false memories can be harmful to someone and the people around them.False memories are so common that they affect all of a person's memories. False memories can be made more clear by others memories or they could become more distorted. False memories have caused many wrongful convictions. A psychologist

The seriousness of this problem is exemplified in the cases of individuals creating false memories of sexual abuse as a result of therapy. These types of events caused vast amounts of research to be done on the topic. The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been one of the most popular in false memory research and it continues to be a topic of interest today. A search of “DRM” in all text and “False Memory” in subject terms, using PsycINFO, gave results of 560 peer-reviewed articles published in research journals within the last five years (2011-2016).

False memory, second to forgetting, is one of the two fundamental types of deformation in episodic memory (Holliday, Brainerd & Reyna, 2010). Simply stated, false memory is the propensity to account normal occurrences as being a fraction of a key experience that in actuality was not an element of that experience (Holliday, Brainerd & Reyna). False memories are something nearly everyone experience. Furthermore, false memory is defined as placed together, constructed representations of mental schemas that are incorrect (Solso, MacLin & MacLin, 2008). Individuals do not intentionally fabricate their memory. However, perceptual and social factors are a few things that a responsible for manipulating memory (Solso, MacLin & MacLin, 2008).

Teaching About Repressed Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse - This article describes an undergrad 3 credit hour course taught in the fall at Rollins College. It examines human memory and its role in two applied issues which include repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse and eye witness testimony. The course content includes four components: 1) the instructor introduces students to the subject matter, 2) students review the nature of science, 3) learn about the extensive literature on the nature of human memory, and 4) learn about the anecdotal and scientific literature (for and against) on repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse and the literature on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and identification. Freud and the notion of repression is discussed both in this article and in

On the one hand, some argue that psychological effects can interfere with a victim’s testimony. The psychological trauma that a victim suffers from being sexually assaulted can have effects that can last for decades. California Coalition Against Sexual Assault often report that after being assaulted victims feel “shame, self-loathing and fear” and Joelle Casteix is no exception. “It took me years to understand the extent of my abuse and recover enough to come forward, but by that time, the criminal and civil statutes of limitations had expired. Even though I had evidence that my choir director had sexually assaulted me, there was nothing I could do to stop him from targeting other vulnerable teens” (Casteix 1). Casteix’s point is that many victims don’t understand that they were assaulted until after the limitations. This makes it very difficult for victims to come forward about their assault because when an assault is reported after the limitations very little can be done for the victim. It had taken Casteix years to understand what had happened to her before she had came forward only to be told that her case couldn't be prosecuted even with evidence because she apparently had taken too long to recover from her assault.

There are two main reasons why the Ross Cheit case and case study by Bull (1999) are considered to important to supporting the existence of repression. Both cases demonstrate how victims of childhood abuse are able to suppress traumatic memories of their abuse for long periods of time from conscious awareness. In the Ross Cheit case, he states that “Two years ago, the topic of sexual abuse was something that [he] certainly knew nothing about” (Freyd, 1996, p. 6). More importantly, when he finally reads newspaper headlines about allegations of sexual abuse, his initial reaction to the topic of sexual abuse was “... And certainly, why are they doing it now?

Understand Memory Recovery Repressed memory is always compared to false memory syndrome, but there is a distinctive difference that set these two apart. Skeptic dictionary quotes that “A repressed memory is the memory of a traumatic event unconsciously retained in the mind, where it is said to adversely affect conscious thought, desire, and action. It is common to consciously repress unpleasant experiences.” (Carroll, Robert 1994). A repressed memory is caused by disturbing occurrences involuntarily recalled in the mind, where it is said to unfavorably affect someone mind set, desire, and actions. This is where a person can have a memory that was so traumatizing that they make themselves forget about it. Because the situation was so traumatizing

False Memories are fundamentally, unintended human errors, which results in people having memories of events and situations that did not actually occur. It’s worth noting that in humans there are both true and false memories, these false memories occur when a mental experience is incorrectly taken to be a representation of a past event. For example, when people are asked to describe something that happened at a particular time, people rarely deliver accurate answers. Based on research, in eyewitness testimony, the confidence people show while recalling

False memories include distorting features of events and situations or recalling facts and memories that never occurred at all (Roediger and McDermott, 1995).

Faint memories of his hands fumbling around my body, ending up in places they had no business being, rest inside my head. Some days are different, I don't always think about it. On a good day, I am able to push those menacing thoughts to the back of my mind, but flashbacks of those dreadful days refuse to leave my mind. The innocence I was oblivious to, coupled with, the loss of trust resulted in a type of lesson I was not prepared for. The circumstances I once endured are something I have grown to accept, furthermore, I understand the fault of my abuse does not rest upon my shoulders.

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true