Cherith Chan

1
FALSE MEMORY
The difference between false memories and true
ones is the same as for jewels it is always
the false ones that look the most real, the most
brilliant. Salvador Dali

• Cherith Chan
• PSYC 309-902

2
What is False Memory?

• False memory is the term given to memories of an
  event that did not happen or is a distortion of
  an event that actually occur

3
Why Bother with False Memory?

• There has been an increasing number of cases that
  appears in the courts which reports previously
  unrecognized abuse or distress during the course
  of psychological therapy.

4
History of False Memory

• Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett (1932)
• The War of the Ghost. Folk tale
• J. Deese (1959)
• Word-list in single-trial, free-recall
  paradigm
• Benton Underwood (1965)
• Showed that words associatively relate to
  previously
• presented words were falsely
  recognized.

5
Creating False Memories Remembering Words not
Presented in List

• Henry L. Roediger (III) and Kathelen B McDermott
  from Rice University (1995)
• Tried to replicate Deeses (1959) finding of
  reliable, predictable extralist intrusions in a
  single-trial, free-recall paradigm
• Tried to test other list constructed to produce
  extralist intrusions in a single-trial free
  recall, to generalize the findings across a wider
  set of materials.

6
COGLAB False Study Experiment

• Similar to Roediger and McDermotts study, except
  immediate recognition of the list was used.
• There was also no collection of confidence
  ratings.

7
Methods

• Participants
• 19 students from University of British
  Columbia Psychology 309 class
• Data was collected on February 12, 2006 719
  PM

8
Methods (cont.)

• Materials
• Computers with Internet Connection
• Students with access to Wadsworth
• Coglab Online Laboratory

9
Methods (cont.)

• Procedures
• A sequence of words is presented (visually) and
  the observer is to classify a set of words as
  either in the sequence (old) or not in the
  sequence (new).
• What differentiates this experiment from others
  is that the sequences are designed to bias
  observers to report a particular word that was
  not included in the list.
• When people report that one of these words was in
  the sequence, but it really was not, they are
  having a false memory. In some cases people will
  report that they vividly recall seeing (or
  hearing) the word, so their memory is very
  strong, despite its inaccuracy.

10
Methods (cont.)

• Once the experiment starts
• Sequence of words will flash onto the screen (1.5
  sec each)
• Once sequence is done, on the right will be
  buttons with words on them. Some will be the
  ones shown, other will not.
• Click on the buttons with words that you remember
  seeing in the sequence.

11
Results

• The expected results will be that the number of
  times we selected the special distracter is
  greater than the times we selected the normal
  distracter.
• We should also select words from the list the
  most.

12
Results (cont)

• To confirm that the hypothesis is correct, I
  double checked the data again last night and
  found the same results.
• The participants have increased to 50. But the
  trend remains the same.

13
Results (cont)
14
Results (cont)
Total Results from all 6 Trials (with 19
participants)
Number of Times Selected
Percentage of Times Selected
15
Results (cont)
16
Results (cont)
Results from Trail 3 Mountain WORDS Hill,
Valley, Climb, Summit, Top, Molehill, Plain,
Peak, Glacier, Goat, Bike, Climber, Range, Steep,
Ski
17
Results (cont)
Results from Trail 3 Mountain Out of 19
Participants
Number of Times Selected
Percentage of Times Selected
18
Results (cont)
19
Results (cont)
Results from Trail 6 Sweet WORDS Sour, Candy,
Sugar, Bitter, Good, Taste, Tooth, Nice, Honey,
Soda, Chocolate, Heart, Cake, Tart, Pie
20
Results (cont)
Results from Trail 6 Sweet Out of 19
Participants
Number of Times Selected
Percentage of Times Selected
21
Discussion

• Common Mistakes By Subject?
• Can we apply this result to induced false memory
  in the course of therapy?
• Do we need to be thinking of the critical lure
  in order for this illusion to occur?

22
References

• Anderson, S.J., Cohen, G. Taylor, S. (2000).
  Rewriting the past Some factors affecting the
  variability of personal memories. Applied
  Cognitive Psychology, 14, 435-454.
• Banks, W.P. (2000). Recognition and source
  memory as multivariate decision processes.
  Psychological Science, 11, 267-273.
• Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of
  occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in
  immediate recall. Journal of Experimental
  Psychology, 58, 17-22.
• Dunning, D. Perretta, S. (2002). Automaticity
  and eyewitness accuracy A 10- to 12-second rule
  for distinguishing accurate from inaccurate
  positive identifications. Journal of Applied
  Psychology, 87, 951-962. 
• Ghetti, S., Qin, J. Goodman, G.S. (2002).
  False memories in children and adults Age,
  distinctiveness, and subjective experience.
  Developmental Psychology, 38, 705-718.
• Roediger, H.L. McDermott, K.B. (1995).
  Creating false memories Remembering words that
  were not presented in lists. Journal of
  Experimental Psychology Learning, Memory and
  Cognition. 21, 803-814.
• Sternberg, Robert J. Cognitive Psychology. 3rd
  Edition. Wadsworth 2003
• Wade, K.A., Garry, M., Read, J.D. Lindsay, D.S.
  (2002). A picture is worth a thousand lies
  Using false photographs to create false childhood
  memories. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9,
  597-603.

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References (cont)

• British False Memory Society. ONLINE March
  27th, 2006. lthttp//www.bfms.org.uk/gt
• False Memory. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.
  ONLINE March 5th, 2006 lthttp//en.wikipedia.or
  g/wiki/False_Memorygt
• False Memory. The Skeptics Dictionary. Feb.
  13, 2006. ONLINE
• March 10th, 2006. lthttp//skepdic.com/falsememor
  y.htmlgt
• False Memory Reading Group. University of
  Arkansas Department of Psychology. 2003.
  ONLINE March 5th, 2006. lthttp//www.uark.edu/mis
  c/lampinen/read/s03/read_s03.htmgt
• Pope, Kenneth S. Memory, Abuse, and Science.
  Articles, Research and Resources in Psychology.
  ONLINE March 6th, 2006. lthttp//www.uark.edu/m
  isc/lampinen/read/s03/read_s03.htmgt
• Loftus, Elizabeth M. Creating False Memories.
  University of Washington Faculty Pages. ONLINE
  March 6th, 2006. lthttp//faculty.washington.edu/
  eloftus/Articles/sciam.htmgt

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THE END

• Memory itself is an internal rumour. 
• George Santayana, The Life of Reason