Scientists Explore The Illusion Of Memory Essay

Another argument against the Memory Theory involves it’s circular nature if fake memories are implanted within a person who did not actually experience what the memories are about, and only ‘seems to remember’, via brainwashing for example.

False memories can trick third party observers like juries and lawyers in addition to tricking the rememberer, and they can be very difficult to correct once a person becomes confident about an erroneous memory (often from repeatedly remembering the event a certain way).

Neurobiological studies show that both suppression and recall and the creation of false memories are possible. (Kandel, 1994) In this paper both sides of the debate will be analyzed and evaluated.

The study of creation of false memories has been a topic of interest since the 1930s when Bartlett (1932) conducted the first experiment on the topic. Though the results of this experiment were never replicated, they contributed greatly to research by distinguishing between reproductive and reconstructive memory (Bartlett 1932 as cited in Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Reproductive memory refers to accurate production of material from memory and is assumed to be associated with remembering simplified materials (e.g., lists). Reconstructive memory emphasizes the active process of filling in missing elements while remembering and is associated with materials rich in meaning (e.g., stories).

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).

There are two prominent distortions of the episodic memory system: forgetting and the false memory effect. False memory is the propensity to report an event as part of an episodic experience that was not actually present (Holliday, Brainerd, & Reyna, 2011). Several theories give an explanation for this effect, but the most prominent one is the fuzzy trace theory,

Psychologists have diligently studied the human mind for many years and have yet to discover some of the ways that the brain performs simple and complex tasks. Since the knowledge that has been obtained concerning processes of the brain remains a mere fraction compared to what is unknown about cognitive functioning, individuals cannot fully grasp the reasoning behind why the brain performs some of the acts it does. Many people daydream, picture themselves recovering lost items in obscure places, or even create stories repeated so much that individuals begin to believe they may have happened; all three of these examples are forms of creating a false memory. Many psychologists have researched, evaluated, and experimented with false memory, which has lead to the discovery of False Memory Syndrome, a condition in which individuals contract false memories while almost always remaining oblivious to the act of creating a memory that is not factual or concrete (Berger 1). False memory syndrome develops as a result of many different internal and external forces such as mind manipulation in psychological malpractice, severe trauma to the brain in the first few years of life, a traumatic experience, or even by forcing one’s self into believing an entirely made-up thought; however, seemingly healthy individuals can contract the syndrome without the slightest idea it is present.

The first study had resulted in the opposite of what l would assume would only support the theory of false memories being instilled into subjects. In addition, I also noticed how the wording of certain questions, may have had an influence on whether or not subjects recalled events that never happened. It was only when participants were being told to recall certain events, rather than being asked, that they were allowed room to expand their imagination, thus going as far as to vividly describe an event that never occurred. The second study divided the theory of the fabrication of memories, and suggested that some people may be immune to believing false memories. What l found to be interesting about the second study, was that researchers divided their subjects into two groups, with one of their groups being individuals with a highly superior autobiographical memory - yet, investigators were still able to

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).

The third category of misattribution is false recall and false recognition, which is “when individuals falsely recall or recognize items or events that never happened” (Schacter, 1999, p.189). Considering recognition and recall as they pertain to psychology, recognition is described as memories that do not require a great deal of mental effort to attain information, where as recollections are memories that are placed in long-term storage and require a greater depth of processing. When analyzing false recognition and false recall, false memories appear to stem from both an encoding and retrieval

Memory makes us. It is, to an extent, a collection of unique and personal experiences that we, as individuals, have amassed over our lifetime. It is what connects us to our past and what shapes our present and the future. If we are unable remember the what, when, where, and who of our everyday lives, our level of functioning would be greatly impacted. Memory is defined as or recognized as the “sum or total of what we remember.” Memory provides us the ability to learn and adjust to or from prior experiences. In addition, memory or our ability to remember plays an integral role in the building and sustaining of relationships. Additionally, memory is also a process; it is how we internalize and store our external environment and experiences. It entails the capacity to remember past experiences, and the process of recalling previous experiences, information, impressions, habits and skills to awareness. It is the storage of materials learned and/or retained from our experiences. This fact is demonstrated by the modification, adjustment and/or adaptation of structure or behavior. Furthermore, we as individuals, envision thoughts and ideas of the present through short-term memory, or in our working memory, we warehouse past experiences and learned values in long-term memory, also referred to as episodic or semantic memory. Most importantly, memory is malleable and it is intimately linked to our sense of identity and where we believe we belong in the world.

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

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

Memory does not work like a video camera, smoothly recording every detail. Instead, memory is more of a constructive process. We remember the details that we find most important and relevant. Due to the reconstructive nature of memory, the assimilation of old and new information has the ability to cause vulnerable memories to become distorted. This is also known as the misinformation effect (Loftus, 1997). It is not uncommon for individuals to fill in memory gaps with what they assume they must have experienced. We not only distort memories for events that we have observed, but, we may also have false memories for events that never occurred at all. False memories are “often created by combing actual memories with suggestions received from

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.