False Memories-Nursing Paper Examples

Memory is an essential aspect of life as it defines experiences in life. However, in some instances, an individual’s mind creates distorted or fabricated recollections of events that do not align with actual or real events. False memories are more common than most people believe. In this case, most individuals believe they can accurately recall past experiences or childhood memories. Most people who experience false memories perceive them as real events that took place in the past.

On the contrary, people often remember false things that did not occur, remember things differently from how they initially occurred, or even encounter absolute memory absence. Most false memories result from the misinformation effect. More so, varying memories can be implanted in a person’s mind to erase unpleasant experiences, especially in children. This essay aims to describe the phenomena of false memories and provide a short review of research on this cognitive psychology subject.

Memory errors remains commonly split into two categories: commission and omission memories. Omission memories entail forgetting true memories, while commission memories entails distorted recollections. Schacter (2022) categorizes transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking as sins of omission. While misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence as sins of commission.

Transience describes the overall deterioration of memory over time. For instance, students are likely to remember what they learned a few months ago compared to what they learned in previous years. A decrease in memory accessibility is normal with aging. However, acute transience results from degraded brain areas such as the temporal lobe or hippocampus.

Absent-mindedness occurs from attention lapses that arise from the encoding stage (during memory formation) or retrieval stage (memory accessing). Thus, people need to remember what they were planning to do or when they left an object. For instance, some people need to remember when they kept their car keys or glasses from absent-mindedness. The third sin of omission is blocking, which occurs from the inaccessibility of stored information temporarily. In this case, the brain tries to retrieve stored information, but a second memory interferes with the process.

Subsequently, misattribution is a sin of commission where some form of memory is present but misattributed to an incorrect person, place, and time. Thus, misattribution entails correct information recollection but an incorrect recollection of the information source. Secondly, suggestibility results in misinformation from active deception or leading questions from other people.

Suggestibility is an instrumental area within the legal system as it can result in false memories. Bias occurs when current knowledge, feelings, and beliefs distort an individual’s memory retrospectively. Lastly, persistence makes people not let go of specific memories leading to the recall of unwanted or disturbing information such as traumatic experiences, embarrassing moments, or past mistakes. Persistence leads to phobia or chronic fear that is detrimental to mental well-being.

Review of Research (False Memories)

Bartlett pioneered research on memory and claimed that a human being’s recollection of past events is formed by understanding and schema of the present. Secondly, investigation and comprehension of false memory are instrumental in analyzing false recollections among patients undergoing therapy. Bartlett’s research also distinguished between reproductive memory, evidenced when British subjects were challenged to reproduce a story they had been told, and reconstructive memory, where individuals were requested to fill in the memory gaps.

Subsequently, different studies offer a precise comprehension of false recall attributed to the activation of cognitive and semantic networks in the brain. For instance, the research by Deese detected intrusion errors in a free recall. However, Deese’s research remained unexplored until Roediger and McDermott developed the work. Later Deese, Roediger, and McDermott’s research work led to the rise of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm that remained applicable to utilize in experiments concerning false memory (Wang et al., 2019). The DRM paradigm measures the results of false memory tests.

In a DRM test, the researcher provides the participants with a 12 12-word list where all the words relate to a central concept that remains unpresented. The words are semantically related to a lure or a critical non-represented word such that the participants are supposed to recall the previously given words in a follow-up memory test. Many participants recall seeing a specific word to which the presented list is related, although the word was not actually on the list. For instance, participants are likely to form a false memory of seeing the lure word sleep after being presented with a list comprising words like bed, tired, and snooze.

Researchers utilize different theories to study and understand false memory. The Spreading Activation Theory rationalizes a false memory such that an individual word’s presentation activates a semantic network in the brain comprising a lure word. Following continuous engagement of the same semantic network, the brain encodes the lure word false memory.

The psychological explanation of false memory creation remains unexplored in Deese, Roediger, and McDermott’s work, but the studies assert that memory errors result in retrieval and encoding processes. DRM paradigms are crucial as they form empirical research on false memory. Besides the DRM program, researchers also use functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), a neuroimaging technique, to study cognitive brain activity and discern between accurate and false memory.

Secondly, the Fuzzy Trace Theory, a cognition theory, elaborates on managing false memories through dual-process memory storage. The theory portrays how parallel storing gist and verbatim experience records creates false memories. Olszewska et al. (2021) describe gist memory as the comprehension of a substance’s essential meaning as it shows the possession of fuzzy past event representation, while verbatim memory provides an accurate and more detailed representation of a past event.

Olszewska et al. (2021) study concluded that integrating verbatim and gist memory enhances accurate recall and recognition, whereas gist memory causes false recall and memory. Notably, one of the main contributors to false memory is emotions. Therefore, emotions are the dominant driving force behind accurate or false memories. Besides an individual’s confidence in the accuracy of emotional memories, the memories are highly susceptible to distortion. Emotional experiences are likely to elicit false or accurate memories. In this case, the DRM paradigm measures how emotions impact memories.

Human beings attach and conform to different things. As such, secure individuals attach to happier emotions, while less secure and insecure ones portray anxiety. In a study, Hudson and Fraley (2018) examined whether anxiety triggered false emotions. Hudson and Fraley tested the difference in false memories between secure and less secure individuals. Stress and anxiety are subject to a heavy load on one’s mental health.

Thus, insecure individuals are linked to anxiety and high stress levels. The study found that individuals experiencing anxiety are not conscious and present to listen and understand what is being said. In this case, the individual only figures out the gist of what is being said, thus creating a false memory by believing something happened or was said, while that is not the case. Notably, Hudson and Fraley’s (2018) study emanated from an original work by Loftus and Palmer (1974).

The study attached a traumatic event to elicit false memories. Besides attachment to a specific stressful event, a choice of words can change one’s memory. Hudson and Fraley utilized the crash with one group of study participants and collided with another group. In this case, the participants asked how the cars crushed and recalled seeing glasses shatter. Therefore, choosing words is crucial in describing events as it can elicit false memories.

Conclusion

False memories are the biggest tricks of a human being’s brain. Even the smallest words can trick an individual’s brain into believing that a particular event happened when it did not. Therefore, people should accept that false memories are part of life and that the best way to deal with them is to correct them. In this case, people should accept when called out for making memory errors. Of importance, stress and anxiety management are instrumental strategies that can be used to manage errors.

Importantly,, memories are crucial in a human being’s life as they connect the past, present, and future. Memories are also used as a tool of evidence in criminal cases. Therefore, this study is crucial as false memories frequently occur and impact modern society. Therefore, a comprehensive comprehension of false memories allows people to identify and prevent them.

References

Hudson, N. W., & Fraley, R. C. (2018). Does attachment anxiety promote the encoding of false memories? An investigation of the processes linking adult attachment to memory errors. Journal of personality and social psychology, 115(4), 688. Retrieved from https://www.nathanwhudson.com/vita/pdf/Hudson%20&%20Fraley,%202018b.pdf

Olszewska, J., Hodel, A., Falkowski, A., Woldt, B., Bednarek, H., & Luttenberger, D. (2021). Meaningful versus meaningless sounds and words: A false memories perspective. Experimental Psychology, 68(1), 4. Retrieved from https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1027/1618-3169/a000506

Schacter, D. L. (2022). Memory sins in applied settings: What kind of progress? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11(4), 445.

Wang, J., Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., & Zhou, C. (2019). A self-reference false memory effect in the DRM paradigm: Evidence from Eastern and Western samples. Memory & Cognition, 47(1), 76-86.