False Memories

False Memories

A false memory is a memory of an event that did not happen or is a distortion of an event that did occur as determined by externally supported facts. Memory can be a very unreliable tool, because we can not only forget types of information, but also, misremember certain events or key facts. Throughout the years there have been many measures to identify and define false memories. One procedure has been used is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure (Wright, 2005). The DRM is a procedure that is used to evaluate the levels of disassociation and mood (Wright, 2005). The DRM procedure requires two processes for an individual to create a false memory the generation of the critical lure and mistaking its source and the source monitoring error (Wright, 2005). The source monitoring error relies on the belief that the information taken in by an individual has been skewed in some way during the coding process via a misdirection of a researcher or event (Wright, 2005). The coding process is the time in which we take the stimuli that we are presented with and apply said stimuli to memory (Wright, 2005). The delinquent information suggested to the participant attributes to the source coding error (Wright, 2005). The model of source monitoring error implies that only errors with the source monitoring process are linked to dissociation. (Wright, 2005) Mood is directly related to false memories, but it is dependent on the specific of the situations (Wright, 2005). False memory was at the forefront of what considered a major American situation 9/11. President George W. Bush has been associated with the false memory phenomena. Dramatic loss of memory, with devastating effects on the sufferer and those around them associated with false memories can also be traumatic for everyone involved; especially if there is no conformity that the memory is false (Wright, 2005). The consequences are intensified when the memory itself is shocking, as in a memory of being abused as a child only recalled well into adulthood, or a memory of alien abduction. Memory is a complicated process, only partly understood; but research suggests that memories do not provide a reliable way to determine its accuracy (Wright, 2005). False memory studies have set precedent in a number of court cases revolving around suggestive memories implanted by psychiatrists and psychologists (Loftus, 1998).

Suggestive False Memories

The study of false memory set an interesting precedent in 1997 with the court case of Nadean Cool, a nurses' aide from Wisconsin (Loftus, 1998). Nadean sought the help of a psychiatrist in 1986 to help her deal with a traumatic experience with her daughter (Loftus, 1998). Through the course of her therapy hypnosis and suggestive techniques were used to try and bring out and repressed memories that Nadean may have in her mind (Loftus, 1998). During the procedure Nadean became aware that she was allegedly in a cult and had taken part in many unusual activities such as eating babies, being raped, acts of bestiality and murdering an eight year old child (Loftus, 1998). The psychiatrist made Nadean believe that she had over one-hundred and twenty personalities that were caused my physical and sexual abuse as a child (Loftus, 1998). Nadean's personalities ranged from an angel to a duck (Loftus, 1998). The psychiatrist even went as far as to perform several exorcisms on Nadean to try and expel Satan from her body (Loftus, 1998). After several years Nadean realized that the memories had been planted by her psychiatrist and sued for malpractice (Loftus, 1998). Nadean's case was settled out of court in 1997 for 2.4 million dollars after only five weeks of trial (Loftus, 1998). However, Nadean is not the only patient to have claimed that psychiatrists were planting false memories in her mind (Loftus, 1998). Beth Rutherford of Missouri was led to believe by her psychiatrist that her father a priest sexually molested her as a child (Loftus, 1998). In this case the psychiatrist went as far as to have Beth think that her father not only impregnated her but also led her to believe that her father forced an abortion (Loftus, 1998). These allegation led to the father being fired from the church, but later medical evidence revealed that Beth was still a virgin at the age of 22 (Loftus, 1998). Both of these cases were dispelled by future investigations (Loftus, 1998). It is evident that memories are easily modified especially in suggestive and interrogative procedures (Loftus, 1998).

Suggestive False Memories in Action

To show easily memory can be altered Loftus met with Alan Alda from the television show M*A*S*H (1998). Loftus met with Alda when he decided he wanted to learn more about memory and memory repression (1998). Loftus performed an intake of Alda that consisted of a number of questions. Alda then returned to meet with Loftus after several weeks for a therapy session (Loftus, 1998). After four weeks of therapy Alda was made to believe that he had a traumatic experience with eggs as a child and was now sickened by the thought of eating eggs (Loftus, 1998). Alda in fact has never had a bad experience with eggs according to the intake (Loftus, 1998). However, through only a few short weeks of therapy he was led to believe that he in fact had a sickening experience with them as a child thus inhibiting him from eating them in the future (Loftus, 1998).

DRM Procedure

Two psychologists, Roediger and McDermott (1995) conducted a study that showed people may falsely report hearing a word if they were presented with words that are related in nature, the procedure used was the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure as mentioned above(Wright, 2005). The procedure involves presenting a set of associated words (e.g., 'bed', 'rest', 'awake', 'tired', and 'dream') and then asking participants to recall these words (Wright, 2005). Researchers found that participants falsely recall a word that is highly associated with the words presented (Wright, 2005). Here, the highly associated word, called the critical lure, is 'sleep' (Wright, 2005). The critical lures are the words obtained and the most commonly associated word with the word grouping. An example of a critical lure would be baseball if the given words were bat, ball, homerun, strike, and slide. One problem with this procedure was that the procedure did in fact show evidence of creating the false recollection of a single word; however the researchers were unable to show that more than one word could be facilitated in an individual and in no means did it illustrate that a whole memory set could be created (Wright, 2005). Evidence to support whole memory creating or the ability to foster memories