Comments on: False Memories Can Influence Behaviour

By: Therapy

Therapy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:59:00 +0000

Very interesting study. Can false memories help in deaddiction therapies? Would this be a problem by itself? - false memories

By: Adnan Mole

Adnan Mole — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:26:00 +0000

As far as the article describes, the apparent practice of both of the researchers in the two studies cited, i.e., to deliberately misinform the participants of both studies, has serious, ethical implications.

By: Spencer

Spencer — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:55:00 +0000

this is fascinating. thanks

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:10:00 +0000

Hi Peter, yes, this is a recurrent problem in false memory research. In this case the experimenters asked the participant's families, who confirmed that they had not got sick from egg salad as children.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:54:00 +0000

What if some of them actually did get sick once from eating egg salad? How would the experimenters rule that one out?

By: startrekker59

startrekker59 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:26:00 +0000

yuck ! egg sandwiches ! interesting how the mind can deceive us - so perhaps memories of past lives are just fantasy too ?.

By: Melissa (ivy)

Melissa (ivy) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:39:00 +0000

interesting study, though the results do not surprise me all that much. It is amazing what the mind can do. It is also interesting what one can associate. I used to love chicken and dumbplings, but once I had it after a surgery and my stomach got upset. Though logically I -know- it was the medicine and surgery that made me ill, the food still triggers the memory and I don't like chicken and dumplings. it seems logical that even a false memory of such an event could trigger the same reaction.

By: Erica

Erica — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Is this something you could use on obese people to help them control their urges to binge eat?

By: Jeremy (PsyBlog author)

Jeremy (PsyBlog author) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:18:00 +0000

Julian, this objection is ruled out by the experimental design. If the participants simply didn't like egg salad then the control group would also have eaten less of these sandwiches, but they didn't. This is the purpose of having a control group.

By: Julian Eftekar

Julian Eftekar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:06:00 +0000

Maybe the test subjects just didn't like egg salad. I don't like egg salad, but it's not because I got sick after eating it once.

They should have used a more tasty sandwich, then I may consider it.