False Memory, Pseudo-Memory Distortion

False memory refers to cases in which people remember events differently from the way they happened or, in the most dramatic case, remember events that never happened at all. False memories can be very vivid and held with high confidence, and it can be difficult to convince someone that the memory in question is wrong.

Now that you are aware of what hypnosis is and the different forms of it, let's talk about common myths and misconceptions people have about hypnosis. Number one, the hypnotist can make you do something against your will. This is completely wrong, hypnotist only guide you to places, and if there is somewhere you don't want to go you

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

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).

When you think of hypnosis you often think back to a magic show where you watched people go up on stage and do an act of commands without even realizing. For many Americans  hypnosis may be more of a magic show than a means for therapy or forensic investigation. Recently hypnosis has been relied on to get answers, whether it be for getting over a fear or remembering memories for a court case. In both fields the subject of hypnotherapy is controversial. Hypnotherapy may lead to pseudomemories that are misleading or simply false. Hypnotherapy is a great therapeutic technique because it helps grieving people cope with a loss of a loved one, it rids patients of phobias, and can be used to recover traumatic memories that can be problematic towards

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.

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 issue of 'false' vs. 'repressed' memories is of increasing relevance to counseling psychologists and indeed to any professional involved in therapy. The reputation of therapy is at stake, as clients begin to sue therapists for the implantation of false memories. In turn, it is essential that all clinicians conduct their therapy according to the latest guidelines of practice as to avoid suggestion and the possible implantation of false memories.

The results of this experiment include the inability of the participants to recall their specific hypnosis was discovered as the likely factor in the self-report error (Younger et al., 2005). A general tendency to the

The study found that those without the Alzheimer disease had more false memory when doing these tests. False memory is when a person recalls an event that didn’t actually occurred. I found it interesting that people seek to connect the characters and events in order give meaning to what they are looking at. This is when false memory can occur.

He claims that hypnosis in general should be discontinued, for it does not allow satisfactory safeguard. Gruzelier explains that even entertainment hypnosis can cause seizures, dissociative episodes, and recreation of traumatic events. On his research paper he talks about two groups of patients, both suffering form schizophrenia, one was treated with hypnotherapy and the other one with hypnosis. He claims that many effects of hypnosis are not reported because they might go unobserved because they maybe happened outside the experimental stage. On his experiment he observed that the person hypnotized suffered of cognitive confusion attached with tiredness and automatics signs. Another person in the experiment was confused and anxious; moreover, the patient tried to remember events that at the moment were impossible to remember. As a result of it the patient was having vivid dreams of the hypnosis. Gruzelier, did several different investigation and experiments and in conclusion the majority of people that were hypnotize suffered from loss of memory, their mind went blank, re-living previous traumatic experiences, and nausea. 44.1% of patients experiment some kind of unwanted reaction during or after the hypnosis process (John Gruzelier, 17.) Researcher Gruzelier talks about a particular case of first episode schizophrenia that was treated with hypnosis. In was in the UK in 1998 a 25-year-old male became schizophrenic for the first time within a week of stage hypnosis. The person was hypnotized for 2 hours, after being hypnotized he suffered from severe headache, foggy memory, and blank eyes. The next day he suffered from personality change. Gruzelier claims that hypnosis was the trigger of the schizophrenia on the 25-year-old

When a person experiences anxiety, they often begin to have panic attacks. The number one problem of False Memories Syndrome is depression. Even if someone recovers their “pseudomemories”, which is memories recovered, flashbacks occur when someone tries to deny memories. They “are often quite vivid and emotionally charged, especially those representing acts of abuse or violence” (“False”). Memories are hard to recover once someone has established a false truth.

A forensic psychologist conducted a study to examine whether being hypnotized during recall affects how a witness can remember facts about an event. Eight participants watched a short film of a mock robbery, after which each participant was questioned about what he or she had seen. The four participants in the experimental group were questioned while they were hypnotized and gave 15, 22, 18, and 17 accurate responses. The four participants in the control group gave 20, 25, 24, and 23 accurate responses. Using the 0.05 significance level, do hypnotized witnesses perform differently than witnesses who are not

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

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