I learned in my psychology class...?

Question

That sometimes people will recall "fake" memories...and that these fake memories may be noticed when people don't recall it "in context." So...what does that mean? how do you recall something in context, hence...a real memory..?

Answer 1

Hi,

Sometimes people believe something is a ‘memory’ when it didn’t actually happen or perhaps it was even a dream. They may have heard someone describe an event and then recalled it in later years as having experienced it themselves. They may have a brief memory of an event in childhood and every time this event is recalled, the mind may elaborate upon it and ‘fill in’ the missing pieces. Next time it is recalled, those ‘fill ins’ may be remembered as what they think are true memories. These are descriptions of false memories.
A false memory is when we are convinced an event took place when it didn’t. At their most disturbing they are ‘recovered memories’ of abuse during childhood. It has been shown that false memories can be implanted and how people can believe things happened when they didn’t The implication is that recovered memory therapists can, without realising it, introduce false memories and then by getting their clients to re-live the experience, this convinces them it is real.
A false memory can also be a distortion of an actual experience. Someone might also mix fragments of memory events that happened at different times together so they are remembered as one memory.
Recalling ‘out of context’ is one way to prove a memory could not be real or is distorted. A woman accused memory expert Dr. Donald Thompson of having raped her. Thompson was doing a live interview for a television program just before the rape occurred. The woman had seen the program and "apparently confused her memory of him from the television screen with her memory of the rapist" (Schacter, 1996, 114). You probably heard this one in your psychology class: Jean Piaget, the great child psychologist, claimed that his earliest memory was of nearly being kidnapped at the age of 2. He remembered details such as sitting in his baby carriage, watching the nurse defend herself against the kidnapper, scratches on the nurse's face, and a police officer with a short cloak and a white baton chasing the kidnapper away. The story was reinforced by the nurse and the family and others who had heard the story. Piaget was convinced that he remembered the event. However, it never happened. Thirteen years after the alleged kidnapping attempt, Piaget's former nurse wrote to his parents to confess that she had made up the entire story. Piaget later wrote: "I therefore must have heard, as a child, the account of this story...and projected it into the past in the form of a visual memory, which was a memory of a memory, but false"
It is as unlikely that all recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse are false as that they are all true. What is known about memory it especially difficult to sort out true from distorted or false recollections. Memories that have been directed by dreams or hypnosis can be unreliable. Dreams are not direct playbacks of experience. Hypnosis and other techniques that ply upon a person’s suggestibility must be used with great caution lest one create memories by suggestion rather than pry them loose by careful questioning.
As to recalling something ‘in context’ hence knowing it is a real memory, if you are talking about something that happened years ago, all you can do is research and get as many facts as you can about that occurrence. Read diaries, newspaper articles etc. Ask how other people involved remember the incident and if your memories tally with everything you discover, you will know it is a true memory. Or as true as it can be for a memory!

There is so much we have yet to learn about our memory, dreams, subconscious and the way our minds work: it’s a fascinating subject. An interesting question.

Polly

Answer 2

I think that you were discussing episodic memory in your psychology class. It is the kind of memory that is only yours and is directly related to your personal experience in the past. For example, you can vividly remember your first driving with your mom. You can remember what she was screaming, how your hands were tight on the steering wheel and so forth. All those little details are called context.
Our memory is constructive. It does not work as a CD that stores all the memories verbatim. Memory is modulated by our experiences. Every event in the outside world is encoded in our brain in a certain pattern of neural activity. Later, we reinstate this activity and interpret it. That's how memory is constructive. Those fake memories might occur when the pattern of neural activation in your brain that was stored is interpreted anew in the light of all the experiences that took place since the event. So in a way there is no such thing as a "real" memory. There will always be room for interpretation.

Answer 3

Memory is one of the most fascinating aspects of the mind. For a multitide of reasons, it's often "convoluted," that is, the memory "serves" us & that is the way we "see" it. If the memory isn't coloured by our subconscious "needs" it may be perceived as "real." Yet, even then, unique perception comes into play. What is a "real" memory, then? I'd just ask, in whose context? In other words, what is"real"? To whom?
Explore this further--it's quite a journey!

Answer 4

Our memories are stored in our brains, but the longer they are there, the less accurate they will become when recalling them.
We won't be able to remember all the details the longer time goes by.

Answer 5

Their is something called the "Munchhausen syndrome" which says that one will "confabulate" to fill blank spots in the memory. This is considered normal everyone does it. You will find it more prevalent in alcohol/drug abuse where black-outs are prevalent. Memory decay would be another motivating force I would think, You may want to look into this for research if you choose to continue your education. Best regards.

Answer 6

you will get out of the class, what you put in, by using that I mean in case you have an pastime, do slightly analysis,seem at what most of the properly oftentimes occurring psychologist had to declare, and be prepared to have an open recommendations, and do some deep questioning, then specific, it is going to likely be properly worth it

Answer 7

If somebody asks you "when were you raped", you might recall being raped even if you were not.

This idea is very important in eyewitness testimony. You want to be able to get the witness to tell you what happened immediately after they observe it.