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"The reality is simply an illusion, but at the end is a very convincing illusion" Albert Einstein. Do you ever feel that you remember a certain event with the utmost precision, and with all the details like it happened yesterday? And begins to occur around you about this incident to find out that they do not know anything about it and don 't know what you 're talking about! then you begin to decline yourself thinking: Am I losing my mind? Do not worry because you did not lose your mind in any way, but you passed a unique experience call "The false memory".
Most scientists perhaps agree that this new phenomenon was the most prominent topic in the recent controversy in scientific circles and became the focus of attention of a lot of professionals
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Memories can be false in relatively minor ways (e.g., believing one last saw the keys in the kitchen when they were in the living room) and in major ways that have profound implications for oneself and others (e.g., mistakenly believing one is the originator of an idea or that one was sexually abused as a child) " (Johnson, M. K., 2001). When talking about false memories, we are talking about things to remember they occur clearly even though it never happened, and this anniversary is an event you think you attended, or to tailor remember it incorrectly, and this happens even with people who have the amazing power to …show more content…
Some legal have begun to question the validity of "The false memory" theory, because the adoption of it would mean questioning in words both testify in court, according to this theory, which means he will be denied these words, or expand the circle of interpretation. But recently, a study appeared in the (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) journal may carry evidence of what causes this to occur, and this guide came through search scientists in surveys fMRI taken to the brains of a group of participants - particularly the area of the temporal
Roediger III, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating False Memories: Remembering Words Not Presented in Lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cogntion, 21, 803-814.
In Laurence Armand French Ph.D. and Thomas J. Young Ph.D.’s article The False Memory Syndrome: Clinical/Legal Issues for the Prosecution talks about memory recall being an unreliable form of evidence in the Criminal Justice System. French and Young state that hypnosis and lie detector tests are a misconception because “the cognitive interpretations of the emotional/autonomic aspects of the central nervous (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems are not true indicators of reality,” (p. 38).
Steffens, M., & Mecklenbräuker, S. (2007). False memories: Phenomena, theories, and implications. Zeitschrift Für Psychologie/Journal Of Psychology, 215(1), 12-24. doi:10.1027/0044-3409.215.1.12
The article How to Tell If a Particular Memory Is True or False by Daniel M. Bernstein and Elizabeth F. Loftus, addresses the various techniques used by cognitive scientists and other researchers in hopes of distinguishing true from false memories. For this article Loftus and Bernstein, memory researchers, chose to discuss the different methods currently used, rather than trying to find new ways to tell if a particular memory is true or false. Their findings in these three different approaches are very interesting, and leads us to think critically of the veracity of true and false memories.
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).
The term that best explains the barriers to eyewitness memory is widely regarded as verbal overshadowing. The notion of verbal overshadowing has been coined as the inability to provide explicit memories due to the cognitive barriers people possess to depict accurately the events that have transpired. On a daily basis, individuals across the United States are sentenced to lengthy prison sentences resultant of wrongful convictions (Innocence Project, 2016). To illustrate the ambivalences caused by verbal overshadowing, if it even exists, behavioral scientists conducted a study to demonstrate the disparities. Many researchers have designed an experiment to measure a person’s cognitive ability to remember accurately a perpetrator that has committed a crime in a police lineup (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler,
Memory is a cognitive function of the brain that is often taken for granted. Memory may have many purposes, but most importantly it is essentially a record of an entire life span. From this perspective memory is the most important aspect of consciousness. Unfortunately, through formal experimentation it has been shown that memory is fairly inaccurate, inconsistent, and often influenced by our own experiences as well as the bias of others. Memory is not only affected during an observed event, but there are instances where memory can be influenced after an event as well. There are also instances where memory can be affected retroactively due to personal experiences and biases. Incorrectly recalling the memories of one’s life is usually not detrimental, but the flawed nature of long-term and short-term memory functions becomes a serious matter in regards to criminal eyewitness testimony. In the justice system eyewitness reports are legitimate and can be crucial in the judging process. The justice system was constructed to rely on testimony that is often inaccurate and inconstant in many ways.
When someone or something gives you misleading information that leads you to change or distort your memory of an event or experience is known in psychology as the misinformation effect (Myers & DeWall, 2015). This phenomenon usually happens unconsciously and people do not notice it. An example of this is when one is telling a friend about a childhood memory and they fill in parts of the memory
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.
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.
Roediger, H. L. III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-814
Perina, Kaja. "Brain scans may be foolproof lie detectors. (Truth Serum)." Psychology Today Jan.-Feb. 2002: \. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
"Mind reading" technology is becoming increasingly accurate at detecting lies, and the article debates whether or not this evidence should be used in court. This article is based off of the scholarly article from the Journal of Law and Biosciences: “The use of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom by those accused of criminal offenses in England and Wales” by Paul Catley and Lisa Claydon.
It has been demonstrated that memory is a constructed process. So, we can add new information to past memories every time that we retrieve it in a new context. Every time that people talk about past events’ memories, they most of the time forgets details or give wrong descriptions about things that happened. Moreover, in some cases, people can also describe things that never happened. Therefore, it is very easy to change others memories. It is amazing to know that our memory can be influenced by others in a positive and in a negative direction.
The British Psychological Society. (2011). Memory is not as reliable as we think. Retrieved from http:// http://www.bps.org.uk/news/memory-not-reliable-we-think