essay on false memories

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False Memories, Essay Example

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Elizabeth Loftus has studied false memories and their consequences for many years and has a great amount of experience. The ideas within this paper will provide background into her work, will define false memories, will explain repressed memories, and will help the reader understand the consequences of false memories. False memories are common in individuals who have dealt with traumatic events throughout their lives and it is important to cover the essentials of false memory and why these false or repressed memories may come up later in life. Throughout this paper, we will go into specific detail in reference to false memories as it relates to child abuse, traumatic events, imagination, as well as other forms of traumatic situations such as rape, domestic abuse, and sexual abuse to name a few. This paper will give specific examples and will explain false and repressed memory to shed a little light on the issues.

Introduction

There is much to be said about the work that Elizabeth Loftus and others have done on false and/or repressed memory. Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who has focused a lot of time and energy on understanding false memory and how it shapes a person, is an individual who believes in false memory as well as repressed memory and helps others to understand the important consequences of the concept. There are many individuals who are skeptical about false or repressed memories and have a hard time believing that it is even possible to remember something many, many years after it has happened. This is the concept of repressed memories. According to Elizabeth Loftus (1997) in her article “Creating False Memories,” “false memories are constructed by combining actual memories with the content of suggestions received by others” (p. 74). Therefore, false memories can be defined as actual memories that take shape into something different due to suggestions that others may put into the minds of other individuals who are trying to remember the actual memories. The actual memories become confused with the suggestions and are later manipulated into being false memories because they are not completely true. It is possible for individuals to forget the source of the information. “This is a classic example of source confusion, in which the content and the source become dissociated” (Loftus, 1997, p. 74). This is something that can easily happen for someone who has blocked out horrible events in their lives; they eventually remember bits and pieces and either remembers the whole thing or tries to work through them with a therapist and then the suggestions come in. Repressed and false memories are clearly possible and many of them are very accurate; however, individuals must be careful of what is being suggested to them by others if they want to get to the bottom of the memories they are experiencing.

The formation of false memories is truly possible. Loftus and Pickrell (1995) in their article “The Formation of False Memories,” state:

As Greene has aptly noted, memories do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they continually disrupt each other through a mechanism that we call ‘interference.’ Virtually thousands of studies have documented how our memories can be disrupted by things that we experienced earlier (proactive interference) or things that we experience later (retroactive interference) (p.720).

Our memories are able to be distorted by the things in which we have experienced and the things in which others suggest to us. Whether we have a clear memory of something that happened or not, misinformation given to us can easily help alter that memory and form a false memory. According to Loftus and Pickrell (1995), “in some experiments, the deficits in memory performance following receipt of misinformation have been dramatic, with performance differences as large as 30% or 40%” (p. 720). Loftus and Pickrell (1995) state an example of this where individuals were able to create a false memory of being lost based on misinformation or suggestions that they were given. One of the most common examples is getting lost. People may have actually been lost at some point in their lives and they could be confusing this actual event with the false memory description (Loftus & Pickrell, 1995, p. 724). This goes with what was said earlier. Many individuals may have a previous experience with something, but suggestions or misinformation allows them to falsely remember something that never happened. According to the authors, it is very easy to form a false memory and many individuals do not even know they are doing it. According to Loftus (1997), “without corroboration, it is very difficult to differentiate between false memories and true ones” (“Creating False Memories,” p. 71). There have been many investigations in which show us, that under the right circumstances, false memories are easily instilled in certain people. Yet, many false memories are authentic. Therefore, it is important to touch on how false memories are formed. Loftus (1997) states:

Research studies are beginning to give us an understanding of how false memories of complete, emotional and self-participatory experiences are created in adults. First, there are social demands on individuals to remember; for instance, researchers exert some pressure on participants in a study to come up with memories. Second, memory construction by imagining events can be explicitly encouraged when people are having trouble remembering. And, finally, individuals can be encouraged not to think about whether their constructions are real or not. Creation of false memories are most likely to occur when these external factors are present, whether this occurs in an experimental setting, in a therapeutic setting, or in everyday activities (“Creating False Memories,” p.74).

The reality of repressed memories is that it is completely possible; however, just because they are possible, does not mean that they are accurate. Many individuals experience many different things in their lives and, if they are traumatic, these individuals push these memories so deep down into their souls and so far back into their minds that they completely forget about them until they resurface later on in life. According to Loftus (1993), “the idea of repression of early traumatic memories is a concept that many psychotherapists readily accept” as repression is the foundation of psychoanalysis and these patients’ help them keep their jobs (p. 519). Many individuals who have been traumatized do not want to remember the bad parts of their lives, so they bury those emotions and memories deep down inside until they are forced to deal with them. However, some repressed memories are not authentic. It does not help that psychiatrists and psychologists also aid in this ability to create false memories. There have been many cases in which doctors have tricked their clients into false memories. Nadean Cool was one of these women. Elizabeth Loftus (1997) states:

During therapy, the psychiatrist used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to dig out buried memories of abuse that Cool herself had allegedly experienced. In the process, Cool became convinced that she had repressed memories of having been in a satanic cult, eating babies, of being raped, of having sex with animals, and of being forced to watch the murder of her eight-year-old friend. She came to believe that she had over 120 personalities – children, adults, angels and even a dull – all because, Cool was told, she had experienced severe childhood sexual and physical abuse. (“Creating False Memories,” p. 70).

Many therapists believe that repressed memories are true and real. Yet, Cara Laney and Elizabeth Loftus (2005) feel that the evidence to support this claim is flawed. The authors feel as if much more has to go into the recovery of memories so that they can be considered authentic. Laney and Loftus (2005) put this into perspective for their readers:

Some therapists and CSA researchers have argued that, when people experience repeated horrific events, they repress these experiences into the unconscious. Later, they are able to unearth the previously repressed (or dissociated) memories and become conscious of their prior brutalization. A more specific version of this process involves the claim that, when a person (particularly a child) experiences a traumatic event (particularly CSA), the person’s psyche splits into 2 or more separate parts. One part experiences the traumatic event; the other part continues to function normally, with no awareness of the abuse. Then, it is claimed, at some point in the future when it is safe for the person to put these half-psyches back together (and this is necessary because the trauma has begun to leak out in some other way), a therapist can help the person to ‘recover’ or reconstruct memories of the original trauma (p.823).

This is a perfect example of what might happen to a person who has gone through a traumatic event. However, the problem that many researchers such as Loftus have is that the therapist has the skills to create memories that are not completely accurate during therapy. What is interesting is that many memory experts believe that traumatic events produce better, not worse, memories than the everyday events that the individual may be experiencing. Traumatic experiences are not easy situations to forget and many can suffer from PTSD for many years. Finally, it is important to note that “source misattribution occurs when individuals integrate additional information about an event into their recollections but do not remember that the information did not come directly from their original experience with the event” (Schreiber, Wentura, & Bilsky, 2001, p. 527). Many individuals that are eye witnesses in criminal cases are subject to this kind of misinformation and it does not help anyone in the process. Therefore, it is important to note that not all memories are authentic and completely accurate, but they could still be there and they could have certainly really happened. That is the ugliness of repressed memories altogether.

Though many believe that repressed memory is possible, there is still controversy on the subject. Much can also be said about repressed memory and false memory in relation to traumatic events that occur throughout a person’s life. As stated earlier, many individuals try to block out the traumatic experiences of their lives. Traumatic memories are memories that many do not want to remember or deal with; therefore, they push them so far back in their minds that they do not have to think about them until it is time to deal with them (if they ever do). This is where false and repressed memory actually comes into play. According to Gerald M. Rosen, Marc Sageman, and Elizabeth Loftus (2004), “early studies (Munsterberg, 1908) and better controlled studies in the 1970’s (Loftus & Hoffman, 1989) showed that false details of an event can be planted through suggestive questioning, or other post-event exposure. Subsequent research has demonstrated that even an entire event can be fabricated in memory” (p. 138). As suggested from this, the controversy is there. Many can have traumatic experiences and still not have authentic memories of those experiences. According to Loftus (1994), many clinicians believe that part of their work is to help patients recover from repressed memory of traumatic experiences such as sexual or physical abuse. They feel as if it is somehow their responsibility to help these patients remember some of the things that they may not want to remember. “Indeed, claims about the commonness of repressed memories and the particular accuracy of de-repressed memories are freely made. These claims are being made despite the fact that the evidence for the delayed recovery of valid repressed memories is ‘rather thin’” (Loftus, 2012, p. 444).  There are some therapists that persuade their clients that the abuse never happened; however, there are also perpetrators that convince victims that it never happened as well (Lein, 1999, p. 481). According to Lein (1999), “a very effective way of denying or muting charges of sexual abuse is to focus on the so-called false memories. A very misleading term, false memory confuses two separate measures of memory: completeness and accuracy” (p. 482). It is said that, in most cases, the gist of memories are actually quite accurate and this pertains more to traumatic memories. However, “normal memory is more malleable and subject to constructivist distortion influences” as stated by Loftus and Ketcham in 1994 (Lein, 1999, p. 482). What is interesting is that false memory does not just occur with abuse. According to Loftus, Garry & Feldman (1994), individuals forget many things throughout their lives. “For example, people (over one quarter of those interviewed) have failed to recall automobile accidents 9 to 12 months after their occurrence, although someone else in the car had been injured” (p. 1179). Other incidents have been forgotten as well, such as hospitalization and deaths. Finally, it is important to understand that false memories could be there or could happen just because “the moral memories were more emotionally arousing” and many believe that this could make people susceptible to making things up (Escobedo and Adolphs, 2010, p. 516). However, this also says that the emotions that are emotionally arousing could also be less difficult to forget as emotions play a huge role in a person’s memory. It is very hard to distinguish which memories are true and really repressed from those that are false and have been implanted into someone’s memory. This is why therapists have to be ethical in their procedures in helping others who have to deal with such memories. So, it is important to understand that just because the memories are repressed does not mean that they are not real and does not mean that they are. This is something at therapists, investigators, doctors and others need to work on so they can help individuals that are suffering from memories of abuse and many other things.

False memories can also be formed through a person’s imagination. The imagination is a force to be reckoned with. “Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) demonstrated that people show increased confidence ratings that a possibly fictitious childhood event occurred after imagining an event” (Thomas & Loftus, 2002, p. 423). This is certainly possible. As children, we make up many stories and our imaginations go wild. After such imaginations work like this, the events are much more easily remembered. In support, according to Thomas & Loftus (2002) state imagination has the possibility to actually create false childhood memories, but that it can also trigger events that actually happened. To make this clear, it is possible that the triggering of a false memory could actually be something that happened in the past that has been pushed back into the unconscious mind (p. 423). Therefore, it is easy to see how imagination can be a blessing or a hindrance on the ideas of memory. It is how therapists and doctors decide to use these “images” or imaginations in order to prove or disprove a false memory. Therapists must be sensitive to this as Loftus states that they must be ethically inclined to do what is right by their patients.

False beliefs are a lot like false memories and do have behavioral consequences. According to Elke Geraerts, Daniel M. Bernstein, Harald Merckelbach, Christel Linders, Linsey Raymaekers, and Elizabeth Loftus (2008), “studies on false memories and beliefs, for example, have compellingly shown that misleading information can lead to the creation of recollections of entire events that have not occurred” (p.749). The one question, however, that many ask is whether false memories actually have an influence one someone’s short and long term behavior. According to Geraerts et al (2008), false memories do affect behavior. Geraerts et al (2008) state:

Recently, Bernstein, Laney, Morris and Loftus (2005a, 2005b) took the first steps toward and answering this question by developing a procedure for examining the effects of false childhood memories and beliefs. Their subjects received the false suggestion that they had become ill after eating a certain food (e.g., hard-boiled eggs, strawberry ice cream) when they were children. The false suggestion increased subjects’ confidence that the critical event had occurred. Moreover, the false belief resulted in decreased self-reported preference for the target food and increased anticipated behavioral avoidance of that food (p.749).

This being said, it is very easy for individuals to change how they react to something based on false memories or beliefs. If they believe bad things happened in their past, they are more apt to stay away from those things in the future. Geraerts et al (2008) completed a study to prove this idea. They used 180 first-year undergraduates for the study. For this study, they “randomly assigned subjects to one of two groups: subjects in the egg-salad group (n=120) received the false suggestion that they had gotten sick after eating egg salad as a child” (p. 750). The other 60 subjects remained in the control group and didn’t receive the false suggestion. After completion of several food-history inventories, food-preference questionnaires and party-behavior questionnaires, the researchers found the following:

Subjects were considered to have arguably true memories (a) if they both scored above the midpoint for the critical item on the food-history inventory during the first session and reported a belief or memory for the critical egg-salad event or (b) if their parents confirmed that they had gotten sick after eating egg salad as a child (p. 751).

The study truly shows that suggesting false ideas to someone can actually change the person’s behavior in the short and long term. These findings show this in this study and many others that have been done throughout the years.

In conclusion, the reader should understand the ideas and complications with memory and how many are not accurate all of the time. Examples show that therapists have the tendency and the ability to distort a patient’s memory so much that these patients believe that they were never traumatized or that they were extremely traumatized. Therefore, it is important to understand some of the things that therapists should do and not do when helping clients who may have false or repressed memories. These include helping the client open the therapeutic window to find some balance between the denial phase and the intrusive phase as well as letting the client set the agenda; the therapist should not do this. It is not up to him or her. According to Loftus (1994), clinicians should focus on functioning rather than uncovering memories, not suggest things to their clients, guard against their own personal bias as this may contaminate the session, and be cautious of hypnosis. They should also encourage the use of behavioral and pharmalogical therapies as these are there to minimize the occurrence of false memories and false diagnoses (p. 445). If clinicians are to do these things and accept patients as they are, the idea of false memories may not even have to occur. Patients may actually finally start to uncover memories that are true, concise and accurate and will eventually be able to deal with the repressed memories they have felt for so long.

Escobedo, J. R., & Adolphs, R. (2010). Becoming a better person: Temporal remoteness biases autobiographical memories for moral events. American psychological association , 10 (4), 511-518. doi: 10.1037/a0018723

Geraerts, E., Bernstein, D. M., Merckelbach, H., Linders, C., Raymaekers, L., & Loftus, E. F.

(2008). Lasting false beliefs and their behavioral consequences. Association of  psychological science , 19 (8), 749-753.

Laney, C., & Loftus, E. F. (2005). Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories. Can J. Psychiatry , 50 (13), 823-828.

Lein, J. (1999). Recovered memories: Context and controversy. Social work , 44 (5), 481-490. doi: 0037-8046/99

Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American , 277 , 70-75. Retrieved from http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/garry/psyc322/readings.html

Loftus, E. F., Garry, M., & Feldman, J. (1994). Forgetting sexual trauma: What does it mean when 38% forget? Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 62 (6), 1177-1181.

Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American psychologist , 48 (5), 518-537.

Loftus, E. F. (1994). The repressed memory controversy. American psychologist , 49 (5), 443-445. Retrieved from http://us.mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.Rand=fl3d6relg98hc

Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric annals , 25 (12), 720-725.

Rosen, G. M., Sageman, M., & Loftus, E. F. (2004). A historical note on false traumatic memories. Journal of clinical psychology , 60 (1), 137-139. doi: 10.1002/jclp.10232

Schreiber, N., Wentura, D., & Bilsky, W. (2001). “What else could he have done?” creating false answers in child witnesses by inviting speculation. Journal of applied psychology , 86 (3), 525-532.

Thomas, A. K., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Creating bizarre false memories through imagination. Memory and cognition , 30 (3), 423-431.

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False Memory In Psychology: Examples & More

Ayesh Perera

B.A, MTS, Harvard University

Ayesh Perera, a Harvard graduate, has worked as a researcher in psychology and neuroscience under Dr. Kevin Majeres at Harvard Medical School.

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Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

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In psychology, a false memory refers to a mental experience that’s remembered as factual but is either entirely false or significantly different from what actually occurred. These can be small details, like misremembering the color of a car, or more substantial, like entirely fabricated events. They can be influenced by suggestion, misattribution, or other cognitive distortions.

Key Takeaways

• False memory is a psychological phenomenon whereby an individual recalls an actual occurrence substantially differently from how it transpired or an event that never even happened.
• Interference, leading questions, obsessive-compulsive disorder, false memory syndrome, and sleep deprivation can cause false memories.
• Pioneered by the work of Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet , research on false memory has immensely benefitted from the contributions of the American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth F. Lotus.
• False memory has manifold real-world implications ranging from false convictions in court proceedings to accidental manslaughter.

False memory is a psychological phenomenon whereby an individual recalls an event that never happened, or an actual occurrence substantially differently from the way it transpired.

In other words, a false memory could either be an entirely imaginary fabrication or a distorted recollection of an actual event. Moreover, false memories are distinct from simple errors in recollection.

Firstly, an individual who holds a false memory maintains some certitude in the veracity of the memory.  Secondly, a false memory deals not with forgetting something that actually happened but with remembering what had never taken place.

Instances of this phenomenon may range from the mundane—such as remembering that you ate breakfast when you actually did not, to the serious—such as falsely recalling that your boss assaulted you.

Examples of False Memory

• Recalling a childhood trip to Disneyland that never actually happened.
• Remembering being lost in a mall as a child, even if this event didn’t occur.
• Misremembering the details of a crime scene after being influenced by leading questions or post-event information.
• Believing that you locked the door before leaving home when you didn’t.
• Remembering a word or item from a list that was never presented because it was similar to the presented items.
• Confusing the source of information, such as believing a dream event happened in reality.
• Remembering that a news event was reported on one channel when it was actually reported on a different one.

Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event or detail one way, but it actually occurred differently.

It’s named after the instance where many people falsely remembered that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, while he actually passed away in 2013.

This collective misremembering is an example of false memory, highlighting how memory isn’t perfect and can be influenced by societal factors, misinformation, or misconceptions.

Causes of False Memories

False memories can stem from a variety of sources. Following are some of them.

Interference

The distortion of the memory of the original event by the new information can be described as retroactive interference (Robinson-Riegler & Robinson-Riegler, 2004).

In other words, the new information interferes with the ability to preserve the formerly encoded information. The effect of misinformation, which has been a subject of investigation since the 1970s, demonstrates two significant shortfalls of memory (Saudners & MacLeod, 2002).

Firstly, the weakness of suggestibility reveals how others’ expectations can shape our memory. Secondly, the drawback of misattribution unveils how the memory can misidentify the origin of a recollection.

These findings have raised serious concerns about the reliability and permanence of memory.

Leading Questions

Misleading information is incorrect information given to the witness, usually after the event. It can have many sources, for example, the use of leading questions in police interviews, or it can be acquired by post-event discussion with other witnesses or other people (Weiten, 2010).

When the eyewitnesses of an event are questioned immediately following the pertinent incident, the memorial representation of what had just transpired could be significantly altered (Loftus, 1975).

Leading questions are questions that are asked in such a way as to suggest an expected answer. For example: Did you see the man crossing the road?

The word “the” suggests that there was a man crossing the road. A non-leading question in this case could have been, “Did you see anybody crossing the road?”

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

It is possible for individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder ( OCD ) to have memory deficits or poor confidence in their memories (Robinson, 2020).

This disorder, which can stem from the abnormal responses of certain brain regions to serotonin , is a condition characterized by irrational and excessive urges to act in certain ways as well as give into repetitive and unwanted thoughts.

Because individuals with this condition are less likely to have confidence in their own memories, they are more likely to create false memories, which in turn, lead to compulsive and repetitive behaviors.

False Memory Syndrome

False memory syndrome is a condition in which an individual’s identity and relationships are influenced by factually incorrect recollections which are, nonetheless, strongly believed (McHugh, 2008; Schacter, 2002).

This condition may result from the controversial recovered memory therapy, which utilizes various interviewing techniques such as hypnosis, sedative-hypnotic drugs, and guided imagery to supposedly help patients recover forgotten memories that are purportedly buried in their subconscious minds.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is considered to provide the optimum neurobiological conditions conducive to the consolidation of long-term memories (Diekelmann, Landolt, Lahl, Born & Wagner, 2008).

Moreover, sleep deprivation is known to acutely impair the retrieval of stored recollections.

One study tested whether false memories could be invented based on a consolidation-related reorganization of new memory representations over post-learning sleep or as an acute retrieval-associated phenomenon induced by sleep deprivation during memory testing.

The results suggested that sleep deprivation at retrieval could enhance false memories. However, the administration of caffeine prior to retrieval was found to offset this effect.

This may imply that adenosinergic mechanisms could help generate false memories, which are associated with sleep deprivation.

The initial research on false memory was pioneered by Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet (Gleaves, Smith, Butler & Spiegel, 2006). Even though Freud’s assertions on psychoanalysis have been discredited by many, his emphasis on memory continues to elicit attention (Knafo, 2009).

Moreover, Janet Pierre’s discussion of memory retrieval via hypnosis and dissociation continues play a foundational role in the field of false memory (Zongwill, 2019). The most significant contributions to the research on false memory, however, seemed to have begun with the work of the American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth F. Lotus.

In 1974, Elizabeth Loftus and John C. Palmer conducted two experiments in which the participants viewed videos of automobile accidents and answered follow-up questions (Loftus & Palmer, 1974).

The question inquiring how fast the automobiles were moving when they ‘smashed’ into each other procured higher estimates of speed than the queries that employed verbs such as ‘bumped,’ ‘contacted,’ ‘collided,’ or ‘hit,’ instead of ‘smashed.’

Furthermore, a week later, the subjects who had received the question containing ‘smashed’ were more likely to indicate that they had also seen broken glass in the scene, although the video did not show any broken glass. These results seemed to imply that the questions asked following an event could add falsity to one’s memory of that event.

Another research study conducted more recently by Kathryn Braun, Rhiannon Ellis, and Elizabeth Loftus explored whether autobiographical advertising used by marketers to induce nostalgia for products could cause people eventually believe that they themselves had had the experiences demonstrated in the advertisements (Braun, Ellis & Loftus, 2002).

In the study, the subjects viewed advertisements suggesting that they had shaken hands with either Mickey Mouse or some imaginary character. In both instances, the ads seemed to enhance the confidence of the subjects that they had actually shaken hands with these characters.

While the encounter with Mickey Mouse could be true, the experience with the imaginary character could not be true [since the character had been invented solely for the study]. These results seemed to demonstrate that autobiographical referencing, especially in advertisements, could create distorted or false memories in the minds of the viewers.

Another study examined the links among the techniques and procedures to which false memory describes outcomes (Bernstein, Scoboria, Desjarlais & Soucie, 2018).

These procedures and techniques include subscribing to the belief that the false event transpired, accepting the misinformation following the event, and recognizing the crucial lures in the DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) procedure.

The results seemed to suggest that a statistically reliable yet weak correlation may be present between the suggestion of the false event and misinformation following the event and between the DRM intrusions and the misinformation following the event.

The correlation between the suggestion of the false event and the DRM intrusions, however, seemed inconsistent as well as weak.

The outcome of the study implies that the abovementioned effects are shaped by underlying independent mechanisms, and that the term false memory wants precision and needs qualification.

Real-World Implications

Despite the obvious shortfalls of memory, people often assume that recollections of stressful and violent events are encoded well enough for effective and accurate retrieval (Lacy & Stark, 2013).

However, evidence from neuroscience studies and psychological research demonstrate that memory embodies a reconstructive process which is vulnerable to distortion. Consequently, common misunderstandings—such as, that memory is more reliable than it actually is, can lead to serious consequences especially in courtroom settings.

The case Ramona v. Isabella , for instance, dealt with a supposedly false memory implanted by two therapists in their patient, Holly Ramona (La Ganga, 1994).

Her father, Gary Ramona, successfully sued the two psychiatrists whom he accused of having implanted memories of incestual abuse into his daughter following the administration of sodium amytal (a hypnotic drug).

In 1994, the jury voted 10-2 in favor of the father, who was also awarded $500 000 corresponding to the damages and losses he had suffered following the false allegation that he sexually abused his daughter.

In another incident, a woman named Lyn Balfour was charged with second-degree murder, child abuse, felony, and neglect for leaving Bryce, her nine-month-old son, to die in a hot car (Balfour, 2012).

Following a thorough investigation, however, the jury determined that Balfour was not guilty of murder.

Conversely, it was concluded that she had had the false memory of dropping off her son at the babysitter’s, which she was in the habit of doing as part of her routine.

Learning Check

Which of the following is most likely to be a false memory?

• Remembering that you brushed your teeth this morning. (Unlikely)
• Recalling the exact words of a conversation you had a year ago. (Possible)
• Remembering the color of your childhood friend’s bicycle. (Possible)
• Recalling being abducted by aliens when you were a child. (Most Likely)
• Remembering the taste of the cake at your birthday party last week. (Unlikely)

The correct answer would be “Recalling being abducted by aliens when you were a child,” as it’s the most likely to be a false memory due to its extraordinary and improbable nature.

Balfour, Lyn (20 Jan. 2012) “Experience: My Baby Died in a Hot Car.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/20/my-baby-died-in-hot-car.

Bernstein, D. M., Scoboria, A., Desjarlais, L., & Soucie, K. (2018). “False memory” is a linguistic convenience. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5 (2), 161.

Braun, K. A., Ellis, R., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Make my memory: How advertising can change our memories of the past . Psychology & Marketing, 19 (1), 1-23.

Diekelmann, S., Landolt, H. P., Lahl, O., Born, J., & Wagner, U. (2008). Sleep loss produces false memories. PloS one, 3 (10), e3512.

Gleaves, D. H., Smith, S. M., Butler, L. D., & Spiegel, D. (2004). False and recovered memories in the laboratory and clinic: A review of experimental and clinical evidence. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11 (1), 3-28.

Knafo, D. (2009). Freud’s memory erased. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 26 (2), 171–190.

La Ganga, Maria L. (1994-05-14). “Father Wins Suit in “False Memory” Case”. Los Angeles Times.

Lacy, J. W., & Stark, C. E. (2013). The neuroscience of memory: implications for the courtroom. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14 (9), 649-658.

Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report . Cognitive psychology, 7 (4), 560-572.

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction : An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 13 (5), 585-589.

McHugh, P. R (2008). Try to remember: Psychiatry’s clash over meaning, memory and mind . Dana Press.

Robinson, Dana (20 Mar. 2020). “Everything You Want to Know About OCD.” Healthline, Healthline Media, www.healthline.com/health/ocd/social-signs.

Robinson-Riegler, B., & Robinson-Riegler, G. (2016). Cognitive psychology: Applying the science of the mind . Pearson.

Saunders, J., & MacLeod, M. D. (2002). New evidence on the suggestibility of memory: The role of retrieval-induced forgetting in misinformation effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8 (2), 127.

Schacter, D. L. (2002). The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers . Houghton: Mifflin Harcourt

Weiten, W. (2010). Psychology: Themes and Variations: Themes and Variations . Cengage Learning.

Further Information

Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American, 277 (3), 70-75.

Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories.

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The false memory syndrome: Experimental studies and comparison to confabulations

False memories, or recollections that are factually incorrect but strongly believed, remain a source of confusion for both psychiatrists and neurologists. We propose model for false memories based on recent experimental investigations, particularly when analyzed in comparison to confabulations, which are the equivalent of false memories from neurological disease. Studies using the Deese/Roedinger–McDermott experimental paradigm indicate that false memories are associated with the need for complete and integrated memories, self-relevancy, imagination and wish fulfillment, familiarity, emotional facilitation, suggestibility, and sexual content. In comparison, confabulations are associated with the same factors except for emotional facilitation, suggestibility, and sexual content. Both false memories and confabulations have an abnormal sense of certainty for their recollections, and neuroanatomical findings implicate decreased activity in the ventromedial frontal lobe in this certainty. In summary, recent studies of false memories in comparison to confabulations support a model of false memories as internally-generated but suggestible and emotionally-facilitated fantasies or impulses, rather than repressed memories of real events. Furthermore, like confabulations, in order for false memories to occur there must be an attenuation of the normal, nonconscious, right frontal “doubt tag” regarding their certainty.

Introduction

False memories are semantic or autobiographic memories that did not occur. The existence of false memories is a challenge not only to our self-perceived ability to record truth and report it according to some objective standard, but also raises questions of nonconscious motivations. The understanding of false memories is not only important as a window to the nonconscious but can also lead to basic insights into the mechanisms of memory. In fact, a complete picture of memory is unlikely to emerge without a better understanding of the phenomenon of false memories.

For psychiatrists, the nature of false memories has remained controversial since Freud’s time. When Freud visited Charcot in 1886, Charcot had already concluded that many of his patients’ neurologically inexplicable symptoms and signs were connected to traumatic memories that were not entirely available to consciousness [ 1 ]. This view, when combined with his friend Breuer’s work with “Anna O”., would germinate in Freud’s first major publication, the “Studies in Hysteria” of 1895 [ 1 ]. In this work, he describes the almost uniform assertion, probably made during a state of altered consciousness if not hypnosis, of paternal incest on the part of his young female clients, all of whom disclaimed any conscious awareness of these events. Freud subsequently repudiated the notion that these events had literally occurred. He eventually concluded that the reported “seduction” was the manifestation of imagination and fantasy related to latent infantile sexuality rather than the repressed memory of an actual event.

The “recovered memory” movement that began over three decades ago assumed that the incest described by Freud’s patients was real, and that this reality was falsely rejected by Freud. This paved the way for a decade of “uncovering” of memories, whose technique, particularly in children, was fraught with suggestion, and which culminated in bizarre and tragic phenomena such as the McMartin Preschool case of the late 80’s in which innocent adults were falsely imprisoned on the basis of children’s suggested “memories” of often lurid and theatrical sexual abuse [ 2 ]. In the wake of these events, investigators demonstrated that false or altered memories of events, even very traumatic ones, can be endorsed as “real” by otherwise normal people [ 3 – 8 ]. Given certain situations, normal adults have reported false memories or even provide false confessions. We now know that a spectrum of false memories is common, and investigators are beginning to define the mechanisms of false memories in normal individuals, particularly in comparison to neurological patients.

For neurologists, a potential source of understanding of false memories is confabulation from brain disease. Confabulations are false statements without a conscious effort to deceive occurring in clear consciousness in association with neurological disease [ 9 ]. They are “honest lying” as confabulators are unaware of the falsehood of their statements. The most common confabulations are provoked or momentary, simple, or minor errors in content or temporal order often elicited by questions about the past [ 9 – 11 ]. Other, uncommon confabulations are spontaneous, fantastic, grandiose, bizarre, or patently impossible statements [ 11 , 12 ]. Neurological causes of confabulations include Wernicke–Korsakoff’s syndrome, ruptured communicating artery aneurysms especially anterior, strategic diencephalic strokes, traumatic brain injury, herpes and other encephalitides, nicotinic acid deficiency, multiple sclerosis with frontal and parietal lesions, hypoxic-ischemic injury such as from attempted hanging, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and frontotemporal dementia.

Hypothesis/theory

We advance a model of characteristics and underlying mechanisms for false memories. Many recent experimental investigations of this phenomenon in normal people, along with related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, are clarifying our understanding of the false memory syndrome. Because of the similarities to the neurological phenomena of confabulations, we compare and contrast the findings of these false memory studies with our current understanding of the basis of confabulations. Although the comparison is imperfect, as there can be dissociations between false memories and confabulations [ 13 ], this comparison does amplify our ability to logically infer underlying neurobiological aspects of false memories. We propose that the sum of the scientific information indicates an origin of false memories consistent with Freud’s formulation as originating in internally-generated fantasies or impulses, rather than repressed memories of real events. Our model additionally requires a second step. After the false memory is generated, the subject accepts it because of an attenuation of an automatic, nonconscious sense of uncertainty, mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). What follows is an evaluation of this model in light of current experimental studies on false memories compared to the related neurological phenomena of confabulations.

Evaluation of evidence from false memory experiments

A broadly-accepted experimental paradigm to measure false memory did not emerge until the advent of the Deese/Roedinger– McDermott paradigm (DRM) [ 14 ]. DRM experiments demonstrate the pervasiveness of false memories both to prompting and free recall, and allow manipulation of the variables contributing to the phenomenon. In the DRM paradigm, the investigator presents a list of semantically-related items (e.g., bed, rest, pillow, night), followed, after an interval, by a previously non-presented but thematically-related “lure” item (e.g., sleep). These “lures” are often falsely endorsed, embellished, or even freely-recalled. This DRM response occurs in normal people and is influenced by many conditions, including the number of items in the list and their degree of semantic relatedness [ 15 ]; attentional distraction and forewarning of the effect [ 16 ]; the medium (verbal, visual) in which the information is presented [ 17 ]; the age and cognitive status of the subject [ 18 ], and nonconscious cognitive factors [ 5 ].

The results from recent DRM studies reveal several pertinent factors that promote false memories. We have interpreted and summarized them into seven categories. DRM responses are associated with increased: (1) Need for complete and integrated memories as reflected in an exaggerated tendency for completion or “filling-in” of incomplete memories and in the inclusion of increased and more coherent context [ 19 – 22 ]. (2) Imagination and fantasy-proneness, wish fulfillment, magical thinking, self-reported anomalies of experience, and vivid imagery schema [ 8 , 23 – 26 ]. (3) Familiarity including prior exposure and incidental or indirect encoding [ 3 , 4 , 27 – 31 ]. (4) Self-relevance measures including autobiographical information and items related to survival [ 32 – 34 ]. (5) Emotional-facilitation from events, pictures, and words in normal and stress situations [ 6 , 7 , 35 – 42 ]. (6) Suggestibility or the ability to plant or indoctrinate false memories, such as in false confessions or overheard rumors [ 43 , 44 ]. Finally, in addition to support from the DRM literature [ 45 ], there are the previously noted psychoanalytic findings showing an increased sexual content of false memories [ 46 ].

In addition to the DRM findings, there are three prominent theories of false memories that need consideration. First of all, memory is constructive in nature so that it sometimes leads to the retrieval of distorted illusory information because of abnormal or biased reconstruction [ 47 ]. Memory is recast and actively modified with every retrieval or “reconsolidation” [ 48 ], and false memories may be emotionally-facilitated by increasing the storage of “free-floating” memory fragments that are poorly located in time, space, and context. Second, the “Fuzzy-Trace” theory posits different levels of encoding including a less stable “verbatim” level with fast decay and a “gist” level with slow decay [ 49 ]. False memories may result from over-endorsement and interpretation of “gist” appropriate items on recall. Third, the Source-Monitoring Theory predicts errors according to the internal versus external source of the encoded memory [ 50 ]. Upon recall, a false expectancy of source occurs based on the usual context for that type of memory, resulting in a false source memory, e.g., of an external, versus internallygenerated, trace. There are many additional theories of false memories, but these three have support from experimental and neuroanatomical research.

FMRI studies of false memories point to prefrontal cortex, particularly ventromedial and in the right hemisphere, as involved in false memories. False recognition correlate negatively with grey matter density in prefrontal areas (Brodmann’s areas 9 and 47) [ 51 ]. Although the left prefrontal cortex is involved in both true and false memories [ 52 ], the processing of false information is associated with stronger activations in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area involved in decoupling in false belief attribution [ 53 ]. False recollections result in activations mainly in the right prefrontal cortex [ 42 ], and the false recollection rate is much higher for right hemisphere compared to left hemisphere presentations [ 42 ]. In contrast, the left prefrontal cortex is activated during pretending to know relative to correct rejection and false recognition [ 54 ]. An exception to this laterality may be age-related false memories, which have greater processing in the left ventrolateral prefrontal and superior and lateral temporal areas [ 18 , 55 ]. High-confidence responses for false recognition or false memories are associated with frontoparietal activity and the associated superior longitudinal fasciculus [ 17 , 52 , 56 , 57 ]. The right anterior hippocampus is activated during false recognition relative to correct rejection and pretending to know [ 54 ]. In contrast, the left mesial temporal lobe may contribute to true memories, but not to false memories [ 52 , 56 ]. Electrophysiological studies also indicate that hippocampal and associated mesial temporal lobe activity is more characteristic of true memories than false ones [ 58 , 59 ].

Evaluation of evidence from confabulations

Confabulations usually result from a combination of memory impairment and frontal-executive dysfunction in brain disease [ 13 , 60 ]. Since confabulations affect remote memory, the memory impairment must involve retrieval mechanisms and reconstructive memory processes [ 61 ]. In spontaneous confabulations, however, the memory difficulty goes beyond just a cover up of memory gaps. Moreover, since patients accept confabulations as real, the frontal-executive dysfunction must involve impairment in self-monitoring, which is usually mediated by medial and orbital frontal regions. The frontal executive dysfunction also contributes to the memory impairment dysfunction through disturbances in the organization for retrieval, temporal ordering of memories, and post-retrieval monitoring of recovered memories [ 10 , 62 – 64 ].

The results of studies on neurological patients with confabulations parallel the findings on normal subjects on the DRM protocol. We have interpreted and summarized them. Confabulations are associated with increased: (1) need for completion and integration as reflected in the occurrence of completion errors with momentary confabulations and plausible but false answers created to fill in gaps in memory or coherence [ 10 ]. (2) Vivid imagination, fantasy-proneness, wish fulfillment, embellishment, and story or myth-telling with spontaneous confabulations, which arise from internally-generated events or ideas and tend to be pleasant and self-enhancing [ 60 , 65 , 66 ]. (3) Familiarity including prior and incidental exposures is implied in much of the literature, although there is little dedicated research with confabulations [ 9 , 12 , 60 , 62 ]. (4) Self-relevance measures including an inability to retrieve autobiographical information systematically in spontaneous confabulations [ 60 , 67 ]. Confabulation serve important functions of self-coherence (coherent self-narrative), self-monitoring(oneself in relation to the world), or self-enhancement [ 67 ]. In contrast to false memories, there is little or no information supporting emotion-facilitation, suggestibility, or a sexual theme in confabulations.

In addition to these characteristics, there are three prominent theories of confabulations that further clarify these findings. First of all, confabulations may result from inability to suppress irrelevant memory traces or to keep from “uploading” anticipated memories [ 68 ]. They fail in the extinction of previously appropriate anticipations [ 11 ], probably resulting in confusion of untrue memories with true memories [ 12 ]. Second, confabulations, like false memories, may be due to source monitoring deficits in context, reality, or time leading to inability to correctly bind memory traces and the incorrect mixing of unrelated memory traces [ 50 ]. Source monitoring deficits impair the ability to distinguish real memories from internally-generated thoughts or imaged events with a tendency to identify imagined events as externally driven [ 10 , 60 ]. Third, confabulations may result from deficient strategic retrieval or deficits in the control of memory retrieval [ 64 , 69 ]. In addition to the retrieval of incorrect “memories”, there is a disordered ability to accurately evaluate the retrieved memories which involves an intuitive, fast, automatic “feeling of rightness”, followed, if necessary, by a conscious, slow, effortful checking process [ 10 , 61 , 70 ]. In confabulation, there may be an abnormal feeling of rightness, or the absence of a “doubt tag” [ 70 ], resulting in an incorrect certainty or conviction and failure to subsequently perform a conscious checking process for the veracity of the confabulation [ 61 , 63 , 70 ].

Similar to false memories, neuroanatomical studies of confabulation have pointed to prefrontal regions of involvement. These studies have shown orbital and medial frontal cortical disease [ 71 – 73 ]. VMPFC lesions result in disturbed source monitoring with temporal context and content confusions [ 72 ]. The VMPFC is particularly involved in the retrieval and production of a narrative and in the feeling of rightness [ 64 ]. Failure of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) mechanisms may additionally result in an inability to suppress the interference of memories that do not pertain to ongoing reality [ 74 ]. Spontaneous confabulations may require damage to both the VMPFC and OFC with a faulty doubt tag and disinhibition [ 10 ]. Other work has shown that the right ventromedial/orbitofrontal area adds an emotional tag to experience and monitors the appropriateness of decisions [ 75 ], whereas, work with split-brain patients has shown that the left hemisphere engages in “storytelling” [ 76 ].

Consequences and discussion

Recent interest in false memory, which began in neurology and detoured for many years into psychiatry, has lead to studies that can clarify their underlying characteristics, particularly in comparison to confabulations. The DRM model provides a testable paradigm for examining what we now recognize to be a normal degree of false memory creation in normal adults as well as children. The spontaneous generation and embellishment of false responses in the DRM protocol, coupled with the confabulations or the neurological equivalent of false memories, illuminate processes that are unique to false memories. These include emotional facilitation, suggestibility, and sexual content. Similar to confabulations, there is probable attenuation of a right VMPFC doubt tag. Several theories of false memories and confabulations have some validity and cannot be discounted, including impaired reconsolidation of memories, the Fuzzy-Trace focus on the “gist” with dilapidation of the details, source monitoring deficits, failure to suppress irrelevant memory traces, and problems with strategic retrieval.

There are significant similarities between false memories and confabulations. Both false memories and confabulations are facilitated by the need for integrated and complete memories, the familiarity of the material, and the presence of self-relevant or autobiographical content. False memories and spontaneous confabulations tend to have content that is influenced by imagination and fantastic thinking with elaborative characteristics and fanciful personal narratives [ 12 ]. The neuroanatomical information regarding false memories and confabulations points to dysfunction in the VMPFC. Other information and lesions implicate the right frontal lobe more than the left in this process [ 76 ].

There are significant differences between false memories and confabulations. Emotional-facilitation is prominent in false memories but not confabulations. Emotions may overwhelm or supersede the feelings of uncertainty, or doubt tag, for an incorrect memory. Suggestibility appears to be another factor in false memories but not in confabulations. This could be a factor for confabulations as well, but may not be evident because of the presence of memory impairment. More difficult to explain is the reason why false memories, as opposed to confabulations, tend to drift to sexual themes. Wishful ideations are powerful generators of positive biases in the content of confabulations, but they are usually not associated with lurid sexual content. Freud was in the end struck by the monotonous and stereotyped quality of the sexual content. Moreover, a phenomenon, such as Facilitated Communication where communication in an impaired person may be suggested by subliminal cues from the facilitator [ 77 ], has resulted in very similar sexual content. From these observations, it appears that sexual material spontaneously emerges from the nonconscious of normal adults without their knowledge. We must conclude that there is at least some evidence to suggest a broad tendency towards sexuality in the creation of false memories.

The very notion of false memory stands as a challenge to our self-image as rational, veridical reporters of actual events, as human tape recorders or cameras. Add to this the further possibility that what we remember may be emotionally-facilitated or a product not only of suggestion but even of fantasy – fantasy of the most inadmissible sort, unavailable to consciousness – and it is little wonder that the main currents of memory research have until fairly recently passed it by as something dark. Insights from DRM studies and confabulations in brain disease may be the key to a better understanding of false memories. In turn, such understanding is bound to yield further insights into memory in general. There are potential clinical and legal implications of this model of false memories as well. Finally, there are many implications of this model of false memories for future research including the testing of fantastic thinking and imagination, implanted imaginings as sources of false memory, and the manipulation of the feelings of uncertainty, or doubt tag, during DRM experiments.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grant #R01AG034499-02.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

False Memories

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Although memories seem to be a solid, straightforward sum of who people are, strong evidence suggests that memories are much more quite complex, highly subject to change, and often simply unreliable. Memories of past events can be reconstructed as people age or as their worldview changes. People regularly recall childhood events falsely, and through effective suggestions and other methods, it's been proven that they can even create new false memories.

• Why False Memories Are Common
• Why Memories Matter
• How Misinformation Is Easily Spread
• How to Spot Fake News

A person’s malleable memories often involve the mundane, such as when we second-guess whether the stove really is off or on. But they can often be far more consequential, such as unreliable eyewitness recollections of a crime .

Human memory is pliable and easy to manipulate. A distorted memory or the introduction of later, false information can affect how we recall events we experienced firsthand. A person's existing knowledge can impede and obstructs their own memory, leading to a newly formed, cobbled-together recollection that does not accurately reflect reality. Also, under certain circumstances, a person can be given false information and be convinced to believe that an event that never occurred actually did.

Given that our recovered memories may be genuine or false, or a combination of the two, it is legitimate to question just how much of what you remember is real and how much is a misperception.

Without material evidence, it’s hard to know for sure whether a memory is real or imagined. Even if you feel high conviction that a recollection is true, there is a high chance that the memory is flawed , by a little or a lot.

Just as a recollection can be altered into a false memory, it can be reversed as well. If you return to the memory and think closely about its details, you may be able to recreate the event over time. Through such a process, you reroute the false memory to a true one.

A malleable memory can have especially dire consequences, particularly in legal settings when children are used as eyewitnesses. Research has found that a child may be especially susceptible to the implanting of false memories by parents or other authority figures. This becomes highly problematic when a case involves alleged sexual abuse or relies on the correct identification of a suspect by a child. But adults can also be tricked into remembering events that never happened, or changing the details of things that really did happen.

Presented with incomplete information, the brain seeks to fill in the blanks. If you see a photo of a person you have never met, for example, and mutual friends have shared descriptive details on time spent with the person, you may start to believe that you have in fact met the individual.

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine, an influential researcher on memory who has consulted on many high-profile legal cases involving disputed memories, including the McMartin preschool sexual abuse allegations, notes that everyone embellishes or adds to their memories during recall or recounting. Over time those changes, accurate or not, become part of the memory in the mind. Loftus warns that human memory is not a recording device, but more like a Wikipedia page: You can change it, but others can, too.

Most people struggle to recall events before the age of about 3 or 4, a phenomenon called childhood amnesia . In the first few years of life, a child’s body undergoes the process of neurogenesis, or the growth and development of nervous tissue. New nerve cells develop, and old cells get recycled or reformed, taking childhood memories away with them.

On the internet, almost anyone claiming objectivity or impartiality can disseminate false memories through the dissemination of specious information. Misinformation, or "fake news," has become ubiquitous through media such as doctored videos and photoshopped images as well as fabricated text. Such misinformation is especially persuasive with audiences who already harbor biases endorsed by the inaccurate messages.

Several recent events have proven that memory can become weaponized , often quite effectively. Once misinformation taken hold in a target's mind, that new, false recollection hinders his or her ability to make informed decisions about policy and politicians. Fake news drives social discord and character assassination, and even corrupts crucial personal choices about health and well-being.

Biased thinking molds the way we remember. We all employ bias when perceiving, interpreting, and remembering information and events. This effect extends to the ways in which we tap our memories for information about fake news .

In a study, researchers doctored images of well-known events and found that indeed a person’s recollection of even universally known, iconic events can be altered.

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Parents with mentally ill adult children suffer with ongoing feelings of worry and guilt. They may be especially worried and guilt-ridden if their child cuts off contact.

Our memory reflects our motives and is subject to external influences and manipulation. The fallibility of our memory is magnified exponentially in the social media era.

A recent paper discusses the biases involved in how perpetrators, victims, and witnesses recall and explain aggressive behaviors.

An interview with neuroscientist Daniela Schiller about the mechanisms underlying trauma and how trauma experiences can differ.

An interview with neuroscientist Daniela Schiller about how current neuroscience research relates to psychotherapy and the close connection between memory and narrative.

Eyewitness memories are not generated by perception alone; individual differences, personal experience, and emotion play major roles in their formation.

In previous posts, we have seen that details can be inadvertently altered or created in eyewitness accounts, but such accidental errors can also occur on a much larger scale.

A recent film offers a startlingly intimate study of the aftermath of a once-popular but now disfavored approach.

Most of what you think you know about hypnosis is wrong.

Confusion of the sources of evidence can plague the criminal justice system. Historical examples outside the forensic realm can shed light on the psychology of this problem.

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False Memories, Their Causes and Implications

Introduction, how false memories are formed, implications on the nature of memory, causes of accidental or intentional memory.

False memories are remembrances of events and experiences that never occurred, or they denote event recalls of incidences that occurred differently from how one perceives them. Through the use of findings from researches, analyses, and theoretical frameworks, it can be shown that false memories arise from coaching or accidental association of the event with other occurrences in the subject’s life.

Loftus and Pickrell (1995) carried out research among twenty-four Washington university students. They collected information from the participant’s relatives about their childhood experiences. All subjects were expected to give additional details on what they remembered about four events in their childhood. One of these events (the third one) was a false event. A follow-up interview of the participants was done; they were expected to give more details about the events. Another interview was done after the first one. Participants were told that they had been deceived and asked to identify the false event among the four.

It was found that seven of the twenty-four subjects remembered the false memory. When debriefed about the experiment, five subjects wrongly identified some of the true events as false ones. The study, therefore, illustrated that people could be led to remember events that never took place through suggestion. The participants were given cues from the interviewers and took this as background information. The cues were probably general knowledge from other experiences. It was hypothesized by the authors that the false information given must have been stored by the participants together with the background or schematic knowledge.

Afterward, when asked to recall the false event, the subjects then combined the false event with the schematic knowledge and formed one component, which is the pseudo memory. False memories are thus created through suggestion and association with long term memory.

Hyman et al. (1995) also explain that the social demands of an interview process have a direct effect on the way false memories are formed. In their study, the researchers explained to their subjects that they were expected to recall certain components of the experiment, which placed a lot of pressure on them. Similarly, patients in therapeutic settings may also be under pressure to recall certain events if demands are placed upon them by their therapists.

When more than one external person claims that the false event is true (as was the case in the interview), the chances are that the subject will also believe it is true. The parent of the interviewee as well as the experimenter both affirmed that the false event had occurred. This placed a lot of pressure on the subject to agree with the majority that the event had occurred.

Furthermore, people tend to treat their parents as powerful authority figures. The experimenter is also respected highly by the interviewee, thus illustrating why the subject is likely to believe him or her. It has been shown that when social demands are combined with ambiguous stimuli, then the subject is likely to bow to social demands. In the research carried out by Hyman et al. (1995), the subject under discussion was a childhood experience. The matter may likely have been highly ambiguous because it occurred at a time in the past. The interviewee was likely to react to the social demands due to this ambiguity.

Roediger and McDermott (1995) explain that false memories can be well understood through the implicit associative response school of thought. This theory assumes that subjects tend to encode certain words when they see them or hear them. For instance, if someone hears the word cold, one is likely to think about or associate it with hot. Later on, when the person is asked whether he or she can remember the word hot from the previous encounter, one is likely to claim that he or she can, even when that is not true. An implicit associative response will have occurred in this case. Sometimes the association can occur consciously, or it may be done subconsciously. Unless a subject can monitor their reality carefully, it can be quite easy to mix up false events with real ones.

This information on the formation of false memories can be used to understand and deduce the nature of memory itself. Some people tend to depend upon external cues to recall false memories implies that memory does not exist in a vacuum. In other words, little bits of memory does not exist independently from each other. Sometimes one experience may be affected by another. Those disruptions can be brought on by other memories that occurred prior to the event under question or experiences that occurred after the said event.

Reception of misleading information can affect how people recall an event because it merges with the old information in a way that can cause the real event to become supplanted, altered, or extremely distorted. Studies on false memories provide great insights on the formation of memory because they illustrate how new information can affect individuals without prior detection. It is now possible to know why revised data can trick witnesses during court testimonies.

Hyman and Pentland (1995) explain that mental imagery can play a huge role in the ability of subjects to recall certain events that occurred to them. It has been shown that people tend to classify particular events as memories if they possess clear mental images of them. Consequently, if an external party intentionally gives mental imageries concerning certain false events, then subjects are likely to think of them as actual memories even when they are not.

These associations show that the intentional creation of false memories can be done when the external party provides mental images to the person under consideration. In psychological circles, this may be akin to strong mental imagery suggestions provided to patients about childhood experiences. It can sometimes be done through tapes, books, and explicit descriptions of the supposed childhood event.

Sometimes the false memory formation process occurs unintentionally if the forces that interfere with memory are created generally. If another similar event occurs after the event is under consideration, these two entities may merge and distort it. As a result, memories can become false.

False memories usually occur due to suggestions offered by interviewers or psychologists if the subject is undergoing therapy. Social demands of the interview process or the therapeutic session can cause an individual to accept the false memory as true. Alternatively, mental imageries given by the external party can also lead to this problem. Such processes illustrate the possibility of the creation of false memories due to intentional coaching. Sometimes the false memory can occur unintentionally due to implicit associative responses. Events that occurred before or after the event can interfere with the actual experience under consideration. False memories, therefore, have high chances of occurrence in the clinical setting, and psychologists need to guard against coaching or to cause them during practice.

Hyman, I., Husband, H. & Billings, J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied cognitive psychology , 9,181-197.

Hyman, I. & Pentland, J. (1996). The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories. Memory and languages , 35(6), 101-117.

Loftus, E. & Pickrell, J. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric analysis , 25, 720-725.

Roediger, H. & McDermott, K. (1995). Creating false memories: remembering words not presented in lists. Experimental psychology , 21(4), 803-814.

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The False Memories Concept Essay

Cognitive underpinnings of false memory, common instances of lapses in memories, study of the false memory in relation to normal memory processes, impacts of false memories in aged care.

The ability to remember events and occasions is important in the life of a human being. Through memories, a man is able to recall where he placed a certain item, what went on in a particular day, and where he was on a certain date. Court proceedings depend on the ability of the accused and the offended to remember things as they happened.

However, some memories are said to be false. It means that one can remember something that did not exist. This paper is aimed at addressing false memories by giving instances where such memories can occur. Care for the aged will be used as a practical example of how false memories can be costly and present a difficult situation that is hard to deal with.

According to Schacter (1999), memories depend on the functioning of the frontal systems. The researcher says that one is bound to have good memories when frontal systems are in a good condition. On the other hand, a breakdown in the frontal systems contributes to false memories (Schacter, 1999). Therefore, it is prudent to adhere to practices that will ensure that the frontal systems are in good conditions if one is to avoid false memories. There are a number of factors that contribute to the breakdown of the frontal systems, as revealed by Gallo (2004). These factors include multiple tasks, aging, and frontal damage.

The number of tasks that an individual is presented with might contribute to the breakdown in the frontal system (Gallo, 2004). If the tasks are few, then there is less likelihood that the person will have false memories (Zald, 2003). This is attributed to the fact that a person will concentrate more on the task that he is doing if he has no other distraction. It means that he is able to remember what, where, and when he did something on a particular day.

On the other hand, there is a high likelihood that a person will experience false memories when they are presented with multiple tasks (Dodson & Schacter, 2001). Such a person will not have total attention to any of the tasks because he will be worried about the other pending tasks. Therefore, it is recommended that human beings attend to one task at a time to reduce the possibility of having false memories (Dolcos, Labar & Cabeza, 2004).

Age is another factor that contributes to false memories (Whittlesea, 2002). Young people, especially the teens, are active and jovial most of the times. They do not have many worries like the old people (Wiggs & Martin, 1998). Therefore, their frontal systems are more active and healthier. The possibility of such people having false memories is slim, as reported by Fabiani, Stadler and Wessels (2000).

On the contrary, old people are not as active and jovial as young people. They are worried about the unachieved goals that they had when growing up (Dolcos et al., 2004). A majority of them battle with various ailments that are associated with aging (Elias & Perfetti, 1973). The possibility of their frontal systems breaking is very high; thus, they are more prone to having false memories than any other group of people (Lacy & Stark, 2013).

According to Stark (2014), the damage to the frontal system is a significant contributor to false memories. People who have been involved in a form of accident that injured the head are likely to have interfered with their frontal system as well (Fabiani et al., 2000). It means that there is a high probability of a person who was involved in an accident having false memories than those who have not been involved in accidents.

Stark (2014) reveals that sportsmen such as boxers are likely to have false memories. This is attributed to the fact that boxers are hit severally in the head; thus, their frontal systems are disrupted. According to Doerksen and Shimamora (2001), such sportsmen should undergo therapies once they retire from their careers, lest they experience false memories many times.

Lapses in memories have been reported in a variety of examples. According to Gleaves, Smith, Butler, and Spiegel (2004), court cases have been a major contributor to lapses in memories. The magnitude of questions that court prosecutors and lawyers subject the accused, as well as the offended persons in court presents a situation of fear and confusion among the persons being questioned. As a result, false memories are created in the minds of those questioned in an effort to answer the questions (Gleaves et al., 2004).

The situation becomes worse to the extent that the accused or the offended do not substantiate between the memory that is true and one that is false. Cases of trauma contribute significantly to lapses in memory, as described by Bartholomew (2001). Individuals who have been exposed to a traumatising experience have their memories interfered with; thus, it is possible to have lapses in memory. There is the need to treat traumatised individuals with caution, given that there is a possibility of the individuals experiencing a false memory.

Gleaves et al. (2004) say that trauma causes damage to the frontal systems. As a result, the traumatised individuals tend to have lapses in their memories. One common contributor of trauma is sexual abuse, as explained by Bartholomew (2001). Sexually harassed victims are normally traumatised by the events that led to the harassment.

This has been manifest even in court proceedings, where there have been contradictions in the way sexually abused victims give their narrations. According to Gleaves et al. (2004), perpetrators of sexual abuse have also been reported to experience lapses in memory. This could be attributed to the fact that such people were not in their correct state of mind when carrying out the offence.

According to Bartholomew (2001), there is a close relationship between false memories and the basics of how the normal memory processes work. Bartholomew (2001) admits that the distortion of the memory contributes to how well a person will remember things. A non-distorted memory will tend to function normally, as indicated by Bartholomew (2001). A calm mind will shift its focus on what is going on at the current moment. This translates to a situation where the memory will function to near normal.

A distorted memory will have problems trying to relate the present with the past. In effect, this will present a situation where the memory gives false accounts. There are various qualitative attributes that determine the performance of them memory, admit Gleaves et al. (2004). The experiences that the mind has gone through will determine the performance of the memory.

Zald (2003) says that experiences that a person has been exposed to in life should translate to true memories. However, memory will mainly be dictated by several other factors. According to Gallo (2004), emotions tend to influence the functioning of the memory. A person who is able to control his emotions will have a better memory than a person who is always carried away by emotions, admits Gallo (2004).

Knowledge and beliefs influence the ability of memories to function properly (Fabiani et al., 2000). Knowledge is connected to what a person knows about the topic under consideration. Beliefs are related to what other people will say about the same topic (Fabiani et al., 2000). The validity of the given memory will, thus, be subjected to the knowledge available and the beliefs that are associated with the issue under question. The goals of an individual will also have an impact on the memory of such a person.

Topics within a person’s goals will be remembered more than events outside human goals (Dolcos et al., 2004). This is evident more among academicians and researchers. A researcher who is more involved with the functioning of the brain will be in a better position to exercise their memory and remember several issues that are associated with memory loss.

On the contrary, a scientist who is more involved in entomophagy, for example, will have difficult times in contributing to memory loss (Dolcos et al., 2004). In addition, a human’s ability to remember will be determined by the evidence provided. A picture of an event will aid in the memory of the exact occasion. The props that were used in a particular event will contribute significantly to the memory of such an event (Whittlesea, 2002). Truly, the human memory is determined by a variety of factors.

On the other hand, memory can be trusted in some cases. For example, the memory can be trusted when the evidence on how a certain event occurred. In addition, our beliefs and culture can be used to ascertain whether the memory is to be trusted or not. Memory that is accurate is to be trusted. This is attributed to the fact that the life of a human being needs to rely on the past occurrences, which can be authenticated by our memory (Gayle, 1991). If used carefully, the memory can be of good use to the life of every human being.

According to Schacter, Koutsaal, and Norman (1997), there is a tendency of the older people to give false information as compared to young people. This is attributed to the distortions in the minds of the older people, where they tend to mix perceived and imagined information with the actual experience. Schacter et al. (1997) admit that older people are more likely to give information on accounts that never existed.

This makes it difficult to believe the information given by the older people. Lacy and Stark (2013) admits that the inability to believe old people have resulted in situations where the old are not taken seriously, even when giving true information. The situation is even worse in giving care to the aged. The fact that an old patient has been giving false statements makes it difficult to believe when the same patient is giving true information (Stark, 2014). This could be detrimental to the health of such patient as care might not be availed to him as he requires.

Several studies have been carried on memory loss, as well as false memory of the older people. Most of such studies have proven the fact that old people are more likely to give false memories as a result of distortion and a breakdown in their frontal systems (Wiggs & Martin, 1998). In addition, the ability to recall and recognise various events is weaker in older people than it is in the younger generation.

The ability of the elderly to imagine and relate their imaginations to real life examples is very low. This has been confirmed by Zald (2003), who reports that a majority of the older people cannot relate given pictures to other related objects. This is contrary to what happens in the young people who are able to associate given pictures with any related objects (Doerksen & Shimamora, 2001). Therefore, it is evident that the old should be handled with care, taking into consideration that they are more prone to memory loss and false memories as a result (Wheeler et al., 2000).

A false memory is associated with the distortions of the mind. A breakdown in the frontal system contributes to a person giving false memory. Some of the contributing factors to frontal system damage include a person handling multiple tasks, advancement in age, and accidents that cause damage to the frontal systems located in the head. Instances where false memories have been exhibited include court cases, incidents causing trauma, and sexual abuse.

Persons who have been traumatised or sexually abused tend to give contradicting accounts, which are as a result of the combinations of their imagined and real events. The older people are more prone to false memories than the younger people. They are normally unable to relate pictures with real situations, which translate to a situation where their imagination is weak. Reports from several studies prove that older people have difficulties in organising their memories, leading to their increased likelihood of giving false memories.

Anderson, J. R. (1983). A spreading activation theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 261–295. doi: 10.1016/S0022-5371(83)90201-3

Bartholomew, D. J. (2001). False memories. Psychology of International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 1 , 5254 – 5259.

Dodson, C. S., & Schacter, D. L. (2001). “If I had said it I would have remembered it”: reducing false memories with distinctiveness heuristic. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 8, 155-161.

Doerksen, S., & Shimamura, A. (2001). Source memory enhancement for emotional words. Emotion, 1 , 5-11.

Dolcos, F., Labar, K. S, & Cabeza, R. (2004). Interaction between the amygdala and the medial temporal lobe memory system predicts better memory for emotional events. Neuron, 5 , 855-63.

Elias, C. S., & Perfetti, C. A. (1973). Encoding task and recognition memory: The importance of semantic encoding. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 99 , 151-156.

Fabiani, M., Stadler, M. A., & Wessels, P. M. (2000). True but not false memories produce a sensory signature in human lateralized brain potentials . Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience , 12 (3), 941-949.

Gallo, D. A. (2004). Using recall to reduce false recognition: Diagnostic and disqualifying monitoring . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 30 (10), 120-128.

Gayle, G. (1991). Feminist fiction and the uses of memory . Journal of Women in Gender and Society, 16 (21), 290-295.

Gleaves, D.H., Smith, S.M., Butler, L.D. & Spiegel. D. (2004). False and recovered memories in the laboratory and clinic: a review of experimental and clinical evidence . Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11 (1), 3-28. doi: 10.1093/clipsy/bph055

Lacy, J. & Stark, C. (2013). The Neuroscience of Memory: Implications for the

Courtroom . Nature Reviews; Neuroscience, 5 (3), 1-10

Schacter, D. L. (1999). The cognitive neuropsychology of false memories. Hove. Psychology Press Ltd, Publishers.

Schacter, D.L., Koutstaal, W. & Norman, A. (1997). False memories and aging. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1 (6), 229-234.

Stark, C. (2014). Truth, lies, and false memories: Neuroscience in the courtroom. Dana Foundation, 2 (1), 2-5.

Wheeler, M. E., Petersen, S. E., & Buckner, R. L. (2000). Memory’s echo: Vivid remembering reactivates sensory-specific cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97 , 11125-11129.

Whittlesea, B. W. A. (2002). False memory and the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: The prototype-familiarity illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131 (4), 96-115.

Wiggs, C. L., & Martin, A. (1998). Properties and mechanisms of perceptual priming. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 8 , 227-33.

Zald, D.H. (2003). The human amygdala and the emotional evaluation of sensory stimuli. Brain Research : Brain Research Review, 41 , 88-123.

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IvyPanda . "The False Memories Concept." May 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-false-memories-concept/.

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Psychology Essay Example: False Memories

False memories occur when people take a certain mental experience for a real past experience. When people are asked to describe something that happened at a particular time, they rarely provide accurate answers that fully comply with objective reality. Their memory will be altered by other post-event information, experience, or memories. How does this happen? What are the possible consequences? Can false memories be artificially created? If yes, then what could be the possible consequences? This essay will address all of those questions below.

Those who have watched the movie Inception might be familiar with the idea that memories can be artificially created in humans. This occurs much more commonly and easier than it is depicted in the film. Simply speaking, information, which we receive following a particular event that has already been imprinted in our memory, distorts our memory of this event. It can happen naturally and artificially. In fact, there have been studies of false memories and their intentional creation. Below are some examples.

In the 1990s, a so-called “Lost in the mall” technique and experiment was suggested by E. Loftus and colleagues. In the experiment, the researchers asked a 14-year-old boy Chris to write about four of his childhood memories every day. Three of those memories were true, and the fourth was false. It involved Chris being lost in the shopping mall. During the experiment, his older brother was helping him to “reconstruct” the false memory. At the end of the experiment, Chris had constructed a realistic and detailed story of how he was lost in a mall and then reunited with his family. When the boy was told that this memory was a false one, he could not believe it for some time. The experiment with a shopping mall was reenacted with different subjects and with slightly varying procedures. Although the ethics of the experiment were questioned, it made a significant contribution to the study of false memories.

Our brain’s capability to dramatically alter the real events in our perception post factum allows us to both forget some events and substitute them with others. This can apply, in particular, to traumatic memories. By changing the traumatic ones to neutral, people might try to cope with negative experiences. On the other hand, as the experiments above have demonstrated, people could also be artificially traumatized by false memories. Counseling psychologists should be especially attentive to such matters.

The study of false memories in humans and their formation can be helpful in various areas, from general psychology theory to forensic psychology and psychotherapeutic counseling. It is important to remember that people’s memories of actual events are always modified to certain extent by information that follows. It will not always result in generation of false memories, but it surely can. That is why it is especially important to understand the nature of false memories, understand their origin, and be able to distinguish them from the real ones.

This essay has been written by WorldEssays.com writers.

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• Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F. (2005). The Science of False Memory. Oxford University Press.
• Coan, J. A. (1997). Lost in a Shopping Mall: An Experience with Controversial Research. Ethics & Behavior, 7(3): 271-284.
• Conway, M. A. (1997). Recovered Memories and False Memories. Oxford University Press.
• Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Mitchell, K. J., Ankudowich, E. (2011). The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories. R.F. Belli (ed.), True and False Recovered Memories: Toward a Reconciliation of the Debate. Springer Science & Business Media, 15-52.
• Loftus, E. F., Coan, J., Pickrell, J. E. (1996). Manufacturing false memories using bits of reality. In Reder, Lynne M., ed. Implicit Memory and Metacognition. Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory. NY: St. Martin’s Press.
• Loftus, E. F., Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, Vol 25(12): 720-725.
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