Memory implantation

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Memory implantation is a technique used in cognitive psychology to investigate human memory. In memory implantation studies researchers make people believe that they remember an event that actually never happened. The false memories that have been successfully implanted in people's memories include remembering being lost in a mall as a child, taking a hot air balloon ride, and putting slime in a teacher's desk in primary school. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Memory implantation techniques were developed in the 1990s as a way of providing evidence of how easy it is to distort people's memories of past events. Most of the studies on memory implantation were published in the context of the debate about repressed memories and the possible danger of digging for lost memories in therapy. The successful implantation of memories in people's minds has implications for therapy and legal settings.

Successful memory implantation

Published studies

The first formal studies using memory implantation were published in the early 1990s, the most famous being "The Formation of False Memories" (commonly referred to as the "Lost in the Mall" study) by Loftus and Pickrell. [1] The basic technique used in this study involved asking family members of a participant to provide narratives of events that happened when they were young and then add another event that definitely had not happened. The participants saw these four narratives and were told to try to remember as much as possible about each event. Across a number of studies using memory implantation, about 37% of people have come to remember parts of or entire events that never actually happened. [4]

Other studies have expanded on this paradigm by introducing photos instead of narratives. Wade and colleagues found that 50% of people came to remember details of a hot air balloon ride that never happened, after seeing a manipulated photo depicting the event. [5] Later it has been argued that photos by themselves do not produce more false memories than narratives, but that both methods have the power to successfully implant false memories. [6] Real photos have also been found to increase the creation of false memories. In a study by Lindsay and colleagues people were shown a childhood photo from the same time period as the false event. Seeing the photo resulted in more false memories, even when the photos did not depict the actual event. [7]

In a study with children 1999 Pezdek and Hodge found that it was easier to implant a memory of a plausible event (being lost in a mall) than an implausible one (receiving a rectal enema). [8] Later follow up studies, however, show that the perceived plausibility of a false event can be changed, making the false event easier to implant. [9] [10] Taken together, these findings show that there are many factors that are important for the way people remember events.

Mazzoni et al. also suggest a model for the development of false memories through suggestions which model includes 3 processes. [10] The first process is to make people perceive the event as plausible, the second is to make people believe it is likely to have happened to them and the third step is to help people interpret thoughts and fantasies about the event as memories. Other factors influencing the likelihood of producing false memories include imagining the events and making a source-monitoring error, specifically reality monitoring. [11]

A real life example of memory implantation occurred during the criminal case against Paul Ingram. Ingram was accused by his daughters of recurring sexual abuse in their childhood. Ingram denied all allegations at first but after being interviewed by police and therapists he came to remember multiple instances of abuse.

Sociologist Richard Ofshe considered this confession a result of suggestive questioning and decided to test his theory. He told Ingram about a made-up scenario and said it was another accusation made by his children. Ofshe asked Ingram to try and remember as much as possible about this new event. Ingram could not recall anything straight away but after thinking about it for some time came up with a written confession where he described in detail what had happened. His children confirmed to Ofshe that the event had never actually happened; Ingram had created an entirely false memory of an event after suggestions from Ofshe. Ofshe considered this successful memory implantation evidence of Paul Ingram's suggestibility and in his opinion it questions the accuracy of Ingram's other confessions. [12]

Implications

The methods used in memory implantation studies are meant to mimic those used by some therapists to recover repressed memories of childhood events. [4] The high rate of people "remembering" false events shows that memories cannot always be taken at face value. Being told to go home and look at old photos to jog your memory can help you remember real events, but paired with suggestions from a therapist it might also lead to false memories.

Memory implantation studies are also similar to recovered memory therapy in the way that they involve an authoritative figure claiming to know that the event actually happened and applying pressure on the participant/patient to remember. [4]

Memory implantation techniques in general also illustrate how people can relatively easily come to remember things that actually never happened. This poses a big problem for criminal confessions resulting from suggestive questioning by police and others and also for the accuracy associated with eyewitness memory.

It has been argued that memory implantation studies are not applicable to real life memories of trauma such as childhood sexual abuse. [13] As it is not ethical to try to implant false memories of sexual abuse researchers have tried to get around this by choosing other events that are seen as negative but not traumatic. Being lost in a shopping mall for example would be a negative experience for most children. [1] Hyman and colleagues used memory implantation techniques with emotional events such as a specific birthday party (positive) and being hospitalized overnight (negative). They found that using emotional events did not change the rate of false memory creation significantly compared with other studies. [14]

Research with children

In 1998 Herrmann and Yoder published an article arguing for the cessation of memory implantation research with children. [15] The criticisms referred to several studies investigating the suggestibility of children written by Ceci and colleagues. [16] [17] Herrmann and Yoer argue that the methods used can have negative implications for the children used such as lessen their respect for authority, be damaging for their concept of self (feel incompetent when it is pointed out that their memories are wrong) and cause stress. [15]

This article created much debate and several commentaries to the article were published in the same June edition of the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology together with the original article. One of these was written by Ceci, Bruck and Loftus who disagree with the statements in Herrmann and Yoder's article. According to these authors there is no evidence that any children have been harmed in a memory implantation study and until such evidence exists there is no reason to stop using these techniques with children as long as it produces good research. [18]

Ornstein and Gordon also replied to Herrmann and Yoder's article saying that although people conducting research with children have an ethical responsibility there is much to be gained from memory implantation research and the benefits outweigh the potential risk for children involved. [19]

Another commentary written by Goodman, Quas and Redlich argues that there is reason to believe that children in general enjoy participating in false memory studies and that the benefits of these studies for research into eyewitness memory are many. They also refer to several cases where memory implantation studies have been cited in court and contributed to convictions being overturned. [20]

Thompson and Jackson propose a modified version of the suggestions from Herrmann and Yoder and say that methods for being more ethically aware when doing research with children have to be developed. [21] Also Westcott agrees with the general concerns about researchers having to take extra care when working with children. [22]

In their responding article to all the commentaries Yoder and Herrmann again question whether memory implantation research with children is necessary and conclude that ethical guidelines should be put in place by Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC). [23] Although all the researchers involved in these commentaries from this issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology put forward different arguments, the general consensus was that doing research with children calls for extra care and the benefits from the research must outweigh potential risk to the participating children.

General criticism of the concept The Unconscious in therapies

Sociologist Richard Ofshe, an expert on false memories due to coercive interrogations as well as suggestive therapies, [24] has testified as expert witness in many court cases dealing with spectacular legal scandals. Based on these experiences he published in 1999, together with a co-author, a fundamental criticism of the concept of the unconscious, because he considered it as the main underlying cause of the implanted memories he had been dealing with: [25]

.... the idea of the dynamic unconscious proposes a powerful shadow mind that, unknown to its host, willfully influences the most minor thought and behavior. There is no scientific evidence of this sort of purposeful unconscious, nor is there evidence that psychotherapists have special methods for laying bare our out-of-awareness.

See also

Related Research Articles

In psychology, false memory syndrome (FMS) was a controversial proposed condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by what are believed to be false memories of psychological trauma, recollections which are strongly believed but factually contested by the accused. Peter J. Freyd originated the term partly to explain what he said was a false accusation of sexual abuse made against him by his daughter Jennifer Freyd and his False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) subsequently popularized the concept. The principle that individuals can hold false memories and the role that outside influence can play in their formation is widely accepted by scientists, but there is debate over whether this effect can lead to the kinds of detailed memories of repeated sexual abuse and significant personality changes typical of cases that FMS has historically been applied to. However FMS has not been recognized as a psychiatric illness in any medical manuals including the ICD-10, ICD-11, or the DSM-5.

Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is understood as a defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness. Repressed memory is presently considered largely unsupported by research. Sigmund Freud initially claimed the memories of historical childhood trauma could be repressed, while unconsciously influencing present behavior and emotional responding; he later revised this belief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Loftus</span> American cognitive psychologist

Elizabeth F. Loftus is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies.

The "lost in the mall" technique or experiment is a memory implantation technique used to demonstrate that confabulations about events that never took place – such as having been lost in a shopping mall as a child – can be created through suggestions made to experimental subjects that their older relative was present at the time. It was first developed by Elizabeth Loftus and her undergraduate student Jim Coan, as support for the thesis that it is possible to implant entirely false memories in people. The technique was developed in the context of the debate about the existence of repressed memories and false memory syndrome.

Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence, that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.

The Thurston County ritual abuse case was a 1988 case in which Paul Ingram, county Republican Party Chairman of Thurston County, Washington and the Chief Civil Deputy of the Sheriff's department, was accused by his daughters of sexual abuse, by at least one daughter of satanic ritual abuse, and later accused by his son in 1996 of abusing him between the ages of 4 and 12.

In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory.

Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is not always the case. This recollection is used as evidence to show what happened from a witness' point of view. Memory recall has been considered a credible source in the past, but has recently come under attack as forensics can now support psychologists in their claim that memories and individual perceptions can be unreliable, manipulated, and biased. As a result of this, many countries, and states within the United States, are now attempting to make changes in how eyewitness testimony is presented in court. Eyewitness testimony is a specialized focus within cognitive psychology.

Autobiographical memory (AM) is a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individual's life, based on a combination of episodic and semantic memory. It is thus a type of explicit memory.

Memory conformity, also known as social contagion of memory, refers to the phenomenon where memories or information reported by others influences an individual and is incorporated into the individual's memory. Memory conformity is a memory error due to both social influences and cognitive mechanisms. Social contamination of false memory can be exemplified in prominent situations involving social interactions, such as eyewitness testimony. Research on memory conformity has revealed that such suggestibility and errors with source monitoring has far reaching consequences, with important legal and social implications. It is one of many social influences on memory.

In psychology, the misattribution of memory or source misattribution is the misidentification of the origin of a memory by the person making the memory recall. Misattribution is likely to occur when individuals are unable to monitor and control the influence of their attitudes, toward their judgments, at the time of retrieval. Misattribution is divided into three components: cryptomnesia, false memories, and source confusion. It was originally noted as one of Daniel Schacter's seven sins of memory.

The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm is a procedure in cognitive psychology used to study false memory in humans. The procedure was pioneered by James Deese in 1959, but it was not until Henry L. Roediger III and Kathleen McDermott extended the line of research in 1995 that the paradigm became popular. The procedure typically involves the oral presentation of a list of related words and then requires the subject to remember as many words from the list as possible. Typical results show that subjects recall a related but absent word, known as a 'lure', with the same frequency as other presented words. When asked about their experience after the test, about half of all participants report that they are sure that they remember hearing the lure, indicating a false memory – a memory for an event that never occurred.

Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of two to four years. It may also refer to the scarcity or fragmentation of memories recollected from early childhood, particularly occurring between the ages of 2 and 6. On average, this fragmented period wanes off at around 4.7 years. Around 5-6 years of age in particular is thought to be when autobiographical memory seems to stabilize and be on par with adults. The development of a cognitive self is also thought by some to have an effect on encoding and storing early memories.

Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other witnessed dramatic event. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system. It can also refer to an individual's memory for a face, where they are required to remember the face of their perpetrator, for example. However, the accuracy of eyewitness memories is sometimes questioned because there are many factors that can act during encoding and retrieval of the witnessed event which may adversely affect the creation and maintenance of the memory for the event. Experts have found evidence to suggest that eyewitness memory is fallible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misinformation effect</span> Recall of episodic memories becoming less accurate because of post-event information

The misinformation effect occurs when a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information. The misinformation effect has been studied since the mid-1970s. Elizabeth Loftus is one of the most influential researchers in the field. One theory is that original information and the misleading information that was presented after the fact become blended together. Another theory is that the misleading information overwrites the original information. Lastly, scientists suggest that because the misleading information is the most recent, it is more easily retrieved.

In psychology, confabulation is a memory error defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.

Ira Hyman, Ph.D., is currently a professor of psychology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. His research is focused on human memory including traumatic memories, false childhood memories, autobiographical memory, memory in social context, and memory for phobia onset. Some of his most influential studies are: "Did you see the unicycling clown? Inattentional blindness while walking and talking on a cell phone", "Errors in autobiographical memories", "Individual differences and the creation of false childhood memories", "The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories" and "False memories of childhood experiences".

Imagination inflation is a type of memory distortion that occurs when imagining an event that never happened increases confidence in the memory of the event.

Valerie F. Reyna is an American psychologist and Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and an expert on false memory and risky decision making.

The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse is a 1994 book by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, published by St. Martin's Press.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Loftus, Elizabeth F; Pickrell, Jacqueline E (December 1995). "The Formation of False Memories" (PDF). Psychiatric Annals. 25 (12): 720–725. doi:10.3928/0048-5713-19951201-07. S2CID   59286093. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-27.
  2. ↑ Wade, Kimberley A; Garry, Maryanne; Read, J. Don; Lindsay, Stephen (September 2002). "A picture is worth a thousand lies: Using false photographs to create false childhood memories". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 9 (3): 597–603. doi: 10.3758/BF03196318 . PMID   12412902.
  3. ↑ Lindsay, D.S; Hagen, L.; Read, J.D.; Wade, K.A.; Garry, M. (2004). "True photographs and false memories". Psychological Science. 15 (3): 149–154. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.01503002.x. PMID   15016285. S2CID   18977129.
  4. 1 2 3 Wade, Kimberly A.; Garry, Maryanne (2005). "Strategies for verifying false autobiographical memories". The American Journal of Psychology. 118 (4): 587–602. doi:10.2307/30039087. JSTOR   30039087. PMID   16402747. S2CID   40151384.
  5. ↑ Wade, K.A.; Garry, M.; Read, J.D.; Lindsay, D.S. (2002). "A picture is worth a thousand lies: Using false photographs to create false childhood memories". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 9 (3): 597–603. doi: 10.3758/BF03196318 . PMID   12412902.
  6. ↑ Garry, Maryanne; Wade, Kimberly A. (2005). "Actually, a picture is worth less than 45 words: Narratives produce more false memories than photographs do". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 12 (2): 359–366. doi: 10.3758/bf03196385 . PMID   16082819.
  7. ↑ Lindsay, D.S.; Hagen, L.; Read, J.D.; Wade, K.A.; Garry, M. (2004). "True photographs and false memories". Psychological Science. 15 (3): 149–154. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.01503002.x. PMID   15016285. S2CID   18977129.
  8. ↑ Pezdek, K.; Hodge, D. (1999). "Planting False Childhood Memories in Children: The Role of Event Plausibility". Child Development. 70 (4): 887–895. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00064.
  9. ↑ Pezdek, Kathy; Blandon-Gitlin, Iris; Lam, Shirley; Hart, Rhiannon Ellis; Schooler, Jonathan W. (December 2006). "Is knowing believing? The role of event plausibility and background knowledge in planting false beliefs about the personal past". Memory & Cognition. 34 (8): 1628–1635. doi:10.3758/BF03195925. PMID   17489289. S2CID   20426384. ProQuest   217453426.
  10. 1 2 Mazzoni, G. A. L.; Loftus, E. F.; Kirsch, I. (2001). "Changing beliefs about implausible autobiographical events: A little plausibility goes a long way". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 7 (1): 51–59. doi:10.1037/1076-898X.7.1.51. PMID   11577619.
  11. ↑ Hyman, Ira E.; James Billings, F. (January 1998). "Individual Differences and the Creation of False Childhood Memories". Memory. 6 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1080/741941598. PMID   9640430.
  12. ↑ Ofshe, Richard J. (1992). "Inadvertent Hypnosis During Interrogation: False Confession Due to Dissociative State; Mis-Identified Multiple Personality and the Satanic Cult Hypothesis". International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 40 (3): 125–156. doi:10.1080/00207149208409653. PMID   1399152.
  13. ↑ Crook, L.; Dean, Martha (1999). "Lost in a Shopping Mall—A Breach of Professional Ethics". Ethics & Behavior. 9 (1): 39–50. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0901_3. PMID   11657487.
  14. ↑ Hyman, Ira E.; Husband, Troy H; Billings, James F. (1995). "False Memories of Childhood Experiences". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 9 (3): 181–197. doi:10.1002/acp.2350090302.
  15. 1 2 Herrmann, D.; Yoder, C. (1998). "The potential effects of the implanted memory paradigm on child subjects". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 198–206. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<198::AID-ACP1522>3.0.CO;2-Y.
  16. ↑ Ceci, S. J.; Bruck, M. (1993). "Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis". Psychological Bulletin. 113 (3): 403–439. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.123.3489 . doi:10.1037/0033-2909.113.3.403. PMID   8316609. S2CID   16233880.
  17. ↑ Ceci, S. J.; Loftus, E. F.; Leichtman, M.; Bruck, M. (1994). "The possible role of source misattributions in the creation of false beliefs among preschoolers". The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 42 (4): 304–320. doi:10.1080/00207149408409361. PMID   7960288.
  18. ↑ Ceci, S. J.; Bruck, M.; Loftus, E. F. (1998). "On the ethics of memory implantation research". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 230–240. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<230::AID-ACP526>3.0.CO;2-1.
  19. ↑ Ornstein, P. A.; Gordon, B. N. (1998). "Risk versus rewards of applied research with children: Comments on the potential effects of the implanted-memory paradigm on child participants by douglas herrmann and carol yoder". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 241–244. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<241::AID-ACP527>3.0.CO;2-V.
  20. ↑ Goodman, G. S.; Quas, J. A.; Redlich, A. D. (1998). "The ethics of conducting false memory research with children: A reply to herrmann and yoder". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 207–217. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.467.1439 . doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<207::AID-ACP523>3.0.CO;2-T.
  21. ↑ Thompson, R. A.; Jackson, S. (1998). "Ethical dimensions of child memory research". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 218–224. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<218::AID-ACP524>3.0.CO;2-M.
  22. ↑ Westcott, H (1998). "Commentary on herrmann and yoders the potential effects of the implanted memory paradigm on child subjects". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 225–229. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<225::AID-ACP525>3.0.CO;2-R.
  23. ↑ Yoder, C.; Herrmann, D. (1998). "Revisiting the ethics of implanted memory research with children". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 12 (3): 245–249. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199806)12:3<245::AID-ACP528>3.0.CO;2-G.
  24. ↑ R. J. Ofshe, M. T. Singer: Recovered-memory therapy and robust repression: influence and pseudomemories. In: The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis. Vol 42, Nr 4, October 1994, p. 391–410, doi : 10.1080/00207149408409367, PMID   7960294.
  25. ↑ Ethan Watters; Richard Ofshe: Therapy's delusions: the myth of the unconscious and the exploitation of today's walking worried, Scribner, New York 1999, ISBN   9780684835846, p. 39.


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