Are False Memories Reliable

678 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on false memories

When a person sits backs thinks on their childhood they may be flooded with extensive memories going back to toddlerhood. These memories may be vivid and clear seeming as realistic the room around them. The possibly that these memories could be false wouldn’t even run through the persons mind. But could the memories be false? It is possible for the memories that guide how you interact with the world around you, to be false? These is a very real possible, under the right circumstances. False memories can be constructed when actual memories are combined with the suggestion received from an outside party. As Loftus explains through various sources this can have a profoundly negative effective on people’s lives whether it is through psychotherapy or witness testimony. …show more content…

Two main examples were Nadean Cool and Beth Rutherford. Nadean went to a psychiatrist who performed hypnosis on her making her memory being in a satanic cult, eating babies, being raped and more outlandish memories. The psychiatrist even performed exorcisms on her, these went on until she realized the memories were false and planted were she later sued the psychiatrist. Beth Rutherford had a similar story where she went to doctor and formed memories of being raped by her father and of her mother even helping her father sometimes by holding her down. These memories were debunked when medical examinations showed that she was a virgin. Both of these examples show the power of external suggestion on forming things like imagination inflation and impossible memories which lead to false

Show More
Related

  • Childhood Memories In The Glass Castle

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    When the topic of childhood memory pops up in a conversation the listeners would think the story teller is telling the truth right? Well, what if I said that the people telling the stories might not even know if they aren’t? When these stories are told most don’t realize the little bit of memory actually involved. So how much or it is true and how much it came from another inaccurate place? Where could something like that come from? Were Jennette Walls’ memories real? Does this affect you or is it not a big dilemma? Should these be considered There are several different debates within itself but the main one to focus on is are your memories even your memories?

    Read More

  • Recovered Memory Theory

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, some argue that the recovery of repressed memories during psychotherapy might be a result of suggestive practices employed by the therapist (Madill & Holch, 2004). This has raised questions among scholars who have suggested that the creation of false memories is plausible, especially if repressed memories have been recovered in therapy where suggestive techniques, such as hypnosis, have been used by the therapist in treatment. Ms. Jaynor stated that after experiencing symptoms of depression and low self-esteem, she decided to seek help and started therapy to treat her symptoms. Ms. Jaynor mentioned to therapist Janet Balderston that she did not recall any traumatic experiences as a child. Memories of her childhood were not clear but she remembered it as being average, neither terrible nor extremely happy. Ms. Jaynor’s therapist suggested hypnosis and dream interpretation as part of treatment since Cindy’s description of her childhood was typical of a person who suffered from

    Read More

  • Recovered Memories versus False Memories: Is It Possible to Determine What Is Real?

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    False memories being created is obvious through many different ways, such as eye-witness testimonies and past experiments that were conducted, however repression is an issue that has many baffled. There seems to be little evidence on the factual basis of repressed memories, and many argue that it does not exist. The evidence for repression in laboratories is slowly emerging, but not as rapidly as the evidence for false memories. It has been hard to clinically experiment with repressed memories because most memories are unable to be examined during the actual event to corroborate stories. Experimenters are discovering new ways to eliminate this barrier by creating memories within the experiment’s initial phase. This is important for examining the creation of false memories during the study phase. This research study will explore the differences between recovered memories and false memories through research and experiments. Other terms and closely related terms will be discussed, while examining any differences, in relation to repressed memories. The possibility of decoding an actual difference between recovered memories and false memories, through biological techniques. Because false memories can be created, examining these creations in a laboratory setting can shed light on facts overlooked. Exploring these issues will also help with the development of better therapeutic techniques for therapists in dealing with memories. This can lead to an easier process for patients and therapists if they must go through the legal system in relation to an uncovered memory.

    Read More

  • False Memory In Children

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first part of the test the children who participated in the study were asked to respond “yes” when they recalled seeing the man visit their school and had to respond “no” to all other questions. On the second part the children were asked to answer “yes” to details they recalled hearing in the post event narrative and “no” to all other things. The results from Memon, Holliday, Hill (2006) indicated that the child would decline negative misinformation more than those who were given positive misinformation.

    Read More

  • True Or False Memories Research Paper

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the field of cognitive neuroscience a memory study usually involves a combination of behavioral tasks and a machine that permits t...

    Read More

  • The Importance Of False Memory

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    Can memories be biased? Researchers Postarino and Doyle-Portillio (2013); Bernstein and Loftus (2009); and Bartholomew (2009) found increasing evidence to suggest that the answer to this question is yes. Explicit and implicit memories are encoded differently, but it appears both can be fallible. Also worth noting, is that this can happen without a person conscious awareness. Kolb and Whishaw (2014) examined studies that gave participants a list of words, then gave them a second list. The second list contained some, but not all items from the first list, but many participants thought the word sugar was on both, when in fact it was only on the second. Similar words like cake, sweet, and candy were on the first so this seemed to confuse participants. This phenomena researchers refer to as false memory. False memory is different from a lie; unlike a lie, the individual in this case may give false account of the past truly believing that he or she is telling the truth. In other words, false memory can simply be defined as mental experience that is wrongfully considered as the truthful representation of the past. False memories can result in both minor and serious consequences Bernstein & Loftus, 2009; Bartholomew, 2009).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Recovered Memories

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    An alternative view to this debate, are from practicing therapist who argue that most recovered memories are true, and that there is still some evidence to support the concept of repressed memories (Briere & Conte, 1993). They claim that traumatic memories such as sexual abuse tend to be different from ordinary memories because they are encoded in a way that prevents them from being accessible in everyday life. In addition, they argue that certain procedures during therapy are necessary in order to bring the repressed memories back into conscious awareness, and this is deemed necessary in order to help the patient recover. Despite these claims, there is little evidence to support the validity of reported cases of recovered memories, and most of the theories are mainly based on speculation rather than scientific evidence. However, there have been some cases in which a recovered memory did corresponded to an actual event that occurred. For example, an article by Freyd (1999), reported a case in which a man called Frank Fitzpatrick recovered memories of sexual abuse from childhood. Although this

    Read More

  • Formation Of False Memories

    482 Words  | 1 Pages

    There have been several experiments done to try to prove that false memories can indeed be formed. One experiment, for example, was tried with a 14-year-old boy. The boy was told four memories, one of which was falsely constructed but similar to that of a true memory. The memories that were suggested took place when the boy was about 10 years younger. As the false memory was retold to him, he was asked to explain in detail what he had remembered from that event. Surprisingly, he claimed to remember the event, even though it was falsely created by the interviewer and his brother, and went on to explain what he remember to have happened, details and all. After collecting everything he had said about the four memories, he was told that one of the suggested memories was made-up and he was asked to guess which one it may have been. When he couldn’t decide which one it was, he was told that it was in fact the memory of getting lost in a store. He was confused and had trouble believing the truth.

    Read More

  • Repressed Memories

    3889 Words  | 8 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • False Memory

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 general public and many researches were done in order to find more about the false memory. The constructive approach to memory, which states that memory is constructed by person based on what really happened in addition to person’s other knowledge, experiences, and expectations, supports the idea of false memory. Just like what constructive approach to memory states, the false memory can be created by person’s knowledge, common biases, and suggestions. The present study was done in order to demonstrate one methodology that biases people to create and recall false memories. The present study is based on Deese’s experiment in 1959 and also on Roediger and McDermott’s experiment in 1995. The participants will be presented with sequence of words visually, and then they would have to classify a set of words as either in the sequence or not in the sequence. Our hypothesis is that people will create false memories and recall distractor words that are related to the sequence of words presented significantly m...

    Read More

  • false memory and eyewitness testimony

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    False Memories are essentially, unintentional human errors, or a state of none-factual creativeness; which results in persons having declared memories of events and situations that did not occur in the actuality of their own lifespan reality history. If they were not unintentional errors they would be deception, which has the nature of a different purpose, morality and legality. False memories have no authenticity, realness or legitimacy, in the subject’s actual life. However they may not be complete false memories: more likely to be a combination of subjugation of previous memory cue’s; or imaginative inventive production, activated and initiated by an origination of external scenario additive as a prompt, indicator or sign, which fuses into memory recall. Therefore ‘False Memories’ are a genuine but inaccurate remembering of experimental data or recall of an genuine occurrences; both of which have rudiments of accuracy and inaccuracy in their transitive attention, giving most ‘False Memories’ partiality.

    Read More

  • False Memories Essay

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bartlett’s “War of the Ghosts” experiment (1932) is a classic example of false memories. The results of his study found participants would unintentionally alter the information of a story they read in a way that was more reflective of their own lives. Otagaar, et.al. (2013) examined false memories by developing non-believed memories in adults and children about taking a ride in a hot air balloon. The results of this study found that when the participants were asked immediately after reading a passage about this memory, most did not recall going on a hot air balloon. However, when the participants were called back a few months later, a higher percentage of participants recalled having experienc...

    Read More

  • Personal Bias Analysis

    626 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reality frequently comes into question due to the unreliability of one's perspective. The way a person remembers an event is dependent on their emotions and state of mind at the time of occurrence. This may lead to the past being misconstrued by an individual's personal bias.

    Read More

  • Interrogation Essay

    2706 Words  | 6 Pages

    False information can influence people’s beliefs and memories. When people are given false information it becomes easier for them to report witnessing an event that never happened, or to give inaccurate reports about events that have happened. But in recent years, memory researchers have used an especially compelling form of misinformation—digitally manipulated photos and videos—to elicit false beliefs and memories in people. (Klaver, Lee, & Rose). Based on false memory studies, scientists have argued that false suggestions induce people to testify about events they never witnessed. (Wade, Nash & Green, 2010). When it comes to the real world eyewitness report ...

    Read More

  • How Does False Memory Affect The Brain?

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    I am interested in the brain and how the brain works. I wanted to find Ted Talk videos on the subject of memory. I have always been awed by topics related to the human brain, thus I had been hoping to find a subject that pertains to science and the brain. I remembered about the time I had read about the concept of false memories, and so I searched for any possible TED Talks relating to this idea. Sure enough, I found a sufficient amount of videos. After watching the videos, my desire to learn about false memories increased, giving me the interest in learning about the ability to plant memories into an individual’s brain. I believe that this is a very important concept because it can open up new possibilities such as treating those with PTSD and depression and many others disorders. I hope that people can understand that this sort of memory manipulation can help others if used responsibly.

    Read More

More about Are False Memories Reliable

Open Document