In recent years the topic on repressed memories and the falseness of a memory have been largely discussed in the psychology community. Studies show that both suppression, and the recall or the creation of false memories are possible. Distinguishing between true repressed memories and false memories in individuals who report possible abuse may be an option in the future. This is no way to predict the accuracy of memories to date. But psychologist and the law use coherent evidence, behavioral and physiologic clues to distinguish validity of a repressed memory. There is evidence to prove that repressed memories are not a myth but have tendencies to distort an individual's mind to believe false memories are indeed true. In this paper I will be …show more content…
Although not all repressed memories are of victims that have suffered from sexual abuse or abuse as an adolescent. It is still one of the most prominent cases that show up in studies when dealing with the topic of repressed memories.
Traumatic events that occur in adolescents as stated earlier have a permanent effect in the development of their cognitive memory functions as they grow up. Research evidence shows that it is not for people who were sexually abused in childhood to experience amnesia and delayed recall for the abuse. According to Bright (2008) traumatic stress is categorized in three levels of severity. Acute trauma is categorized as a single event that result in “frightening feelings, thoughts and physical reaction” (Bright, 2008, p. 8). A traumatic event such a sudden death, assault or community violence can perpetuate overwhelming feelings (Bright, 2008). Chronic trauma is categorized as a continuous sequence of negative events that enhance the previous
Briggs 4 event (Bright, 2008). Complex trauma is categorized as “exposure to chronic trauma and
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Throughout providing examples for both sides; repressed memories has more information to back up the legitimacy than incidents that show the falseness of individuals who suffer from false memories. False memories seem to be created by the pressure or the influence of the situation regarding an event. However for valid repressed memories that arrive they are spontaneously and usually are triggered by anything in the environment. At the end of the day deciding in the court of law if a memory is true or false mainly depends on the evidence brought before the jury and how consistent and coherent a particular memory is discussed to the court. Although there is no possible way to accurately prove a true/false memory studies have been tested showing how individuals in different age groups are easily influenced by their environment. With the knowledge that an individual can be
Briggs 7 influenced to easily confuse stories, and cannot recall the real one does in fact help with the furthering the idea that repressed memories are true, but that false memories itself is an actual phenomenon that occurs in
Memory plays a large role in our legal system. A person who witnesses a crime has to rely on recalling information, which isn’t always completely accurate. In Johnson (1993) paper she discusses ways memory interferes with the legal systems and what rules and regulations help prevent memory failure to interfere.
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 false memory and recovered memory literature is marked by controversy. It examines the phenomenon a variety of patients have exhibited: purportedly “losing” memories of trauma, only to recover them later in life (Gavlick, 2001). In these cases, temporary memory loss is attributed to psychological causes (i.e. a traumatic event) rather than known damage to the brain (Gavlick, 2001). While some assert that the creation of false memories through therapeutic practice is a serious concern and founded associations like the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) in the U.S. and the British False Memory Society (BFMS) in order to advocate against psychological malpractice, other researchers contend that the evidence for “false memory syndrome,” or the recovery of untrue memories, is weak (Brewin & Andrews, 1998; Pope, 1996). The debate arose largely in the 1990s, though a consensus in the literature still has not been reached.
...pporting details. At the conclusion of the article, the authors share their thoughts on how it might be virtually impossible to determine when a memory is true or false. I also like their willingness to continue the investigations despite how difficult it might be to obtain concrete answers.
Flashbulb memory is when a person learns or experiences a very surprising and emotional arousing events (Matlin, 155). As it is a long lasting memory that people report vivid details about a traumatic event, it has been the subjects of recent scientific studies. Recent findings have mentioned a relationship between flashbulb memory and the September 11, 2001 attack. An article published in the American Psychological Association entitled “Seared in Our Memories” written by Bridget Murray Law analyzes different studies on the topic to explore how accurate people vividly remember about the 9/11 attack, and on how much is accurate or fabricated through various encounters. After reading the article, Law mentions interesting researchers concluding
Recovered memories of childhood trauma and abuse has become one of the most controversial issues within the field of psychology. Controversy surrounding repressed memory - sometimes referred to as the memory wars – reached its’ peak in the early 1990s, where there was a rise in the number of people reporting memories of childhood trauma and abuse that had allegedly been repressed for many years (Lindsay & Read, 2001). There are a number of different factors that have contributed to the dispute surrounding recovered memories. Firstly, there is an ongoing debate about whether these types of memories actually exist or whether these accusations arose as a result of suggestive therapeutic procedures. In particular, this debate focuses on two main
Memory is an important part of our lives. It fills us with comfort, warmth, and happiness when recalling a joyous event; it may also illicit feelings of anger, sadness, or discontent. Unfortunately, our memory is not as perfect as we may think. In fact, our memory is extremely malleable. Most people think memory acts as a tape recorder; you experience an event, and like a video tape, you can replay the event over and over in exact detail as it happened. This belief could not be further from the truth. In fact, our memory is constantly being shaped by external factors. It is reconstructed in the way we want to remember it. Memory does not act as a tape recorder; rather it is constructed by us and warped by time, emotions, and external forces. Such forces can include the input of family members and friends who want “get the facts straight” with their recollection of the event. This falsification effect can have severely damaging consequences, not only for the person undergoing the recollection, but also for those under attack for these recovered memories.
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.
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).
Traumatic amnesia is a documented, verifiable syndrome. The numerous studies that have been seen made , some concurrent with the sexual abuse, others come from memory recall of the abused are statistically reliable and evidentiary of the facts. Sexual abuse creates trauma that is impossible to duplicate in a laboratory setting because the emotional responses that are experienced by the abused are far more complex than anything that can be stimulated artificially. Our better understanding of memory and how it works is really new paradigms for differentiating traumatic ,memory recall from false memory (implanted ideas that are subsequently “recalled.”In the article by Ann Cossins (recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse- fact or fantasy?), Cossins builds an excellent foundation for the acceptance of memory recall to validate the existence of abuse while rejecting the proponents of FMS, as potentially unscientific and basing their “truths” to be the subjective judgements of the accused. To adhere to a belief that recalled memory of sexual abuse is not reliable. We know empirically that this is not true. To return to our question of the reliability of recovered memory from childhood, I would have to conclude that the recovered memory is reliable.
Many people’s memory will be put to the test in everyday life, but just how dependable is the information stored in our brain? The brain stores information every second and it is always running. Every person perceives an event differently, therefore memories aren’t the exact truth but it was a perspective of how the event was seen. As minds encode, store, and retrieve information, memory plays a huge part in all individuals. Yet through versions of the truth, misleading interviews, feedback, and mistraining, memories and testimonies can astray far from the truth.
Elizabeth Loftus puts the malleability of memory into perspective, and describes the plausible causes of false memory as well as the toll it can take on the innocent. Memories come and go with time, fading away when left untouched just to be penciled in again when revisited days, weeks or even years later – until the next recall. Often times, the details of a memory tend to change and the story can even transform one completely unlike the original. In the 1970’s, Loftus performed a study to analyze the effect that introducing false details about a specific memory to people would have on their recall of that event. Loftus found that when erroneous details about an event were presented to people, their personal recollections of that event became distorted. From these findings, Loftus was able to conclude that human memory is susceptible to manipulation by
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
Occasionally events happen in our life that we may choose to forget because the even was painful or unpleasant. Forgetting that these events took place is called motivated forgetting. There are two types of motivated forgetting. Sometimes a person is still aware that an event happened even after making an effort to put it out of their mind, referred to as suppression. Other times, during repression, a person is able to remove the memory from consciousness and are not longer aware the event occurred.