The Most Shocking Fact About False Memories

How false memories from childhood could be implanted.

How false memories from childhood could be implanted.

Fifty per cent of people are prone to believing false memories, research finds.

When totally fictitious (but plausible) events are suggested, around 50% of people then believe they have experienced them.

Examples included taking a hot air balloon ride as a child or causing havoc at a wedding when a child.

The conclusion comes from many ‘memory implantation’ studies that have been carried out over the years.

Typically, in the studies, people are asked to repeatedly imagine the fake events occurring.

They are then tested much later, once the memory has had a chance to settle in.

The result is that people find it very difficult to separate real events from false events.

Psychologists found that of the 50 percent who are susceptible:

  • 30 percent of people remember fake events suggested to them. They will even go so far as to invent further details about the event that did not happen to them
  • 23 percent showed some signs they remembered the fake events.

Dr Kimberley Wade, an author of the study, said:

“We know that many factors affect the creation of false beliefs and memories — such as asking a person to repeatedly imagine a fake event or to view photos to “jog” their memory.

But we don’t fully understand how all these factors interact.

Large-scale studies like our mega-analysis move us a little bit closer.

The finding that a large portion of people are prone to developing false beliefs is important.

We know from other research that distorted beliefs can influence people’s behaviours, intentions and attitudes.”

The study was published in the journal of Memory (Scoboria et al., 2016).

A Simple Trick To Help You Remember Anything

Memory is dynamic, but it needs this clue as to what it should store away so you remember more.

Memory is dynamic, but it needs this clue as to what it should store away so you remember more.

Telling someone else a piece of information helps you to remember more, psychological research finds.

People in the study who immediately told others a piece of information could remember more later and they remembered it for longer.

Dr Melanie Sekeres, the study’s lead author, explained:

“This has to be actively replaying or re-generating the information — for example, by telling someone the particulars, as opposed to just simply re-reading the textbook or class notes and studying it again later.

A week later, the memory was just as good.

Telling someone else about what you’ve learned is a really effective way for students to study instead of just re-reading the textbook or class notes.”

For the study students were trying to remember the general plots of films and certain details in the films.

Small cues — like the title of the film — were also enough to help students recall the film’s details.

Dr Sekeres said:

“With a cue, suddenly, a lot of those details will come back.

We don’t permanently forget them, which would indicate lack of storage — we just can’t immediately access them.

And that’s good.

That means our memories aren’t as bad as we think.”

Dr Sekeres explained the nature of the films used in the study:

“We chose mostly foreign films and somewhat obscure clips that we thought most undergraduates would not have seen.

The clips all contained brief scenes of normal, everyday events that mimicked the kind of events you might experience in a day, such as a family having dinner or kids playing at a park.”

How to remember more

Trying to explain the information to someone else can be tiring, but the effort is worth it:

“We tell students to test yourself, force yourself to tell someone about the lecture.

Even by writing out some questions for yourself about the information, then later answering them yourself, you are more likely to remember the information.

Unfortunately, simply re-reading or passively listening to a recording of your lecture in the hopes of remembering the information isn’t a great study strategy by comparison.”

The reason testing and re-testing works is because the brain is adaptive:

“We remember the important things, for the most part, and we forget the unimportant details.

You don’t want your brain to search through tons of useless information.”

The study was published in the journal Learning & Memory (Sekeres et al., 2016).

Facts About Memory: 10 Interesting Things You Should Know

Fun facts about memory include that it does not decay, works nothing like a computer and that recall alone changes them.

Fun facts about memory include that it does not decay, works nothing like a computer and that recall alone changes them.

“If we remembered everything we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.” ~William James

It’s often said that a person is the sum of their memories.

Your memory and recall is what makes you who you are.

Despite this, facts about memory are generally poorly understood, which is why many people say they have ‘bad memories’.

That’s partly because the analogies we have to hand—like that of computer memory—are not helpful.

The fact is that human memory is vastly more interesting and quirky than the memory residing in our laptops, tablets or phones.

Here is my 10-point guide to facts about memory (it is based on an excellent review chapter by the distinguished UCLA memory expert, Professor Robert A. Bjork).

1. Facts about memory: it does not decay

Everyone has experienced the frustration of not being able to recall a fact from memory.

It could be someone’s name, the French for ‘town hall’ or where the car is parked.

So it seems obvious that memories decay, like fruit going off.

But the research tends not to support this view.

Instead many researchers think that in fact memory has a limitless capacity.

Everything is stored in there but, without rehearsal, memories become harder to access.

This means it’s not the memory that’s ‘going off’ it’s the ability to retrieve it.

But what on earth is the point of a brain that remembers everything but can’t recall most of it?

Here’s what:

2. Forgetting helps you learn

The idea that forgetting helps you learn seems counter-intuitive, but think of it this way: imagine if you created a brain that could remember and recall everything.

When this amazing brain was trying to remember where it parked the car, it would immediately bring to mind all the car parks it had ever seen, then it would have to sort through the lot.

Obviously the only one that’s of interest is the most recent.

And this is generally true of most of our memories. Recent events are usually much more important than ones that happened a long time ago.

To make your super-brain quicker and more useful in the real world you’d have to build in some system for discounting old, useless info.

In fact, of course, we all have one of these super-brains with a discounting system: we call it ‘forgetting’.

That’s why forgetting helps you learn: as less relevant information becomes inaccessible, we are naturally left with the information that is most important to our daily survival.

3. ‘Lost’ memories can live again

There’s another side to the fact about memory not decaying.

That’s the idea that although memories may become less accessible, they can be revived.

Even things that you have long been unable to recall are still there, waiting to be woken.

Experiments have shown that even information that has long become inaccessible can still be revived.

Indeed it is then re-learned more quickly than new information.

This is like the fact about memory that you never forget how to ride a bike, but it doesn’t just apply to motor skills, it also applies to memory and recall.

4. Recalling memories alters them

Although it’s a fundamental of memory and recall, the idea that recall alters memories seems intuitively wrong.

How can recalling a memory change it?

Well, just by recalling a memory, it becomes stronger in comparison to other memories.

Let’s run this through an example.

Say you think back to one particular birthday from childhood and you recall getting a Lego spaceship.

Each time you recall that fact, the other things you got for your birthday that day become weaker in comparison.

The process of recall, then, is actually actively constructing the past, or at least the parts of your past that you can remember.

This is only the beginning though.

False memories can potentially be created by this process of falsely recalling the past.

Indeed, psychologists have experimentally implanted false memories.

This raises the fascinating idea that effectively we create ourselves by choosing which memories to recall.

5. Fact about memory: it is unstable

The fact that the simple act of recall changes memory means that it is relatively unstable.

But people tend to think that memory is relatively stable: we forget that we forgot and so we think we won’t forget in the future what we now know.

What this means is that students, in particular, vastly underestimate how much effort will be required to commit material to memory.

And they’re not the only ones.

This leads to…

6. The foresight bias

Everyone must have experienced this. You have an idea that is so great you think it’s impossible you’ll ever forget it.

So you don’t bother writing it down.

Within ten minutes you’ve forgotten it and it never comes back.

We see the same thing in the lab.

In one study by Koriat and Bjork (2005) people learned pairs of words like ‘light-lamp’, then are asked to estimate how likely it is they’ll be able to answer ‘lamp’ when later given the prompt ‘light’.

They are massively over-confident and the reason is this foresight bias.

When they get the word ‘light’ later all kinds of other things come to mind like ‘bulb’ or ‘shade’ and the correct answer isn’t nearly as easy to recall as they predicted.

7. When recall is easy, learning is low

We feel clever when we recall something instantly and stupid when it takes ages.

But in terms of learning, we should feel the exact reverse.

When something comes to mind quickly, i.e. we do no work to recall it, no learning occurs.

When we have to work hard to bring it to consciousness, something cool happens: we learn.

When people’s memories are tested, the more work they have done to construct, or re-construct, the target memory, the stronger the memory eventually becomes.

This is why proper learning techniques always involve testing, because just staring at the information isn’t good enough: learning needs effortful recall.

8. Learning depends heavily on context

Have you ever noticed that when you learn something in one context, like the classroom, it becomes difficult to recall when that context changes?

This is because learning depends heavily on how and where you do it: it depends on who is there, what is around you and how you learn.

It turns out that in the long-term people learn information best when they are exposed to it in different ways or different contexts.

When learning is highly context-dependent, it doesn’t transfer well or stick as well over the years.

I had a friend at University who swore that standing on a chair or up against a wall helped him to revise.

I used to laugh at him but there was method in his madness.

9. Memory, reloaded

If you want to learn to play tennis, is it better to spend one week learning to serve, the next week the forehand, the week after the backhand, and so on?

Or should you mix it all up with serves, forehands and backhands every day?

It turns out that for long-term retention, memories are more easily recalled if learning is mixed up.

This is just as true for both motor learning, like tennis, as it is for declarative memory, like what’s the capital of Venezuela (to save you googling: it’s Caracas).

The trouble is that learning like this is worse to start off with.

If you practice your serve then quickly switch to the forehand, you ‘forget’ how to serve.

So you feel things are going worse than if you just practice your serve over-and-over again.

But, in the long-run this kind of mix-and-match learning works best.

One explanation for why this works is called the ‘reloading hypothesis’.

Each time we switch tasks we have to ‘reload’ the memory.

This process of reloading strengthens the learning.

10. Learning is under your control

The practical upshot of these facts about memory is that we often underestimate how much control we have over our own memory and recall.

For example, people tend to think that some things are, by their nature, harder to learn, and so they give up.

However, techniques like using different contexts, switching between tasks and strenuous reconstruction of memories can all help boost retention.

People also tend to think that the past is fixed and gone; it can’t be changed.

But how we recall the past and think about it can be changed.

Recalling memories in different ways can help us re-interpret the past and set us off on a different path in the future.

For example, studies have shown that people can crowd out painful negative memories by focusing on more positive ones (Levy & Anderson, 2008).

All in all, these facts about memory reveal that our recall isn’t as poor as we might imagine.

It may not work like a computer, but that’s what makes it all the more fascinating to understand and experience.

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Why Note-Taking Can Make Your Memory Worse

Psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration or Pairs — half were allowed to take notes.

Psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration or Pairs — half were allowed to take notes.

Making notes can actually reduce what you remember, according to psychological research.

In a reverse of what many people expect, writing down information causes it to be flushed from memory.

We seem to intentionally forget what we write down.

Concentration

To prove it psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration, Pairs or just Memory.

A whole pack of cards is spread out across the table face-down.

Then each person turns over two cards, looking for a matching number (or picture) card.

You repeat this, turn by turn, and the winner is the person who gets the most pairs.

For the study, half were allowed to make notes about the locations of the cards, the other half not.

Here’s the trick, though: those allowed to make notes had them taken away before they were tested on the locations and identities of the cards.

The study’s authors write:

“One might have predicted that the note-taking group should show evidence of having better memory for the identity and location of the cards, as it could be argued that the form of studying that they were engaged in was more active and elaborate than the forms used by the study group.”

However, the study showed the exact reverse, as the authors explain:

“[the results showed] participants in the note-taking group remembered significantly less location information than did participants in the study group.

These results are suggestive that note-takers intentionally forgot the location information.”

The reason, then, is that the brain says to itself: “Well, I’ve written this information down, so there is no need to remember it!”

The authors write:

“Not unlike a person using a day planner to keep track of appointments, the results indicate that participants relied on their notes as an external store for the cards’ locations.”

So, be careful what you make a note of, especially if you think you might lose the notes!

The study was published in the journal Memory & Cognition (Eskritt & Ma, 2014).

The Bare Minimum Exercise To Avoid Memory Loss (M)

Difficulty remembering autobiographical events is one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.

Difficulty remembering autobiographical events is one of the first signs of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.


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Dementia: 9 Warning Signs Everyone Should Know

…and the type of memory problems that are nothing to worry about.

…and the type of memory problems that are nothing to worry about.

Almost everyone has memory glitches from time-to-time — they are usually not a sign of dementia.

Here are a few perfectly normal memory problems:

  • Being unable to remember the word for something.
  • After putting something down, being unable to remember where you left it.
  • Having to think for a few minutes to remember where you left the car.
  • Going upstairs, then forgetting why you are there.
  • Forgetting something relatively unimportant someone has told you.

These are nothing to worry about.

Memory is also affected by poor sleep, stress and depression.

Most people who think they have some memory problems, actually do not.

The reason is that people who are having more serious memory problems are usually not aware of them.

Often it is friends and relatives who suggest a person having memory problems should get checked out.

Somewhat worrying memory problems to watch out for include:

  1. Forgetting the name of a close friend or relative.
  2. Regularly putting objects back in the wrong places and not remembering having left them there.
  3. Asking someone the same question again 30 minutes later.
  4. Trouble recognising words, faces, shapes or colours.
  5. Finding it difficult to get around very familiar places, like the local area.
  6. Difficulty doing multiple automated tasks. For example, a good cook who starts finding it hard to manage a very familiar recipe.
  7. A large change in personality, such as becoming very introverted after being an outgoing, social person.

The signs above are slightly more worrying but could still be the result of stress, poor sleep or grief.

The warning signs

The following signs, though, are more serious and would probably warrant being checked out by a physician:

  1. Not recognising close friends and relatives.
  2. Getting disorientated about time and space.
  3. Inability to tell the function of an everyday object — like a teapot.
  4. Poor everyday judgement: like wearing summer clothes in winter.
  5. Totally forgetting how to perform everyday tasks like using the washing machine.
  6. Leaving things in strange places, like putting a handbag in the freezer.
  7. Getting confused about the family structure. For example, being unable to match the grandchild to the right family.
  8. Asking for something that has just been had, like a cup of coffee.
  9. Having vivid memories from childhood, but faltering memories for very familiar recent memories.

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The Essential Oil That Enhances Memory For Past And Future Events

The aroma of this essential oil also boosts mental arithmetic and long-term memory.

The aroma of this essential oil also boosts mental arithmetic and long-term memory.

The aroma of rosemary essential oil enhances memory and the ability to remember future events, research finds.

For the study 66 people took various memory tests either in a room that was scented with rosemary or without.

Those breathing the scent of rosemary performed better.

Dr Mark Moss, one of the study’s authors, said:

“We wanted to build on our previous research that indicated rosemary aroma improved long-term memory and mental arithmetic.

In this study we focused on prospective memory, which involves the ability to remember events that will occur in the future and to remember to complete tasks at particular times this is critical for everyday functioning.

For example when someone needs to remember to post a birthday card or to take medication at a particular time.”

Jemma McCready, a study co-author, said:

“There was no link between the participants’ mood and memory.

This suggests performance is not influenced as a consequence of changes in alertness or arousal.”

She continued:

“These findings may have implications for treating individuals with memory impairments.

It supports our previous research indicating that the aroma of rosemary essential oil can enhance cognitive functioning in healthy adults, here extending to the ability to remember events and to complete tasks in the future.

Remembering when and where to go and for what reasons underpins everything we do, and we all suffer minor failings that can be frustrating and sometimes dangerous.

Further research is needed to investigate if this treatment is useful for older adults who have experienced memory decline.”

The study was presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in 2013.

Memory: This Is The Key To Permanent Recall – Done In Just 40 Seconds

New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.

New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.

Rehearsing a memory for just 40 seconds could be the key to permanent recall, a study finds.

When rehearsing a memory, the same area of the brain is activated as when laying it down, psychologists found.

This brain region — the posterior cingulate — is also the part that is damaged in Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Chris Bird, who led the research, said:

“We know that recent memories are susceptible to being lost until a period of consolidation has elapsed.

In this study we have shown that a brief period of rehearsal has a huge effect on our ability to remember complex, lifelike events over periods of 1-2 weeks.

We have also linked this rehearsal effect to processing in a particular part of the brain — the posterior cingulate.”

In the study people were shown 26 YouTube clips.

For most of the videos, people spent 40 seconds going over the events.

They did this either mentally or out loud.

Two weeks later, non-rehearsed videos were mostly forgotten.

In contrast, people remembered many of the details of the videos they had spent just 40 seconds rehearsing.

It didn’t matter if they went over them mentally or out loud.

Brain scans revealed that the more the activity matched when watching and rehearsing, the more people could remember.

Dr Bird said:

“The findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime.

Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the witness rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards.”

The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Bird et al., 2015).