Repressed Memories Abstract 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. Further biological research on the effect of psychological trauma on the neurochemistry of memory may help clinicians distinguish between true repressed memories and false memories in clients who report abuse. However, to date there is no method to determine the accuracy of these memories. Therefore clinicians and the courts must rely on corroborative evidence, and behavioral and physiologic clues to distinguish veracity. Recently there has been an extreme debate between "false" vs. "repressed" memories of abuse. A false memory is created when an event that really happened becomes confused with images produced by trying to remember an imagined event. The term false memory syndrome refers to the notion that illusionary and untrue memories of earlier child abuse can be 'recalled' by adult clients during therapy. In an increasingly polarized and emotive debate, extreme positions have been adopted, on one side by those believing that recovered memories nearly always represent actual traumatic experiences, for example, Fredrickson (1992) who argues for a 'repressed memory syndrome' and, on the other side, by those describing a growing epidemic of false memories of abuse which did not occur. (Gardner, 1992; Loftus, 1993; Ofshe & Watters, 1993; Yapko, 1994). Recovery of repressed memories that lead to acc... ... middle of paper ... ...l & Howell Information and Learning-ProQuest) on the World Wide Web: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb 3. Kandel, E. (1994, May) Flights of Memory. Discover.15, 32-36 4. Kowalski, M.(1998, December). Applying the "two schools of thought" doctrine to the repressed memory controversy. The Journal of Legal Medicine. Retrieved September 14, 2000 from Lexis-Nexis database (Academic Universe) on the World Wide Web: http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe 5. Farrants, J. (1998, September). The 'false' memory debate. Counseling Psychology Quarterly. Retrieved September 14, 2000 from ProQuest database (Bell & Howell Information and Learning-ProQuest) on the World Wide Web: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb 6. Pezdeck, J., (1994). Making up memories? Memory & Cognition, 34(l), 35-47 7. Sapolsky, R. M., (1994) Why Zebra Don't Get Ulcers. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company
6. With respect to the controversy regarding reports of repressed memories of sexual abuse, statements by major psychological and psychiatric associations suggest that:
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.
I believe that having a false memory is more likely to occur because if our real memories change over time the story, arguing that a repressed memory stays intact after years of being blocked, is illogical. Most of the cases, the repressed memory came back because it was forced by external factors that may have altered the veracity of the memory, which makes repressed memories unreliable as testimonies. I believe that there is truth in both topics, however, the cases presented in the film, and how the victims reacted to the memories gives the viewer a sign that most of the cases were under the influence of false memories.
Those who are in favor of retrieved memories state that these memories can be repressed and remain unattainable for years until an individual seeks therapy, where these memories can often be uncovered and trauma related to them can be treated (Freyd, 1994). On the other hand, some individuals have expressed concerns with the concept of repressed memories since, according to them, there is little scientific evidence that can support the theory (Patihis, Ho, Tingen, Lilienfeld & Loftus, 2014). In other words, cases where individuals experience traumatic events but often lack memories of these, often do not provide sufficient reliable evidence to make credible arguments. Memory research offers further insight into the controversial topic of “memory wars” by explaining if the notion of repressing memories and placing them into the unconscious is a feasible hypothesis. Furthermore, research presented in this brief will discuss the reliability and usefulness of using recovered memories as evidence in a court cases. Due to the controversial nature of recovered memories in judicial courts and scientific communities, it is important to consider research in the area to determine truthfulness in allegations involving recovered memories, as these have previously posed
Repressed memories is a topic that has been an ongoing dispute among some, however ac...
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.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The acclaimed guide to stress, stress-
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
Similar studies were done to a different set of college students and they tended to have the same results. After giving as much detail about each memory, the students were interviewed about what they may have written done about what they had remembered. During the last part of the experiment, each of the students were debriefed and asked to guess which memory they believed was false.
Repression of memories is a controversial topic that has been argued for many years. Some support the myth and it has been imposed in cases to obtain legal convictions. Although researchers have found methods to refute the myth, individuals still believe they have repressed a memory of a traumatic event. This has recently taken place in 2007 in the Colorado vs. Marshall case. Marshall Adam Walker was accused of sexually assaulting a seventeen year-old who claimed that he made three boys pose nude for videos. He was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison. One of the boys claimed to recover a repressed memory of the event while watching a movie (“Legal cases (53), 2010”). This student’s claim made an influential impact on the perpetrator’s sentence. This reflects the power these accusations have had recently in the media and in criminal cases that involve a traumatic event such as sexual assault.
The repressed memory theory was coined by Debra A. Poole of Central Michigan University, who carried out a study in 1995 and found that in the U.S. and the U.K., about a fourth of all therapists were using methods that could be characterized as suggestive: which consisted of hypnosis, dream interpretation, and direct demands on patients to let them imagine that they had been sexually abused as children. Patients had long forgotten about their traumas, but as the psychologists attempted to help bring the memories back to life, Lotus says that there was an increasing chance that they would implant false memories in
Not everyone responds to trauma in the same way. Determinants that predict the likelihood of post-traumatic stress are the age of exposure, how an event is labeled, and if an event is repetitive. For some, the stress response changes the brain’s circuitry, causing an exaggerated or understated reaction to future events. This is the case for the majority of patients entering a psychiatric inpatient program (Bassuk et al., 2017). A high probability exists that the standard practices of psychiatric hospitals and the communications of caregivers can cause reactivation of the trauma response and further deterioration of the current behavioral health symptomatology (Butler et al., 2011).
What is a false memory? How the false memory works? And where is it from? Before answering to those questions, we should firstly start by explaining what is a memory. According to the poet-essayist Oscar Wild, “Memory is the diary that we all carry about us”. Defined by a cognitive psychologist Margaret W.Maltin as the process of retaining information over the time or by other as the human ability to use our past experience to determine our future path, the memory involves three distinct processes. The encoding which allows the transformation of the information into the format that can be stored in memory, the storage that helps to maintain that information and final the retrieval stage, which occurs when information stored in
The article “The Formation of False Memories” focuses on how memories can be disrupted by retroactive interference. Their study investigates whether people can be implanted with an incorrect memory for something that have never happened. The subjects were presented with four stories, one of which is the “false” memory and this memory was being lost between the ages of 4 and 6. The memories were provided by the subject’s relatives with the false memory being always in the third position. Then, the participants were scheduled two interviews – either face to face or through phone. They were asked to recall as many information and details about the memories as they could. And they were asked to rate the clarity of their memory and asked to indicate
Human memory is highly susceptible to modifications due to the compelling nature of false memories. This causes the recollection of events to be different from the way they happened or to be non-existent. (Roediger, Jacoby and McDermott, 1996). The first study by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) was to understand and determine if human’s episodic memory, which is the recollection of past events in their thoughts and feelings at that point of time, could be modified by suggestive information. (Wheeler, Stuss and Tulving, 1997). The independent variables were the types of information (3 true and 1 false) given...