Custom essays on The misinformation effect and how it relates to the occurrence of false memories

Why do people sometimes unable to distinguish false memories from true?
Some scientists and psychologists say that one of the reasons for that is a feature of the formation of false memory: when someone person shares with us his memories, he implants them partly in our memory.
The “false memory” – is a memory about event or details of event, which actually are not true. (McHugh, 2008)
Many research were held to show how people can “pollute” the memory of each other, discussing certain events that occurred in the past. A key result of the research lies in the fact that the misleading information provided during discussions with another person who witnessed the event, could also lead to a distortion of memory. (McHugh, 2008)
Thus, witnesses who discuss the event with other people, most likely will get from them the amount of false information, which will be well implanted in their own memory, that they would take for personal memoirs. Also, studies show that contamination of memory is retained even when people are warned about misinformation.
Thus, psychologists are seriously interested in mechanism of the so-called “false memories”.

Psychologists are seriously interested in the mechanism of formation of the so-called “false memories”. For example psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus from the University of Washington during the years of investigations has found that it is possible to create false memories and convince people about something unreal. Many scientists began to make experiments and hold studies after cases of false memory in patients of psychotherapists, when during the hypnosis patients suddenly began to “think” about cases of sexual aggression, which happened to them in early childhood, and even after the hypnosis patients assured that their memories are real. (Loftus, 1994)
It is extremely difficult to distinguish true from false memories. A growing number of studies in this area demonstrates that under certain circumstances, false memories can be easily implemented in the memory of people. Experiments show that people who witnessed any events that may later under the influence of false information “change” their memories.
There is such an example: witnesses of the accident, blaming the driver who did not notice the yellow traffic light, were divided into two groups. One group presented the “evidence” that the light was green, and the other group received no false information about the incident. After some time researchers held re-examination of both groups of witnesses, and those people who were given false information suddenly “remembered” green light of the traffic, but not red as they had claimed earlier.
False information, misinformation of any kind could damage our present memory. This can happen during a conversation with other people or, for example, reading newspaper articles about the events that we have seen ourselves. There are many ways to make people susceptible to modification of memory. For example, it is proved that the memory is easiest to “change” if after the event, which includes these memories, much time has passed. (McHugh, 2008)
Experiments
A well-known psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus from the University of Washington together with students from her department conducted an experiment, which was attended by 24 people aged 18 to 53 years. The aim of the experiment was to show the mechanism of false memory by “introducing” some false childhood memories to people, about how they were lost in the store at the age of five years. Moreover, pre-interviewed relatives of those people confirmed that nothing like this did not occur with the participants of the experiment. The participants were told that the purpose of the experiment was to determine what events from their distant childhood they can recall on the basis of memories of their parents. Each participant was given a booklet of the experiment with four pre-prepared memories of their childhood, of which three were true, and one (about the loss in the store) – was false.
After studying the booklet the participants of the experiment were suggested immediately to assess clarity of memoirs on the special scale – and the participants of the experiment were able to recall about 68% of real events. It turned out that after reading the booklet, 29% of the participants began to partially or completely “remember” what really never happened with them. The following quizzes confirmed that the fabricated memories made by psychologists began to seem real to participants.
Similar results were obtained by other researchers. Students at Washington University were asked to recall any incidents from childhood, and then compared them with the memories of their parents with one false memory. About 20% of students “remember” stories associated with false memories forged during the second interview. Moreover, for several quizzes in the memories were more new details.
External interference, which can change children’s memories, help psychologists to understand the process of false memory. And so there is one important question: is it possible to practically use the research data in real life, for example, in situations of interrogation of suspects or in the process of psychotherapy session?
It can be argued that any assumption about the situation, as expressed in the form of falsification may affect the establishment of false memories. For example, the request of the investigator or therapist to imagine myself in any situation can trigger the mechanism of “remembering” what actually was not.
So, let’s make conclusion from the research of the mechanism of formation of false memories. First, the participants of the experiments about false memory had certain pressure from psychologists and researchers. Secondly, the construction of false memories is easier when the events referred to in the memory were in the past. And, finally, to form a false memory the participant should have no doubt that false memories are real.
Thus, considering all the above factors, it can be argued that the best form of false memory occurs during the experiments of psychotherapists or during an unremarkable day.
False memories are beginning to take shape at the intersection of real memories and assumptions derived from the people outside, and during the process of forming a false memory people can easily forget the source of information. But in fact one can distinguish the real from the fake memories: true memories have more clarity and details.

References
Loftus Elizabeth F , Ketcham Katherine. “The myth of repressed memory”. St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Maryanne Carry, Charles G. Manning, Elizabeth F. Loftus and Steven J. Sherman “Imagination inflation”. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Vol. 3, NO. 2, June 1996?, pp. 208-214
McHugh, PR . “Try to remember: Psychiatry’s clash over meaning, memory and mind”. Dana Press, 2008.
Pezdek, K; Hodge, D. “Planting false childhood memories: The role of event plausibility”. Child Development 70 (4), July-August 1999. Pp. 887–895.