Exploring False Memories and Memory Distortions

False Memory

A memory that does not correspond to an actual event or is altered in some way.

Source Monitoring

The ability to determine the origin of a memory (e.g., whether it was imagined or experienced).

Reality Monitoring

Differentiating between memories of actual events and memories generated by thoughts or imagination.

Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm

A method for studying false memories by presenting lists of related words, leading to recall of non-presented but associated words.

Intrusion Errors

The incorrect recall of words or events that were never presented but are related to studied material.

Misinformation Effect

When exposure to misleading information after an event alters memory of the original event.

False Memory Induction

A technique used in research (notably by Elizabeth Loftus) to implant false memories through suggestion and repeated questioning.

Imagination Inflation

The phenomenon where imagining an event increases confidence that it actually happened.

Source Confusion

Remembering the content of an event but misattributing its source.

Procedural Memory

Memory for skills and actions that become automatic through practice.

Implicit Memory

Memory that influences behavior without conscious awareness, including procedural skills, priming, and conditioning.

Habit

An automatic behavior triggered by contextual cues, requiring little executive control.

Skill Acquisition

The process of learning a skill, often moving through cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages.

Motor Learning

The process of acquiring and refining movement-based skills.

Cognitive Stage

Learning rules and strategies.

Associative Stage

Refining skills with practice.

Autonomous Stage

Skill becomes automatic.

Basal Ganglia

Brain structures critical for habit formation and motor skill learning.

Cerebellum

Involved in motor coordination and procedural memory.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory for personal events, combining episodic details and self-knowledge.

Flashbulb Memory

Highly vivid and detailed memory of a surprising or emotional event, often inaccurate.

Reminiscence Bump

The tendency for adults to recall more memories from ages 16-25 than other periods.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember early childhood experiences before age 3.

Cue-Word Technique

A method for studying autobiographical memory by prompting memories with specific words.

Observer Memory

Remembering an event as if viewing oneself from an outside perspective.

Field Memory

Remembering an event from the original, first-person perspective.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)

A rare ability to recall specific dates and events in extraordinary detail.

Semantic Memory

Memory for facts, concepts, and general knowledge, independent of personal experience.

Lexical Memory

Memory for words and their meanings, including vocabulary and grammar.

Concept

A mental representation of a category or idea.

Category

A group of related concepts (e.g., animals, tools).

Prototype Theory

The idea that we categorize by comparing new items to an idealized 'average' example.

Exemplar Theory

The idea that categories are represented by specific examples from experience.

Spreading Activation

The idea that activating one memory node spreads activation to related concepts.

Semantic Priming

Faster recognition of a word when preceded by a related word (e.g., 'doctor' primes 'nurse').

Schema

A structured mental framework for organizing information about the world.

Critical Intrusions

False memories created by strong associations between presented words and non-presented words in the DRM paradigm.

Fuzzy-Trace Theory

Suggests that people encode both verbatim details and a general 'gist' of events, with false memories arising from gist-based processing.

Recovered Memory

A memory of a past event that is recalled after being inaccessible for a long time, often controversial in therapy contexts.

Hypnosis and Memory

Hypnosis can increase memory recall but also raises susceptibility to false memories.

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting

When recalling some aspects of a memory suppresses the ability to recall other related details.

Post-Event Information

Information encountered after an event that can alter one's memory of that event.

Repression

Freud's theory that traumatic memories are unconsciously blocked from awareness.

Suppression

A conscious effort to forget or ignore a memory.

Think/No-Think Paradigm

A research method testing the ability to suppress unwanted memories.

Implicit Learning

Learning that occurs without conscious awareness, such as acquiring a language's grammar rules without explicit instruction.

Motor Cortex

Brain region involved in planning and executing movements.

Cognitive Skill Learning

The acquisition of skills requiring reasoning and problem-solving, such as playing chess or doing mental math.

Mirror Tracing Task

A lab task used to study motor learning by having participants trace an image while only seeing its reflection.

Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT)

A research method for studying implicit learning by measuring reaction times to a repeating sequence of stimuli.

Chunking

The process of grouping information into meaningful units to aid memory and skill learning.

Overlearning

Practicing a skill beyond the point of initial mastery to make it more automatic.

Habit Slips

Mistakenly performing an old habitual action instead of a new intended one (e.g., driving to an old workplace instead of a new one).

Cortical Plasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize itself based on experience and learning.

Life Story

A person's self-narrative, constructed from autobiographical memories.

Coherence (in Memory)

The extent to which a memory fits within one's self-concept.

Correspondence (in Memory)

The accuracy of a memory in reflecting the actual event.

PTSD & Memory

People with PTSD often experience intrusive, distressing autobiographical memories.

Diary Study

A research method where individuals keep written records of daily experiences to later compare with their memory reports.

Source Amnesia

Forgetting where or how a piece of information was learned.

Disputed Memory

A memory that two or more people claim as their own but disagree on who actually experienced it.

Observer Perspective Shift

The process of recalling a memory as if watching oneself from an external point of view.

Category-Specific Deficits

Neurological conditions where people lose knowledge of specific types of concepts (e.g., living things vs. tools).

Hub-and-Spoke Model

Theory suggesting that semantic memory is stored across multiple brain regions but integrated in specific 'hub' areas.

Semantic Dementia

A disorder that leads to loss of concept knowledge while sparing episodic memory.

Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) Phenomenon

The temporary inability to retrieve a known word.

Lexical Access

The process of retrieving a word from memory during speech or writing.

Priming

The facilitation of processing a stimulus due to prior exposure to a related stimulus.

Mental Lexicon

The mental storage of words and their meanings.

Semantic Network

A model that represents concepts in memory as nodes connected by associations.

Dual-Store Model of Bilingual Memory

The idea that bilingual individuals have separate storage for each language's meaning representations.

Code-Switching

The practice of alternating between two or more languages within a conversation.

Hippocampus

Brain region essential for forming new episodic memories.

Amygdala

Brain structure involved in emotional memory, particularly fear-related memories.

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

Plays a role in working memory, decision-making, and reality monitoring.

Default Mode Network (DMN)

A network of brain regions active when recalling past experiences and engaging in self-referential thought.

Cerebellum

Brain area involved in fine motor control and procedural memory.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to change and adapt in response to experience.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

A lasting increase in synaptic strength, thought to be the basis for learning and memory.

fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

A neuroimaging technique used to study brain activity during memory tasks.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

Brain waves recorded using EEG that show neural responses to memory-related tasks.