scholarly journals Generalization and False Memory in an Acquired Equivalence Paradigm: The Influence of Physical Resemblance Across Related Episodes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin R. Bowman ◽  
Maria-Alejandra de Araujo Sanchez ◽  
William Hou ◽  
Sarina Rubin ◽  
Dagmar Zeithamova
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Source Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Acquired Equivalence ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Physical Resemblance

The ability to make inferences about related experiences is an important function of memory that allows individuals to build generalizable knowledge. In some cases, however, making inferences may lead to false memories when individuals misremember inferred information as having been observed. One factor that is known to increase the prevalence of false memories is the physical resemblance between new and old information. The extent to which physical resemblance has parallel effects on generalization and memory for the source of inferred associations is not known. To investigate the parallels between memory generalization and false memories, we conducted three experiments using an acquired equivalence paradigm and manipulated physical resemblance between items that made up related experiences. The three experiments showed increased generalization for higher levels of resemblance. Recognition and source memory judgments revealed that high rates of generalization were not always accompanied by high rates of false memories. Thus, physical resemblance across episodes may promote generalization with or without a trade-off in terms of impeding memory specificity.

scholarly journals Fuzzy-Trace Theory, False Memory, and the Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Brainerd ◽  
Valerie F. Reyna
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Trace Theory ◽  
Fuzzy Trace Theory ◽  
Rules Of Evidence ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Simple Change ◽  
The Law ◽  
Eyewitness Identifications

Fuzzy-trace theory (FTT) provides well-researched scientific principles that explain worrisome forms of false memory in the law. False memories are of great legal concern because memory reports are frequently the evidence that determines guilt/innocence and are sometimes the only evidence that crimes have been committed. FTT’s principles reveal errors in commonsense theories that jurors use to judge the credibility of witnesses’ memory reports. This science versus commonsense disconnect is salient in cases involving child witnesses, eyewitness identifications, and confessions. The consequences of this disconnect for justice could be ameliorated by a simple change in federal rules of evidence.

Retractors of false memories: The evolution of pseudo-memories

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold I. Lief ◽  
Janet Fetkewicz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Telephone Interview ◽  
Family Members ◽  
False Memories ◽  
False Memory Syndrome ◽  
Reality Testing ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Study Population

The formation of pseudomemories and the subsequent methods used by subjects to eventually distinguish between true and false memories are the primary foci of this study. A survey instrument was distributed to 100 “retractors” after an initial telephone interview with False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) staff. Forty respondents (40% of the subjects) who returned the questionnaire comprise our study population. The survey inquired about personal and family information, events surrounding the subject's accusations of sexual abuse, childhood history, and the subject's reflections on his or her experience. The process of the development of pseudomemories is highlighted. Subjects also described their feelings and experiences in open-ended questions, including their subjective experience as memories evolved, factors influencing thoughts, feelings and doubts, the process of questioning memories, the process of restoring relationships with family members, and uncertainties about views of memories currently held. We focus on the evolution of pseudomemories, especially the influence of the therapist; we explore the nature of therapy, one that makes an ill patient much worse and that eventually becomes so onerous that patients who still have some remaining reality-testing flee from therapy.

False Memory in a Short-Term Memory Task

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer H. Coane ◽  
Dawn M. McBride ◽  
Bascom A. Raulerson III ◽  
J. Scott Jordan
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Latency Data ◽  
Single Probe

The Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995 ) paradigm reliably elicits false memories for critical nonpresented words in recognition tasks. The present studies used a Sternberg (1966) task with DRM lists to determine whether false memories occur in short-term memory tasks and to assess the contribution of latency data in the measurement of false memories. Subjects studied three, five, or seven items from DRM lists and responded to a single probe (studied or nonstudied). In both experiments, critical lures were falsely recognized more often than nonpresented weak associates. Latency data indicated that correct rejections of critical lures were slower than correct rejections of weakly related items at all set sizes. False alarms to critical lures were slower than hits to list items. Latency data can distinguish veridical and false memories in a short-term memory task. Results are discussed in terms of activation-monitoring models of false memory.

Suits by adults for childhood sexual abuse: Legal origins of the “repressed memory” controversy

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary R. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Repressed Memory ◽  
False Memory Syndrome ◽  
Legal Origins ◽  
Civil Lawsuits

In the last decade there has been a proliferation of civil lawsuits by adults claiming to be survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Many states have permitted such suits to go forward by applying some form of “delayed discovery of injury” exception to the statute of limitations. Advocates for those claiming to have been falsely accused have generated a new concept—“false memory syndrome”—as an alternative explanation for delayed memories of CSA. Its proponents claim that there is an epidemic of therapy-induced “false memories” of CSA. Psychotherapists and the profession as a whole have become involved in a heated controversy, whose substance as well as intensity is to a large extent litigation driven. To understand the controversy and get a handle on its future, it is important to examine its legal origins, history and context.

Fuzzy-Trace Theory and False Memory

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 164-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Brainerd ◽  
V.F. Reyna
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Developmental Level ◽  
Trace Theory ◽  
Fuzzy Trace Theory ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Legal Consequences

A key problem confronting theories of false memory is that false-memory phenomena are so diverse: Some are characteristic of controlled laboratory tasks, others of everyday life; some occur for traumatic events with legal consequences, others for innocuous events; some are characteristic of one developmental level, others of another developmental level. Fuzzy-trace theory explains false memories via a small set of principles that implement a single representational distinction. Those principles generate new predictions, some of which are counterintuitive.

AN INVESTIGATION OF FALSE MEMORIES IN ANXIOUS AND FEARFUL INDIVIDUALS

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Wenzel ◽  
Candice Jostad ◽  
Jennifer R. Brendle ◽  
F. Richard Ferraro ◽  
Chad M. Lystad
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Memory Bias ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Social Evaluative Threat ◽  
Word Lists ◽  
Target Words

The present study applied the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm to examine whether anxious and fearful individuals exhibit higher recall and recognition rates of never presented threat words than nonanxious individuals. In Study 1, 39 spider fearful individuals, 28 blood fearful individuals, and 41 nonfearful individuals learned four word lists associated with unpresented target words: “spider”, “blood”, “river”, and “music”. Regardless of whether participants completed only a recognition task or a recall task and then a recognition task, there were no differences as a function of group in the degree to which they falsely remembered unpresented target threat words. In Study 2, 48 socially anxious and 51 nonanxious individuals learned four lists associated with social/evaluative threat unpresented target words and four lists associated with neutral unpresented target words. Similar to the findings from Study 1, groups did not differ in the degree to which they falsely remembered target words. These findings add to an increasingly large literature suggesting that anxious individuals are not characterized by a memory bias toward threat.

scholarly journals Age-related Differences in Brain Activity during True and False Memory Retrieval

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1390-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Dennis ◽  
Hongkeun Kim ◽  
Roberto Cabeza
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Age Related

Compared to young adults, older adults show not only a reduction in true memories but also an increase in false memories. We investigated the neural bases of these age effects using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a false memory task that resembles the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Young and older participants were scanned during a word recognition task that included studied words and new words that were strongly associated with studied words (critical lures). During correct recognition of studied words (true memory), older adults showed weaker activity than young adults in the hippocampus but stronger activity than young adults in the retrosplenial cortex. The hippocampal reduction is consistent with age-related deficits in recollection, whereas the retrosplenial increase suggests compensatory recruitment of alternative recollection-related regions. During incorrect recognition of critical lures (false memory), older adults displayed stronger activity than young adults in the left lateral temporal cortex, a region involved in semantic processing and semantic gist. Taken together, the results suggest that older adults' deficits in true memories reflect a decline in recollection processes mediated by the hippocampus, whereas their increased tendency to have false memories reflects their reliance on semantic gist mediated by the lateral temporal cortex.

scholarly journals Semantic and episodic processes differently predict false memories in the DRM task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Gatti ◽  
Luca Rinaldi ◽  
Giuliana Mazzoni ◽  
Tomaso Vecchi
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
New Words ◽  
False Recognitions ◽  
Specific Contribution

There is a fervent debate about the processes underpinning false memories formation. Seminal theories have suggested that semantic memory would be involved in false memories production, while episodic memory would counter their formation. Yet, direct evidence corroborating such view is still missing. Here, we tested this possibility by asking participants to perform the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) task, a typical false memory paradigm, in which they had to study lists of words and subsequently to recognize and distinguish them from new words (i.e., the false memory items). The same participants were also required to perform a semantic task and an episodic-source memory task. Our results showed that a higher number of false memories in the DRM task occurred for those participants with better semantic memory abilities, while a lower number of false memories occurred for participants with better episodic abilities. These findings support a key role of semantic processes in false memory formation and, more generally, help clarify the specific contribution of different memory systems to false recognitions.

The False Memory Diet: False Memories Alter Food Preferences

2011 ◽  
pp. 1645-1663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Bernstein ◽  
Nicole L. M. Pernat ◽  
Elizabeth F. Loftus
Keyword(s):  
False Memory ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Food Preferences
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