Sleep Deprivation And False Memory Essay

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False memory can be defined as someone making a recollection of an event that actually did not occur. False memory can be vivid, emotional, and can be held with great confidence. Studies have suggested that formation of false memory can be because of sleep deprivation affecting memory. The amount of sleep an individual many need can vary from time to time, however if a person goes several days of sleep deprivation, he or she can experience difficulty learning new information and paying attention, and can experience a few episodes of hallucinations.
False memory may cause witnesses to testify in an event that they actually didn’t see. For example, people would “falsely report that they viewed video footage of high-profile news events, even …show more content…

Sleep deprivation and false memory can have its mixed relationship. Participants in an experiment studied DRM list before they slept or were sleep deprived. After taking the test, one study showed higher rates of false memory in sleep deprivation compared to those who slept. But this study was not strong enough to support the claim between sleep deprivation and false memories. The same study was preformed but instead, the DRM list was presented the same night. But in the result came there was no differences. After reviewing both studies, it was noted that “sleep deprivation contributes to the formation of false memories is sparse and inconsistent” (Frenda, Patihis and …show more content…

Sleep deprived participant tend “to incorporate more misleading information into their memory for visual materials” (Frenda, Patihis and Loftus). This is because sleep deprivation can have an influence on encoding during memory. This can cause to be a misleading of the original event. Another reason sleep deprivation may cause false memory, sleep deprivation lowers the ability to process new information. Depending on what someone is doing, sleep deprivation can affect one’s false memory. It may impair accuracy and lower the ability being able to recognized

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