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Human memory unreliable due to misinformation primary research
What does the misinformation effect show about memory
Cognitive psychology memory
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Memory is the retention of information over time, and as it makes its way to your long-term memory storage, some information is lost. Any misinformation can have a major impact on how you remember a memory. Therefore, many factors could be the reason for Jim's inaccurate interpretation of his episodic memory. These factors include, but aren't limited to the age the memory occurred, new memories interfering with the old memory, or the memory simply fading over time. I will discuss these factors and more in hopes of understanding the possible reasons for Jim interpreting his childhood memory of winning the lottery incorrectly.
If Jim's memory occurred before the age of three, childhood amnesia could be the result of him remembering incorrectly.
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As Jim grew out of childhood and into adulthood, he acquired many memories that may have disrupted his old memory. Therefore, his new memories likely changed his interpretation of the childhood memory. For example, he might be confusing the score in the game during the time his parents won the lottery with the score of another game he watched afterwards. New memories getting in the way of old memories is like the misinformation effect, which could have also played a role in Jim's misunderstanding. Jim might have heard misleading information that was stored in his brain and later altered his memory of the event. For example, Jim's parent might have misinformed him on where he was sitting at the table when he heard the news. Along with the misinformation effect, Jim's memory simply could have decayed. The decay theory is the assumption that memories fade away over time. As we grow older and obtain new memories, the old ones tend to fade and become less memorable. This is because of the creation of new neurons in the hippocampus. So, the longer Jim waits to recall his memory the harder it is to remember. Another reason could be that Jim stored the memory wrong long ago, and what he thought was the correct memory was stored in his brain until he grew into adulthood. When he tried
Memories can be altered based on acquisition, storage, and retrieval. Acquisition is what we notice or perceive based on what we are paying attention to. Storage is what information gets stored into one’s memory. Retrieval correlates with the false memory syndrome, which is recalling a previous traumatic experience that is false but believed to be true. The false memory syndrome is often noticed during police interrogations and leads to coerced confessions, which is when the individual being interrogated is essentially pressured to confess.
Our memory is made up of many different types of memories; episodic, semantic, and implicit. Episodic memory is the remembrance of a certain event. An example of this
The first one was that kids lack the machinery for this. A lot of things have to be put to a motion for a memory to be created in the brain. Another one is that kids lack any kind narrative or vocab to describe an event. Kids also go through shredding or neurogenesis. Neurogenesis is the process of making new neurons and this can disrupt circuits in the brain that make them forget things. Also, it is easy for kids to get their memories mixed up with other people’s memories if it’s similar to an existing memory. The author gives a good example of this situation. “For instance, you meet someone and remember their name, but later meet a second person with a similar name, and become confused about the name of the first person.” As the kids grow up their memory does get better and it becomes less likely for their memory to succumb to these things. Something the author only slightly mentions is her interview with another psychologist named Patricia Bauer. She describes memory like making Jell-O. You take the mixture of Jell-O; pour it into a mold and put it in the refrigerator. The thing about the mold is that it has a hole and all you can hope that it solidifies in the mold before too much of it leaks
Inaccurate memories can happen to anyone even when they believe it truly happened. One might think that there is only one type of memory but that it not the case. When Jim thinks that he remembers something but actually does not, the memory he thinks he remembers would be categorized under flashbulb memories. Usually, it is a flashbulb memory of a childhood experience. These memories are actually very similar to regular memories.
Many of the memories that were remembered are usually previous childhood experiences. Dewhurst and Robinson (2004) conducted a study where 5, 8 and 11 year old children were tested on memory illusion. One of the procedures used to test false memories is the DRM paradigm. The DRM paradigm presents a list of words that include a critical word that is typically remembered although it was never presented. During the DRM procedure the children were given five lists that contained eight words. Each list consisted of at least one rhyme and a semantic theme. Each child was tested on their own by the classroom
...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.
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).
Have you ever wondered why you find yourself recalling memories that, later you realized, they never actually occurred? If your answer is yes, then you’ve probably personally experienced this. If your answer is no, maybe you have indeed experienced this but, you just didnt realize it or didn’t understand it. Well, in order to understand the whole idea behind “false memories”, one must first understand “memory” in general. When asked about “memory” many will often describe it as “the mental capacity of receiving and recalling facts, events, impressions, or of recalling past experiences.” (Squire, 2009) Some of the common examples that are often described includes the process of studying for an exam or the process of trying to recall where
In a child younger than three or four have a harder time remembering things when they get older. Some researchers have even said that young children don't form memories, but that is false. However, their memories may fade once they get older or older memories are sometimes replaced with newer memories. Some may not even remember simple things such as their third or fourth birthdays. Also, other researchers think that this has to do with cognitive and language skills. According to Psychology Professor Carole Peterson: “this is not the case. Very young children can still recall past events.” Peterson also said “As young children get older their first memories tend to get later and later, but around the age of ten their memories crystallize.” Researchers have even done tests to check the memories of children. What they did was asked 140 kids in the age range of 4-13 to describe their earliest memories, then they would ask them two years later. They had to estimate the age they were at the time and parents were to confirm it. By doing this they found out that ages 4-7 showed very little overlap between the memories they called first and remembered them two years later. Peterson said “Even when we repeated what they told us two years before, many of the younger children would tell us it didn't happen to them.” ⅓ of the children ages 10-13 described the same earliest memory during their second interview. More than half of the memories were recalled the same at
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.
The human brain consists of many subsystems within the long-term memory. One of which is episodic memory. Episodic Memory is the remembrance of a phenomenal personal experience in terms of what, when, and where. This memory begins by retrieving information such as, words, objects, or faces; using this knowledge the episodic memory finds links and slowly transitions into recalling the complete memoir.
Socrates’ Doctrine of Recollection is invalid because of the flawed procedure that was employed to prove it, its inability to apply to all types of knowledge, and the weakness of the premises that it is based on.
Children’s memories are easier to confuse as those of adults. For many years most adults believed that children’s memories could not be trusted because children tend to confuse reality with their fantasies. Children just as adults can be accurate in what they report and they also like adult can distort, forget, fantasize, and be misled. As research show, their memories processes are only human. All I know is that I wouldn’t like to be accused by a group of children or students. It’s not quite as reliable as you may have hoped a memory would be.
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...
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.