Comments on: Implanting False Memories: Lost in the Mall & Paul Ingram

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:40:00 +0000

Murphy, you're right, thanks - I've edited it.

By: Murphy

Murphy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:08:00 +0000

Great blog! A question re: the mall study. You said, “Of the 24 participants, 7 falsely recalled the made up 'lost in the mall' event as a real memory.”

Shouldn’t that be 5 participants, or maybe you're trying to implant a false memory? :-)

On page 723 of Loftus and Pickrell (1995) it says, “At the end of the second session, subjects were debriefed and asked to choose which event may have been the false one. Of the 24 total, 19 subjects correctly chose the getting-lost memory as the false one, while the remaining five incorrectly thought that one of the true events as the false one.

By: Rick Peterson

Rick Peterson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:59:00 +0000

Memories...what I find strange...(myself included)...is how we take so much stock in them...that the Reality brought by our memories actually happened or is truthful. From simple memories that are just wrong...like the type of carpet in my basement...to whether false memories have been implanted in a family member by a therapist...

I have a friend where we did a lot of stuff together...and shared a lot of the same stories...I remember him telling a story to a mutual friend of an event that he did...The funny thing was that he was never at the event...It was my story...and he had heard it so many times from me that he had created memories of it...

P.S. I love this blog...

By: Will

Will — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:57:00 +0000

Very interesting article. Also an interesting comment about actors, mrG. This, along with research that shows that people with memory problems also have trouble picturing future events (see, for example, http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/reconstructive_memoryconfabula.php toward the end), makes me wonder that imagining, pretending, and remembering are all interrelated. It would appear that memory is not so much a recollection of events as a re-living or re-imagining of a scenario, and that we further incorporate knowledge from other sources when recreating those scenes, as demonstrated in this and the eyewitness post earlier.

It makes me wonder if actors who really do "get into" their roles ever remember staged events as real! It also makes me think that we often "choose to pretend" but I wonder what things we pretend without choosing to. Perhaps this is where cognitive dissonance comes into play?

I myself have had the experience of dreaming something and later remembering it as an actual event. Strange stuff! Good thing it wasn't relevant in a courtroom.

By: mrG

mrG — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:50:00 +0000

Another name worthy of adding to the list of investigators is the late Nick Spanos of Carleton University in Ottawa. When I last corresponded with him (c.1990) he was successfully implanting memories of alien abductions and other really weird things. Nick said the first step was just to get them to the point where "they can believe that it might be plausible" and from there it was easy. I also talked to one of his experimental subjects, an actor by profession, and he told me how, from his professional point of view, he didn't really think he had a true "past life regression" but that he'd had the same sensation he normally gets "when I really get into a role".

By: Blair Warren

Blair Warren — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:30:00 +0000

I often joke about how parents could save money by doctoring pictures of their kids and making it look like they've been to Disneyland, had a pony, etc.

Then, when their kids are old enough to ask to go to Disneyland, they can hand them the pictures and say, "But we've already done that."

Before reading your article I never figured this might actually work.

Hmmm...

My son is almost 16 and is looking at cars.

Maybe I'll create a picture of him beside a wrecked sports car so when he asks for one I can hand him the picture and say, "Not after what you did to your last one."

It's worth a shot, right? ;)

Great article, Jeremy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:21:00 +0000

This is very interesting in light of recent events i.e. th trial of the 9/11 bombers who were held @ Guantanamo bay. No wonder people are ruling out a fair trial, the suggestability that you highlight here; along with the probability that they were held under solitary confinement and all that is associated with that and not to mention that the authorities have admitted "water torture" how could they possibly stand trial now? In an intelligent society we must assume anything they said can not be used as evidence now. Do you agree.

PS loved the schopenhaur & I'm now a recruit

By: Ron in Houston

Ron in Houston — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:31:00 +0000

An excellent post.

I've really enjoyed your series on psychological issues that impact the law.

I've linked your article on eyewitness identification several times.

Your RSS feed is on my Bookmark toolbar, and I check it religiously.

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:28:00 +0000

Thanks!

By: T Skid C

T Skid C — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:36:00 +0000

By the way, Jeremy, I am really enjoying your blog. Glad I discovered it.