John walks into a room and forgets what he was planning on doing there. Maria is unable to recall how she hit her head. Sarah couldn’t remember her new co-workers name, even though they just met. Jacob does not remember that he experienced childhood abuse. Susan is unable to recall her sister’s phone number. Each and every person has experienced some degree of brief memory failure in their lifetime. Being quite an inconvenience, memory failure can span from a few seconds to multiple years. Memory is a key component of everyday life and would be near impossible to live without. Unfortunately, many problems can interfere with even the sharpest of memories. There are many potential consequences of memory failure that can affect not only ourselves, but others as well. The human memory has no limited capacity; how does it decide what is to be remembered and what is to be forgotten?
Memory is extremely complex and multi-faceted. On the surface, there is sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. When memories are falsely fabricated or become prominent in one’s mind, they can cause a great range of issues. Specifically, one problem that can be faced is “False memory syndrome.” In this condition, a person’s identity or relationships center around one particular memory of a traumatic experience that never truly occurred, yet the person strongly believes. In example, an adult may suddenly remember that he/she was abused as a child and have vivid memories of being abused, scared, and tortured even though the events are objectively false and have never occurred. This condition is extremely convincing in some patients and can not be correctly reconditioned, causing great stress for anyone involved in the situation. A different issue faced in memory mishaps is known as “Recovered-memory therapy.” This term refers to any one or more forms of therapy (including, but not limited to hypnosis, dream analysis, guided imagery, group therapy, or other techniques) which allows a patient to “recall” memories (Thayer & Lynn, 2006). However, many critics believe these memories were never real to begin with and are a result of imagination inflation and misguided suggestion by the well-intentioned therapist (Davis & Loftus, 2009). This poses a threat to humans because, essentially, the “recovered-memory therapy” is causing patients to receive a vague rendition of false memory syndrome. Since false memories can be so elaborate and indistinguishable, patients are unable to discern them from true memories. …show more content…
It is difficult to estimate the validity of recovered memories because of this indistinction. Memories can be changed through misinformation, imagination inflation, and suggestion. When memories are retrieved, our brain rebuilds them to the best of it’s ability. Yet what is remembered changes slightly each time the event is recalled. The altered memory is now re-encoded as “the real one,” only to be reconstructed with more fabrications during the next recall. (Schiller, 2013) So while memories are based, in part, on what actually happened they are also influenced by current thoughts and emotions. Due to this evidence, many people have built up a skeptical awareness of all memory information. However, some people are not skeptical of certain recovered memories because they believe traumatic and emotional memories are more accurate than less distressing memories. Multiple years of studies and experiments have concluded that epinephrine and serotonin are involved in encoding emotional memory, thus, memories paired with natural surges of these neurotransmitters can be especially memorable (Birmes & Senard, 2002). Examples of these memories are those associated with traumatic or emotional events and are known as flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories usually hold their high-detail and vividity and are retained for a lifetime. Since one of the primary functions of emotion is to assist in learning for future action (Lazarus, 1991), it is logical the brain would make a priority out of storing threatening events so they could potentially be used as memory tools for future emergencies. Because the vivid details of the event can be recalled so easily, persons believe details accurately reflect what happened even though it isn 't (Talarico, 2015). Since emotions are so strongly tied to the event and there is no way to fully discern between the actual and fabricated memories, they are assumed to be true. While flashbulb memories can be very convincing, they
Memory is extremely complex and multi-faceted. On the surface, there is sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. When memories are falsely fabricated or become prominent in one’s mind, they can cause a great range of issues. Specifically, one problem that can be faced is “False memory syndrome.” In this condition, a person’s identity or relationships center around one particular memory of a traumatic experience that never truly occurred, yet the person strongly believes. In example, an adult may suddenly remember that he/she was abused as a child and have vivid memories of being abused, scared, and tortured even though the events are objectively false and have never occurred. This condition is extremely convincing in some patients and can not be correctly reconditioned, causing great stress for anyone involved in the situation. A different issue faced in memory mishaps is known as “Recovered-memory therapy.” This term refers to any one or more forms of therapy (including, but not limited to hypnosis, dream analysis, guided imagery, group therapy, or other techniques) which allows a patient to “recall” memories (Thayer & Lynn, 2006). However, many critics believe these memories were never real to begin with and are a result of imagination inflation and misguided suggestion by the well-intentioned therapist (Davis & Loftus, 2009). This poses a threat to humans because, essentially, the “recovered-memory therapy” is causing patients to receive a vague rendition of false memory syndrome. Since false memories can be so elaborate and indistinguishable, patients are unable to discern them from true memories. …show more content…
It is difficult to estimate the validity of recovered memories because of this indistinction. Memories can be changed through misinformation, imagination inflation, and suggestion. When memories are retrieved, our brain rebuilds them to the best of it’s ability. Yet what is remembered changes slightly each time the event is recalled. The altered memory is now re-encoded as “the real one,” only to be reconstructed with more fabrications during the next recall. (Schiller, 2013) So while memories are based, in part, on what actually happened they are also influenced by current thoughts and emotions. Due to this evidence, many people have built up a skeptical awareness of all memory information. However, some people are not skeptical of certain recovered memories because they believe traumatic and emotional memories are more accurate than less distressing memories. Multiple years of studies and experiments have concluded that epinephrine and serotonin are involved in encoding emotional memory, thus, memories paired with natural surges of these neurotransmitters can be especially memorable (Birmes & Senard, 2002). Examples of these memories are those associated with traumatic or emotional events and are known as flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories usually hold their high-detail and vividity and are retained for a lifetime. Since one of the primary functions of emotion is to assist in learning for future action (Lazarus, 1991), it is logical the brain would make a priority out of storing threatening events so they could potentially be used as memory tools for future emergencies. Because the vivid details of the event can be recalled so easily, persons believe details accurately reflect what happened even though it isn 't (Talarico, 2015). Since emotions are so strongly tied to the event and there is no way to fully discern between the actual and fabricated memories, they are assumed to be true. While flashbulb memories can be very convincing, they