Week 7 - False Memories

what is the recovered memory epidemic?

• in therapy, adult victims would recover memories of having been sexually abused by their parents during childhood

• charges would then be brought against those (shocked/disbelieving/incredulous) parents

• guilty verdicts were reached based on nothing more than the long-repressed but now recovered traumatic memory of having been abused

what is one of the main causes of the recovered memory epidemic? Discussed during the lecture, which quotes from the book were shown to be problematic?

• A book called “The Courage to Heal” by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

  • basically states that common mental disorders in adults (anxiety, depression) can be resolved only by unearthing long-repressed memories of sexual abuse

• Quotes from Book

  • “If you are unable to remember an specific instances like the ones mentioned above but still have a feeling that something abusive happened to you, it probably did

  • “Often the knowledge that you were abused starts with a tiny feeling, an intuition. It’s important to trust that inner voice and work from there. Assume your feelings are valid”

  • “demands for proof are unreasonable . . .”

what were some devastating effects of the recovered memory epidemic?

• Families were torn apart (quote from “The Repressed Memory Epidemic”)

  • “Some accusing adult children retracted their repressed memory allegations, while others established uneasy contact but never apologized. In all too many cases, however. elderly parents have died without ever seeing their children again. “I am now 93 years old and having a very hard time,” wrote one man in 2014. “The reason is that my wonderful wife passed away recently. Her last words were ‘Where are my daughters?’ Then she looked at me and said ‘I love you.’ Then she closed her eyes.

• Recovered memories were often absurd (quote from “Mistakes were Made (but not by me)

  • Under hypnosis, they said, their therapists enabled them to remember the horrifying experiences they had suffered as toddlers, as infants in the crib, and sometimes even in previous lives. One woman recalled that her mother put spiders in her vagina. Another said her father had molested her from the ages of five to twenty-three, and even raped her just days before her wedding — memories she repressed until therapy. Others said they had been burned, although their bodies bore no scars.” She was 85 years old. We have not seen or head from our daughters for 23 years.”

what is the role of psychotherapy in the creation of false memories? what’s the theory and methods?

• Theory

  • certain memories are too painful to bear

  • as a defense, those memories are repressed

  • repressed memories create psychological disorders

  • liberation achieved by “unrepressing” memories

• Therapeutic Methods

  • assigned reading of self-help books

  • dream analysis

  • hypnosis

  • guided imagery

in what two ways did experimental psychologists study the recovered memory epidemic OR how did findings within their study uncover the truth of the recovered memory epidemic?

• Studies about planting false memories of a childhood event via “Imagination Inflation”

  • Wade et al. (2002)

• Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm

  • people in the name (1995)

Explain the Wade et al. (2002) study about Imagination Inflation.

• 3 Steps

  • 1. Twenty adult confederates each recruited a family member who had never taken a hot air balloon ride

  • 2. Digitized photos of 3 true event from childhood (birthday parties, family vacations, etc.)

    • digitized additional photos of family members and pasted them into a photo of a hot air balloon (a false event)

  • 3. Later interviewed family member three separate times about those 4 events (“tell me everything you can remember without leaving anything out, no matter how trivial it may seem”")

• Results

  • First interview: ~35% remembered false events

  • Third Interview ~50% remembered false events

Explain the DRM memory test experiments. How does this research showcase the possibility of implanting a false memory?

• Recognition memory tested after list

• Recognition tested using a 4-point confidence scale

• Example list was given:

  • Bed, rest, tired, dream, night, blanket, snore, nap, yawn

• Asked if “sleep” was in there

  • many falsely believe it was

• Sleep can be seen as a critical lure

  • semantically related to the rest of the words in the list

Explain Williams (1994) study exploring the idea of repressed memories not necessarily being false. (participants? methods? results? conclusion?)

• Participants:

  • 129 adult women who had been evaluated in early 1970s for possible / probable sexual abuse

• Method:

  • Participants were interviewed about possible traumatic experiences during childhood

• Results:

  • 49/129 did not describe an episode of sexual abuse

• Conclusion:

  • “Long periods with no memory of abuse should not be regarded as evidence that the abuse did not occur”

What were the critiques of Williams (1994) study? what were the counter critiques?

• Critiques

  • Unwillingness to report childhood sexual trauma to an unfamiliar interviewer does not mean that the trauma was forgotten

  • some of the abuse took place when the women were as young as 10 months of age, and everyone agrees that “infantile amnesia” is real (so that it would not be remembered)

  • some of the abuse was such that the child might not have recognized it as such (even though an adult surely would have)

• Counter Critiques

  • However, of women who DID report memory of childhood abuse, 15% reported having forgotten about that abuse at some point in their lives

what did the false memory debate teach us about memory?

• False memories are surprisingly easy to implant

• “Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail, with confidence and with emotion, does not mean that it actually happened . . . False memories have these characteristics too.

what does the American Psychological Association think of the false memory debate?

• “. . . most leaders in the field agree that although it is a rare occurrence, a memory of early childhood abuse that has been forgotten can be remembered later

• “However, these leaders also agree that it is possible to construct convincing pseudo memories for events that never occurred . . . at this point it is impossible, without other corroborative evidence, to distinguish a true memory from a false one.”

what were the concluding events to the recovering memory epidemic? (elizabeth loftus quotes, My Lie memoir quote.

• My Lie

  • Meredith Maran describes her quest to recall how her father must have abused her. “I drove back across San Francisco, Bay, back to Planet Incest, where the question was always incest and the answer was always incest [ . . . ] and no one ever asked, ‘Are you sure?’”

• Elizabeth Loftus Quotes

  • “Compared to the early 1990s, there are fewer cases of people suing individuals based on claims of massive repression and recovery of abuse. there are more cases of people suing their former therapists for planting false memories. There is the prospect of criminal prosecution based upon fraudulent practices.“

  • “An analysis of 105 malpractice suits filed by former patients against their therapists for development of false memories revealed that one case was dropped, forty-two were settled out of court, fifty-three are still pending, and nine went to trial. Of the cases that went tot trial, all ended in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff (patient) against the defendant (therapist)“