Memories affect all aspects of our lives; we link our past to our future through memories. Thus, shaping our future, it is important to understand that memories can sometimes be misleading.
“The Formation of False Memories” by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) focuses on how memories can be disrupted by retroactive interference. The study investigates whether people can be implanted with a false memory for something that has never happened. The subjects were presented with four stories, one of which is the “incorrect” memory (being lost between the ages of four and six) and all memories were provided by the subjects’ relatives. Then, the participants were scheduled two interviews, in which they were asked to recall as many information and details …show more content…
The misinformation effect occurs when newly exposed, misleading information can interfere with the original memory and thus, induce a false memory. How a question is worded or the post-feedback provided to a witness may also influence the creation of an inaccurate memory. Another way in which memory can be altered is the passage of time. Even emotional memories, which are thought to be highly accurate, are susceptible to memory malleability, with this effect increasing as people age. Moreover, evidence of rodents has shown an overgeneralization of memories over time – the association between context B and a shock leading to a false association between context A and the shock. At the neurobiological level of explanation, a memory is encoded in the patterns of synaptic connectivity – the formation of memories result from either a strengthening or a weakening in the synaptic connection. However, this synaptic consolidation or weakening is also vulnerable to interference. Additionally, stress plays a role in memory construction, but the effect of stress follows an inverted U-shape; high level of stress is not necessarily associated with an increase in memory …show more content…
yield sign (Loftus et al. (1978)). We were then asked to judge which one of the two images appeared in the movie. Most of the class was defeated by the misinformation effect (that is; the wording primed our way of interpreting the car accident), which leads us to encode false memories about the details of a visual scene. It was very interesting to see that people still have errors in memories, even though we were talking about the types of interference in one’s memories and the misinformation effect long before the video was introduced. Although we were expecting to see an effect in some way and knew that there would be misleading information, this did not change the way we approached it: we were defeated by the misinformation effect. This relates back to Loftus and Pickrell’s article, in which, even after debriefing, some participants were unable to detect the false event. Therefore, one may be able to suggest that the fact of knowing you will be misrepresented in some way, does not sufficiently inhibit you from the interference
“The Formation of False Memories” by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) focuses on how memories can be disrupted by retroactive interference. The study investigates whether people can be implanted with a false memory for something that has never happened. The subjects were presented with four stories, one of which is the “incorrect” memory (being lost between the ages of four and six) and all memories were provided by the subjects’ relatives. Then, the participants were scheduled two interviews, in which they were asked to recall as many information and details …show more content…
The misinformation effect occurs when newly exposed, misleading information can interfere with the original memory and thus, induce a false memory. How a question is worded or the post-feedback provided to a witness may also influence the creation of an inaccurate memory. Another way in which memory can be altered is the passage of time. Even emotional memories, which are thought to be highly accurate, are susceptible to memory malleability, with this effect increasing as people age. Moreover, evidence of rodents has shown an overgeneralization of memories over time – the association between context B and a shock leading to a false association between context A and the shock. At the neurobiological level of explanation, a memory is encoded in the patterns of synaptic connectivity – the formation of memories result from either a strengthening or a weakening in the synaptic connection. However, this synaptic consolidation or weakening is also vulnerable to interference. Additionally, stress plays a role in memory construction, but the effect of stress follows an inverted U-shape; high level of stress is not necessarily associated with an increase in memory …show more content…
yield sign (Loftus et al. (1978)). We were then asked to judge which one of the two images appeared in the movie. Most of the class was defeated by the misinformation effect (that is; the wording primed our way of interpreting the car accident), which leads us to encode false memories about the details of a visual scene. It was very interesting to see that people still have errors in memories, even though we were talking about the types of interference in one’s memories and the misinformation effect long before the video was introduced. Although we were expecting to see an effect in some way and knew that there would be misleading information, this did not change the way we approached it: we were defeated by the misinformation effect. This relates back to Loftus and Pickrell’s article, in which, even after debriefing, some participants were unable to detect the false event. Therefore, one may be able to suggest that the fact of knowing you will be misrepresented in some way, does not sufficiently inhibit you from the interference