False Memories

December 6th 2012

FALSE MEMORIES

Have you ever had memories from your childhood where you’re not sure whether or not you really remember it, or you just think you remember it because it’s been told to you so many times? Read further to find out more on false memories and the different factors that can lead to their formation.

To What Extent Is Suggestion the Main Cause for False Memory Creation?

By Céline Karkaby

Before getting into the whole idea of the creation and existence of false memories, we first need to have a basic understanding of memory itself and how it works. Memory is a cognitive process studied by cognitive psychologists, who have determined that memory is constantly being shaped based on beliefs, knowledge, and emotions. Memory’s primary goal is not accuracy, in fact the brain processes that result in inaccuracies allow for more information to be retained. In order to study memory, psychologists have divided the process of memory formation into three steps: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

sending chemical and electrical signals so that it can potentially be stored in the brain.

STORAGE Storage, the second stage of memory formation, deals with where the memory is stored, the duration of the memory, how much can be stored, and what information is kept in the brain. This is the stage in memory formation where the most error can occur, and where false memories can be created.

RETRIEVAL

Retrieval, the final stage of the memory process, brings information from an unconscious level to your ENCODING conscious mind. Often times the bits Encoding, the first stage of of information we pull out are not memory formation, deals directly with identical to the pieces we put in. This a p e r s o n s ’ p e r c e p t i o n . T h e error often occurs during the hippocampus, along with the frontal encoding process based on how we cortex are involved with analyzing and perceive the information, and this can

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lead to the formation of false memories.

Fa l s e m e m o r i e s a r e m o r e common than people think, because people are convinced that if they remember something then it is true.

Memories become more susceptible to changes when more time has passed since receiving the original details.

There are several different factors that c a u s e f a l s e m e m o r y c re at i o n , including through misattribution, fuzzy tracing, emotion, inference, and external suggestions.

MISATTRIBUTION Misattribution occurs when the details of two events are mixed up and are combined into the same memory.

This is the result of poor “memory binding,” where individual pieces of information are put together to form a memory. This can also be caused by “imagination inflation,” where

imagining that an event occurs increases a person’s belief that it did, in fact, happen. This can also be caused by watching someone else perform an activity and you thinking you did it due to the familiarity of the action.

FUZZY TRACING T he “fuzzy trace theorem” proposes that people record experiences two different ways; they record verbatim traces, and gist traces.

Verbatim traces are traces of what actually happened, while gist traces are the persons’ interpretation of what happened.

EMOTION Emotion affects how a person remembers things. If a person is happy, they pay less attention to detail which leaves more room for false memories. When a person is angry, they will focus in more narrowly on events and the specific details, and a person who is sad is more likely to remember bad events more clearly as opposed to positive events.

INFERENCE Inference occurs during memory reconstruction, and it is when a person fills in missing pieces from an experience with information that seems to fit.

SUGGESTION Suggestion is, in other words, misinformation from external factors which affect how you perceive certain experiences. It can have a person searching their memory for specific information, and false recollection could result in mixed up details (e.x.

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about the time and place) This section or be fully concocted by of the brain, the individual. This known as the misinformation has the hippocampus, potential of entering our is where the memories when talking memory to people or when being formation interrogated and occurs. misinformation is embedded in the questions.

In an issue of the journal Learning and http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedjneight/ 4047782532/ by djneigh Memory (February 2005) scientists from John Hopkins University reported insights where she attempted to plant a false on how false memories are formed in childhood memory of being lost in a the brain. Areas in the brain, such as shopping mall at the age of five. This the hippocampus, are highly active story contained the elements of being during the formation of memories. “lost for an extended period of time, When there is successful encoding of crying, aid and comfort by an elderly a n i t e m i n m e m o r y, t h e l e f t woman and, finally, reunion with the hippocampus tail and the perirhinal family.” Loftus was careful to plant a cortex are active. In people who false memory that would neither cause formed false memories, the activity of the subjects “undue emotional stress” their prefrontal cortex were found to either in the process of creating the be weak, because activity in the false memory or in the revealing that prefrontal cortex correlates with the subjects were intentionally deceive, encoding the context of the memory. as to keep the experiment ethical. To T his weak activity during the successfully plant this false memory, misinformation stage indicates that the Loftus provided each subject with a details from the second experience booklet containing one paragraph were not properly registered in a stories about two events that actually “learning context,” and so as a result happened which were provided by a were embedded into the first memory, relative, and the one mentioned above When experimenting with the formation of resulting in a false memory. false memories, the use of humans is valuable Dr. Elizabeth Loftus from the because it gives the most authentic results and Psycholog y De partment at the allows for proper evaluation on how these types University of Washington conducted of memories are formed. The experiment was effective because it involved the manipulation an experiment involving 24 subjects of one variable, the untrue statement about the ranging from the age of 18 to 53,

Impossible Childhood Memories - Personal Anecdote Our hippocampus is not fully developed at a very young age, which makes it impossible to remember events before at least the age of three or four. When my sister was almost three, she was caught on the kitchen floor eating chocolate powder straight from the container. We’ve been telling this story over and over at family gatherings since then. My sister claims to remember craving the chocolate powder, but but that’s impossible due to her young age.This is a perfect example of her believing she has a memory, but in fact it is not a memory, she’s just head the story too many times.

person’s childhood, which allowed Loftus to make a conclusion on how misinformation can lead to false memory formation.

The participants who had accepted the false memory of getting sick over eating egg salad sandwiches consumed on average less than those who rejected the memory.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ lakenvelder/3476517115/sizes/m/

by Lakenvelder

that was supposedly “verified” by a close family member.

The subjects were instructed, after reading the three paragraphs, to write down what they remembered about the event, and if they had no recollection, that they should write “I do not remember this.” In two follow up interviews, the subjects were told that they would be tested on how much detail they could remember, and how their memory compared to that of the relative who provided the story. Parts of the paragraphs were provided to the participants to help them remember.

They recalled 68% of the true stories in each of the interviews. Immediately after reading the paragraphs, 29% of the subjects remembered partially or fully the false memory that was constructed by Loftus, and in the follow up interviews 25% claimed to recall the made up event.

There were distinct differences between the true and the false statements when recalled by the participants. The true statements were described with more words, and were rated to be more clear. From an onlookers point of view, though, they would not be able to differentiate between the true memories and the false memories based on the re-telling of the participants, Dr. Loftus explains.

Another experiment, reported in Psychological Science, conducted by Dr Elke Geraerts and colleagues, tested the creation of false memories created through suggestion, or misinformation.

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This experiment focused mainly on how false memories can affect a person’s behavior, and less on how the false memory is formed.

Dr. Geraerts planted a false memory about getting sick over eating egg salad sandwiches at a young age in 2/3 of his participants, through a supposed “study” about “food and personality.” After providing the subjects with a questionnaire, he recorded that half of them took the bait and accepted this memory about getting sick as true.

The second part of the experiment, which took place four months after the planting of the false m e m o r y, i nv o l v e d c a l l i n g t h e participants back by a “different experimenter.” They were told that they were called upon to partake in a study in a study about people’s preferences for different foods. There were several different types of food and drink to be “tested” by the subject, but the one item the experimenters were concerned with were the egg salad sandwiches.

After the participants had left, the data showed that those who had accepted the memory about getting sick over egg salad sandwiches on average ate less egg salad sandwiches (0.1) than the “non-believers” (0.4).

“They were certainly avoiding the egg salad as this pattern of consumption wasn’t seen in any other types of sandwiches” - Dr. Elke Geraerts This experiment shows not only that false memories can be accepted quite easily, but as Dr. Geraerts explains, it emphasizes the point that our perception of our past has a noticeable effect on how we act in the present.

Suggestion, unlike the other factors in the creation of false memories, is more widely tested on how effectively it is able to cause false memory formation. This is partly due to the conspiracies brought up about psychiatrists and their patients, and could be the reason why it seems to be the main cause in false memory formation.

There have been several cases of false memories being planted by psychiatrists into their patients mind due to the power of suggestion. For further reading on cases like these, check out “Creating False Memories,” and “Memory Distortion and False Memory Creation” by Dr. Loftus down below.

On a day to day basis, though, false memories can be formed quite easily due to the other factors m e n t i o n e d i n t h e b e g i n n i n g.

Misattribution can be formed without anyone’s realization, since all it takes is some confusion about the details of two or more events. Emotion is also very common, because people perceive events differently based on how they feel. Fuzzy tracing and inference also seem to be so common and likely to occur, that it is almost impossible to make the conclusion that suggestion is the main cause of memory creation.

Therefore suggestion cannot be considered the overall main cause of memory formation, but it can be considered a very effective method of planting false memories. Evidence was provided by the experiments conducted

by Dr. Loftus and Dr. Geraerts who successfully planted false memories in their participants. It can also be concluded that false memories can have a significant effect on a persons’ behavior, as proven in the egg salad sandwich experiment.

Further Reading Loftus, Elizabeth F. "Creating False Memories." Faculty Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm>.

Loftus, Elizabeth F. "Memory Distortion and False Memory Creation." COGPrints. N.p., n.d.

Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://cogprints.org/599/1/199802009.html

>.

Horton, Jennifer. "Top 5 Ways False Memories Are Formed." Discovery Channel. N.p., n.d.

Web.01 Oct. 2012. <http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/5-ways-false-