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False Memories, Essay Example

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Elizabeth Loftus has studied false memories and their consequences for many years and has a great amount of experience. The ideas within this paper will provide background into her work, will define false memories, will explain repressed memories, and will help the reader understand the consequences of false memories. False memories are common in individuals who have dealt with traumatic events throughout their lives and it is important to cover the essentials of false memory and why these false or repressed memories may come up later in life. Throughout this paper, we will go into specific detail in reference to false memories as it relates to child abuse, traumatic events, imagination, as well as other forms of traumatic situations such as rape, domestic abuse, and sexual abuse to name a few. This paper will give specific examples and will explain false and repressed memory to shed a little light on the issues.

Introduction

There is much to be said about the work that Elizabeth Loftus and others have done on false and/or repressed memory. Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who has focused a lot of time and energy on understanding false memory and how it shapes a person, is an individual who believes in false memory as well as repressed memory and helps others to understand the important consequences of the concept. There are many individuals who are skeptical about false or repressed memories and have a hard time believing that it is even possible to remember something many, many years after it has happened. This is the concept of repressed memories. According to Elizabeth Loftus (1997) in her article “Creating False Memories,” “false memories are constructed by combining actual memories with the content of suggestions received by others” (p. 74). Therefore, false memories can be defined as actual memories that take shape into something different due to suggestions that others may put into the minds of other individuals who are trying to remember the actual memories. The actual memories become confused with the suggestions and are later manipulated into being false memories because they are not completely true. It is possible for individuals to forget the source of the information. “This is a classic example of source confusion, in which the content and the source become dissociated” (Loftus, 1997, p. 74). This is something that can easily happen for someone who has blocked out horrible events in their lives; they eventually remember bits and pieces and either remembers the whole thing or tries to work through them with a therapist and then the suggestions come in. Repressed and false memories are clearly possible and many of them are very accurate; however, individuals must be careful of what is being suggested to them by others if they want to get to the bottom of the memories they are experiencing.

The formation of false memories is truly possible. Loftus and Pickrell (1995) in their article “The Formation of False Memories,” state:

As Greene has aptly noted, memories do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they continually disrupt each other through a mechanism that we call ‘interference.’ Virtually thousands of studies have documented how our memories can be disrupted by things that we experienced earlier (proactive interference) or things that we experience later (retroactive interference) (p.720).

Our memories are able to be distorted by the things in which we have experienced and the things in which others suggest to us. Whether we have a clear memory of something that happened or not, misinformation given to us can easily help alter that memory and form a false memory. According to Loftus and Pickrell (1995), “in some experiments, the deficits in memory performance following receipt of misinformation have been dramatic, with performance differences as large as 30% or 40%” (p. 720). Loftus and Pickrell (1995) state an example of this where individuals were able to create a false memory of being lost based on misinformation or suggestions that they were given. One of the most common examples is getting lost. People may have actually been lost at some point in their lives and they could be confusing this actual event with the false memory description (Loftus & Pickrell, 1995, p. 724). This goes with what was said earlier. Many individuals may have a previous experience with something, but suggestions or misinformation allows them to falsely remember something that never happened. According to the authors, it is very easy to form a false memory and many individuals do not even know they are doing it. According to Loftus (1997), “without corroboration, it is very difficult to differentiate between false memories and true ones” (“Creating False Memories,” p. 71). There have been many investigations in which show us, that under the right circumstances, false memories are easily instilled in certain people. Yet, many false memories are authentic. Therefore, it is important to touch on how false memories are formed. Loftus (1997) states:

Research studies are beginning to give us an understanding of how false memories of complete, emotional and self-participatory experiences are created in adults. First, there are social demands on individuals to remember; for instance, researchers exert some pressure on participants in a study to come up with memories. Second, memory construction by imagining events can be explicitly encouraged when people are having trouble remembering. And, finally, individuals can be encouraged not to think about whether their constructions are real or not. Creation of false memories are most likely to occur when these external factors are present, whether this occurs in an experimental setting, in a therapeutic setting, or in everyday activities (“Creating False Memories,” p.74).

The reality of repressed memories is that it is completely possible; however, just because they are possible, does not mean that they are accurate. Many individuals experience many different things in their lives and, if they are traumatic, these individuals push these memories so deep down into their souls and so far back into their minds that they completely forget about them until they resurface later on in life. According to Loftus (1993), “the idea of repression of early traumatic memories is a concept that many psychotherapists readily accept” as repression is the foundation of psychoanalysis and these patients’ help them keep their jobs (p. 519). Many individuals who have been traumatized do not want to remember the bad parts of their lives, so they bury those emotions and memories deep down inside until they are forced to deal with them. However, some repressed memories are not authentic. It does not help that psychiatrists and psychologists also aid in this ability to create false memories. There have been many cases in which doctors have tricked their clients into false memories. Nadean Cool was one of these women. Elizabeth Loftus (1997) states:

During therapy, the psychiatrist used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to dig out buried memories of abuse that Cool herself had allegedly experienced. In the process, Cool became convinced that she had repressed memories of having been in a satanic cult, eating babies, of being raped, of having sex with animals, and of being forced to watch the murder of her eight-year-old friend. She came to believe that she had over 120 personalities – children, adults, angels and even a dull – all because, Cool was told, she had experienced severe childhood sexual and physical abuse. (“Creating False Memories,” p. 70).

Many therapists believe that repressed memories are true and real. Yet, Cara Laney and Elizabeth Loftus (2005) feel that the evidence to support this claim is flawed. The authors feel as if much more has to go into the recovery of memories so that they can be considered authentic. Laney and Loftus (2005) put this into perspective for their readers:

Some therapists and CSA researchers have argued that, when people experience repeated horrific events, they repress these experiences into the unconscious. Later, they are able to unearth the previously repressed (or dissociated) memories and become conscious of their prior brutalization. A more specific version of this process involves the claim that, when a person (particularly a child) experiences a traumatic event (particularly CSA), the person’s psyche splits into 2 or more separate parts. One part experiences the traumatic event; the other part continues to function normally, with no awareness of the abuse. Then, it is claimed, at some point in the future when it is safe for the person to put these half-psyches back together (and this is necessary because the trauma has begun to leak out in some other way), a therapist can help the person to ‘recover’ or reconstruct memories of the original trauma (p.823).

This is a perfect example of what might happen to a person who has gone through a traumatic event. However, the problem that many researchers such as Loftus have is that the therapist has the skills to create memories that are not completely accurate during therapy. What is interesting is that many memory experts believe that traumatic events produce better, not worse, memories than the everyday events that the individual may be experiencing. Traumatic experiences are not easy situations to forget and many can suffer from PTSD for many years. Finally, it is important to note that “source misattribution occurs when individuals integrate additional information about an event into their recollections but do not remember that the information did not come directly from their original experience with the event” (Schreiber, Wentura, & Bilsky, 2001, p. 527). Many individuals that are eye witnesses in criminal cases are subject to this kind of misinformation and it does not help anyone in the process. Therefore, it is important to note that not all memories are authentic and completely accurate, but they could still be there and they could have certainly really happened. That is the ugliness of repressed memories altogether.

Though many believe that repressed memory is possible, there is still controversy on the subject. Much can also be said about repressed memory and false memory in relation to traumatic events that occur throughout a person’s life. As stated earlier, many individuals try to block out the traumatic experiences of their lives. Traumatic memories are memories that many do not want to remember or deal with; therefore, they push them so far back in their minds that they do not have to think about them until it is time to deal with them (if they ever do). This is where false and repressed memory actually comes into play. According to Gerald M. Rosen, Marc Sageman, and Elizabeth Loftus (2004), “early studies (Munsterberg, 1908) and better controlled studies in the 1970’s (Loftus & Hoffman, 1989) showed that false details of an event can be planted through suggestive questioning, or other post-event exposure. Subsequent research has demonstrated that even an entire event can be fabricated in memory” (p. 138). As suggested from this, the controversy is there. Many can have traumatic experiences and still not have authentic memories of those experiences. According to Loftus (1994), many clinicians believe that part of their work is to help patients recover from repressed memory of traumatic experiences such as sexual or physical abuse. They feel as if it is somehow their responsibility to help these patients remember some of the things that they may not want to remember. “Indeed, claims about the commonness of repressed memories and the particular accuracy of de-repressed memories are freely made. These claims are being made despite the fact that the evidence for the delayed recovery of valid repressed memories is ‘rather thin’” (Loftus, 2012, p. 444).  There are some therapists that persuade their clients that the abuse never happened; however, there are also perpetrators that convince victims that it never happened as well (Lein, 1999, p. 481). According to Lein (1999), “a very effective way of denying or muting charges of sexual abuse is to focus on the so-called false memories. A very misleading term, false memory confuses two separate measures of memory: completeness and accuracy” (p. 482). It is said that, in most cases, the gist of memories are actually quite accurate and this pertains more to traumatic memories. However, “normal memory is more malleable and subject to constructivist distortion influences” as stated by Loftus and Ketcham in 1994 (Lein, 1999, p. 482). What is interesting is that false memory does not just occur with abuse. According to Loftus, Garry & Feldman (1994), individuals forget many things throughout their lives. “For example, people (over one quarter of those interviewed) have failed to recall automobile accidents 9 to 12 months after their occurrence, although someone else in the car had been injured” (p. 1179). Other incidents have been forgotten as well, such as hospitalization and deaths. Finally, it is important to understand that false memories could be there or could happen just because “the moral memories were more emotionally arousing” and many believe that this could make people susceptible to making things up (Escobedo and Adolphs, 2010, p. 516). However, this also says that the emotions that are emotionally arousing could also be less difficult to forget as emotions play a huge role in a person’s memory. It is very hard to distinguish which memories are true and really repressed from those that are false and have been implanted into someone’s memory. This is why therapists have to be ethical in their procedures in helping others who have to deal with such memories. So, it is important to understand that just because the memories are repressed does not mean that they are not real and does not mean that they are. This is something at therapists, investigators, doctors and others need to work on so they can help individuals that are suffering from memories of abuse and many other things.

False memories can also be formed through a person’s imagination. The imagination is a force to be reckoned with. “Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) demonstrated that people show increased confidence ratings that a possibly fictitious childhood event occurred after imagining an event” (Thomas & Loftus, 2002, p. 423). This is certainly possible. As children, we make up many stories and our imaginations go wild. After such imaginations work like this, the events are much more easily remembered. In support, according to Thomas & Loftus (2002) state imagination has the possibility to actually create false childhood memories, but that it can also trigger events that actually happened. To make this clear, it is possible that the triggering of a false memory could actually be something that happened in the past that has been pushed back into the unconscious mind (p. 423). Therefore, it is easy to see how imagination can be a blessing or a hindrance on the ideas of memory. It is how therapists and doctors decide to use these “images” or imaginations in order to prove or disprove a false memory. Therapists must be sensitive to this as Loftus states that they must be ethically inclined to do what is right by their patients.

False beliefs are a lot like false memories and do have behavioral consequences. According to Elke Geraerts, Daniel M. Bernstein, Harald Merckelbach, Christel Linders, Linsey Raymaekers, and Elizabeth Loftus (2008), “studies on false memories and beliefs, for example, have compellingly shown that misleading information can lead to the creation of recollections of entire events that have not occurred” (p.749). The one question, however, that many ask is whether false memories actually have an influence one someone’s short and long term behavior. According to Geraerts et al (2008), false memories do affect behavior. Geraerts et al (2008) state:

Recently, Bernstein, Laney, Morris and Loftus (2005a, 2005b) took the first steps toward and answering this question by developing a procedure for examining the effects of false childhood memories and beliefs. Their subjects received the false suggestion that they had become ill after eating a certain food (e.g., hard-boiled eggs, strawberry ice cream) when they were children. The false suggestion increased subjects’ confidence that the critical event had occurred. Moreover, the false belief resulted in decreased self-reported preference for the target food and increased anticipated behavioral avoidance of that food (p.749).

This being said, it is very easy for individuals to change how they react to something based on false memories or beliefs. If they believe bad things happened in their past, they are more apt to stay away from those things in the future. Geraerts et al (2008) completed a study to prove this idea. They used 180 first-year undergraduates for the study. For this study, they “randomly assigned subjects to one of two groups: subjects in the egg-salad group (n=120) received the false suggestion that they had gotten sick after eating egg salad as a child” (p. 750). The other 60 subjects remained in the control group and didn’t receive the false suggestion. After completion of several food-history inventories, food-preference questionnaires and party-behavior questionnaires, the researchers found the following:

Subjects were considered to have arguably true memories (a) if they both scored above the midpoint for the critical item on the food-history inventory during the first session and reported a belief or memory for the critical egg-salad event or (b) if their parents confirmed that they had gotten sick after eating egg salad as a child (p. 751).

The study truly shows that suggesting false ideas to someone can actually change the person’s behavior in the short and long term. These findings show this in this study and many others that have been done throughout the years.

In conclusion, the reader should understand the ideas and complications with memory and how many are not accurate all of the time. Examples show that therapists have the tendency and the ability to distort a patient’s memory so much that these patients believe that they were never traumatized or that they were extremely traumatized. Therefore, it is important to understand some of the things that therapists should do and not do when helping clients who may have false or repressed memories. These include helping the client open the therapeutic window to find some balance between the denial phase and the intrusive phase as well as letting the client set the agenda; the therapist should not do this. It is not up to him or her. According to Loftus (1994), clinicians should focus on functioning rather than uncovering memories, not suggest things to their clients, guard against their own personal bias as this may contaminate the session, and be cautious of hypnosis. They should also encourage the use of behavioral and pharmalogical therapies as these are there to minimize the occurrence of false memories and false diagnoses (p. 445). If clinicians are to do these things and accept patients as they are, the idea of false memories may not even have to occur. Patients may actually finally start to uncover memories that are true, concise and accurate and will eventually be able to deal with the repressed memories they have felt for so long.

Escobedo, J. R., & Adolphs, R. (2010). Becoming a better person: Temporal remoteness biases autobiographical memories for moral events. American psychological association , 10 (4), 511-518. doi: 10.1037/a0018723

Geraerts, E., Bernstein, D. M., Merckelbach, H., Linders, C., Raymaekers, L., & Loftus, E. F.

(2008). Lasting false beliefs and their behavioral consequences. Association of  psychological science , 19 (8), 749-753.

Laney, C., & Loftus, E. F. (2005). Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories. Can J. Psychiatry , 50 (13), 823-828.

Lein, J. (1999). Recovered memories: Context and controversy. Social work , 44 (5), 481-490. doi: 0037-8046/99

Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American , 277 , 70-75. Retrieved from http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/garry/psyc322/readings.html

Loftus, E. F., Garry, M., & Feldman, J. (1994). Forgetting sexual trauma: What does it mean when 38% forget? Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 62 (6), 1177-1181.

Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American psychologist , 48 (5), 518-537.

Loftus, E. F. (1994). The repressed memory controversy. American psychologist , 49 (5), 443-445. Retrieved from http://us.mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.Rand=fl3d6relg98hc

Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric annals , 25 (12), 720-725.

Rosen, G. M., Sageman, M., & Loftus, E. F. (2004). A historical note on false traumatic memories. Journal of clinical psychology , 60 (1), 137-139. doi: 10.1002/jclp.10232

Schreiber, N., Wentura, D., & Bilsky, W. (2001). “What else could he have done?” creating false answers in child witnesses by inviting speculation. Journal of applied psychology , 86 (3), 525-532.

Thomas, A. K., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Creating bizarre false memories through imagination. Memory and cognition , 30 (3), 423-431.

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False Memory In Psychology: Examples & More

Ayesh Perera

B.A, MTS, Harvard University

Ayesh Perera, a Harvard graduate, has worked as a researcher in psychology and neuroscience under Dr. Kevin Majeres at Harvard Medical School.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

In psychology, a false memory refers to a mental experience that’s remembered as factual but is either entirely false or significantly different from what actually occurred. These can be small details, like misremembering the color of a car, or more substantial, like entirely fabricated events. They can be influenced by suggestion, misattribution, or other cognitive distortions.

Key Takeaways

• False memory is a psychological phenomenon whereby an individual recalls an actual occurrence substantially differently from how it transpired or an event that never even happened.
• Interference, leading questions, obsessive-compulsive disorder, false memory syndrome, and sleep deprivation can cause false memories.
• Pioneered by the work of Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet , research on false memory has immensely benefitted from the contributions of the American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth F. Lotus.
• False memory has manifold real-world implications ranging from false convictions in court proceedings to accidental manslaughter.

False memory is a psychological phenomenon whereby an individual recalls an event that never happened, or an actual occurrence substantially differently from the way it transpired.

In other words, a false memory could either be an entirely imaginary fabrication or a distorted recollection of an actual event. Moreover, false memories are distinct from simple errors in recollection.

Firstly, an individual who holds a false memory maintains some certitude in the veracity of the memory.  Secondly, a false memory deals not with forgetting something that actually happened but with remembering what had never taken place.

Instances of this phenomenon may range from the mundane—such as remembering that you ate breakfast when you actually did not, to the serious—such as falsely recalling that your boss assaulted you.

Examples of False Memory

• Recalling a childhood trip to Disneyland that never actually happened.
• Remembering being lost in a mall as a child, even if this event didn’t occur.
• Misremembering the details of a crime scene after being influenced by leading questions or post-event information.
• Believing that you locked the door before leaving home when you didn’t.
• Remembering a word or item from a list that was never presented because it was similar to the presented items.
• Confusing the source of information, such as believing a dream event happened in reality.
• Remembering that a news event was reported on one channel when it was actually reported on a different one.

Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event or detail one way, but it actually occurred differently.

It’s named after the instance where many people falsely remembered that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, while he actually passed away in 2013.

This collective misremembering is an example of false memory, highlighting how memory isn’t perfect and can be influenced by societal factors, misinformation, or misconceptions.

Causes of False Memories

False memories can stem from a variety of sources. Following are some of them.

Interference

The distortion of the memory of the original event by the new information can be described as retroactive interference (Robinson-Riegler & Robinson-Riegler, 2004).

In other words, the new information interferes with the ability to preserve the formerly encoded information. The effect of misinformation, which has been a subject of investigation since the 1970s, demonstrates two significant shortfalls of memory (Saudners & MacLeod, 2002).

Firstly, the weakness of suggestibility reveals how others’ expectations can shape our memory. Secondly, the drawback of misattribution unveils how the memory can misidentify the origin of a recollection.

These findings have raised serious concerns about the reliability and permanence of memory.

Leading Questions

Misleading information is incorrect information given to the witness, usually after the event. It can have many sources, for example, the use of leading questions in police interviews, or it can be acquired by post-event discussion with other witnesses or other people (Weiten, 2010).

When the eyewitnesses of an event are questioned immediately following the pertinent incident, the memorial representation of what had just transpired could be significantly altered (Loftus, 1975).

Leading questions are questions that are asked in such a way as to suggest an expected answer. For example: Did you see the man crossing the road?

The word “the” suggests that there was a man crossing the road. A non-leading question in this case could have been, “Did you see anybody crossing the road?”

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

It is possible for individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder ( OCD ) to have memory deficits or poor confidence in their memories (Robinson, 2020).

This disorder, which can stem from the abnormal responses of certain brain regions to serotonin , is a condition characterized by irrational and excessive urges to act in certain ways as well as give into repetitive and unwanted thoughts.

Because individuals with this condition are less likely to have confidence in their own memories, they are more likely to create false memories, which in turn, lead to compulsive and repetitive behaviors.

False Memory Syndrome

False memory syndrome is a condition in which an individual’s identity and relationships are influenced by factually incorrect recollections which are, nonetheless, strongly believed (McHugh, 2008; Schacter, 2002).

This condition may result from the controversial recovered memory therapy, which utilizes various interviewing techniques such as hypnosis, sedative-hypnotic drugs, and guided imagery to supposedly help patients recover forgotten memories that are purportedly buried in their subconscious minds.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is considered to provide the optimum neurobiological conditions conducive to the consolidation of long-term memories (Diekelmann, Landolt, Lahl, Born & Wagner, 2008).

Moreover, sleep deprivation is known to acutely impair the retrieval of stored recollections.

One study tested whether false memories could be invented based on a consolidation-related reorganization of new memory representations over post-learning sleep or as an acute retrieval-associated phenomenon induced by sleep deprivation during memory testing.

The results suggested that sleep deprivation at retrieval could enhance false memories. However, the administration of caffeine prior to retrieval was found to offset this effect.

This may imply that adenosinergic mechanisms could help generate false memories, which are associated with sleep deprivation.

The initial research on false memory was pioneered by Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet (Gleaves, Smith, Butler & Spiegel, 2006). Even though Freud’s assertions on psychoanalysis have been discredited by many, his emphasis on memory continues to elicit attention (Knafo, 2009).

Moreover, Janet Pierre’s discussion of memory retrieval via hypnosis and dissociation continues play a foundational role in the field of false memory (Zongwill, 2019). The most significant contributions to the research on false memory, however, seemed to have begun with the work of the American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth F. Lotus.

In 1974, Elizabeth Loftus and John C. Palmer conducted two experiments in which the participants viewed videos of automobile accidents and answered follow-up questions (Loftus & Palmer, 1974).

The question inquiring how fast the automobiles were moving when they ‘smashed’ into each other procured higher estimates of speed than the queries that employed verbs such as ‘bumped,’ ‘contacted,’ ‘collided,’ or ‘hit,’ instead of ‘smashed.’

Furthermore, a week later, the subjects who had received the question containing ‘smashed’ were more likely to indicate that they had also seen broken glass in the scene, although the video did not show any broken glass. These results seemed to imply that the questions asked following an event could add falsity to one’s memory of that event.

Another research study conducted more recently by Kathryn Braun, Rhiannon Ellis, and Elizabeth Loftus explored whether autobiographical advertising used by marketers to induce nostalgia for products could cause people eventually believe that they themselves had had the experiences demonstrated in the advertisements (Braun, Ellis & Loftus, 2002).

In the study, the subjects viewed advertisements suggesting that they had shaken hands with either Mickey Mouse or some imaginary character. In both instances, the ads seemed to enhance the confidence of the subjects that they had actually shaken hands with these characters.

While the encounter with Mickey Mouse could be true, the experience with the imaginary character could not be true [since the character had been invented solely for the study]. These results seemed to demonstrate that autobiographical referencing, especially in advertisements, could create distorted or false memories in the minds of the viewers.

Another study examined the links among the techniques and procedures to which false memory describes outcomes (Bernstein, Scoboria, Desjarlais & Soucie, 2018).

These procedures and techniques include subscribing to the belief that the false event transpired, accepting the misinformation following the event, and recognizing the crucial lures in the DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) procedure.

The results seemed to suggest that a statistically reliable yet weak correlation may be present between the suggestion of the false event and misinformation following the event and between the DRM intrusions and the misinformation following the event.

The correlation between the suggestion of the false event and the DRM intrusions, however, seemed inconsistent as well as weak.

The outcome of the study implies that the abovementioned effects are shaped by underlying independent mechanisms, and that the term false memory wants precision and needs qualification.

Real-World Implications

Despite the obvious shortfalls of memory, people often assume that recollections of stressful and violent events are encoded well enough for effective and accurate retrieval (Lacy & Stark, 2013).

However, evidence from neuroscience studies and psychological research demonstrate that memory embodies a reconstructive process which is vulnerable to distortion. Consequently, common misunderstandings—such as, that memory is more reliable than it actually is, can lead to serious consequences especially in courtroom settings.

The case Ramona v. Isabella , for instance, dealt with a supposedly false memory implanted by two therapists in their patient, Holly Ramona (La Ganga, 1994).

Her father, Gary Ramona, successfully sued the two psychiatrists whom he accused of having implanted memories of incestual abuse into his daughter following the administration of sodium amytal (a hypnotic drug).

In 1994, the jury voted 10-2 in favor of the father, who was also awarded $500 000 corresponding to the damages and losses he had suffered following the false allegation that he sexually abused his daughter.

In another incident, a woman named Lyn Balfour was charged with second-degree murder, child abuse, felony, and neglect for leaving Bryce, her nine-month-old son, to die in a hot car (Balfour, 2012).

Following a thorough investigation, however, the jury determined that Balfour was not guilty of murder.

Conversely, it was concluded that she had had the false memory of dropping off her son at the babysitter’s, which she was in the habit of doing as part of her routine.

Learning Check

Which of the following is most likely to be a false memory?

• Remembering that you brushed your teeth this morning. (Unlikely)
• Recalling the exact words of a conversation you had a year ago. (Possible)
• Remembering the color of your childhood friend’s bicycle. (Possible)
• Recalling being abducted by aliens when you were a child. (Most Likely)
• Remembering the taste of the cake at your birthday party last week. (Unlikely)

The correct answer would be “Recalling being abducted by aliens when you were a child,” as it’s the most likely to be a false memory due to its extraordinary and improbable nature.

Balfour, Lyn (20 Jan. 2012) “Experience: My Baby Died in a Hot Car.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/20/my-baby-died-in-hot-car.

Bernstein, D. M., Scoboria, A., Desjarlais, L., & Soucie, K. (2018). “False memory” is a linguistic convenience. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5 (2), 161.

Braun, K. A., Ellis, R., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Make my memory: How advertising can change our memories of the past . Psychology & Marketing, 19 (1), 1-23.

Diekelmann, S., Landolt, H. P., Lahl, O., Born, J., & Wagner, U. (2008). Sleep loss produces false memories. PloS one, 3 (10), e3512.

Gleaves, D. H., Smith, S. M., Butler, L. D., & Spiegel, D. (2004). False and recovered memories in the laboratory and clinic: A review of experimental and clinical evidence. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11 (1), 3-28.

Knafo, D. (2009). Freud’s memory erased. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 26 (2), 171–190.

La Ganga, Maria L. (1994-05-14). “Father Wins Suit in “False Memory” Case”. Los Angeles Times.

Lacy, J. W., & Stark, C. E. (2013). The neuroscience of memory: implications for the courtroom. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14 (9), 649-658.

Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report . Cognitive psychology, 7 (4), 560-572.

Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction : An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 13 (5), 585-589.

McHugh, P. R (2008). Try to remember: Psychiatry’s clash over meaning, memory and mind . Dana Press.

Robinson, Dana (20 Mar. 2020). “Everything You Want to Know About OCD.” Healthline, Healthline Media, www.healthline.com/health/ocd/social-signs.

Robinson-Riegler, B., & Robinson-Riegler, G. (2016). Cognitive psychology: Applying the science of the mind . Pearson.

Saunders, J., & MacLeod, M. D. (2002). New evidence on the suggestibility of memory: The role of retrieval-induced forgetting in misinformation effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8 (2), 127.

Schacter, D. L. (2002). The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers . Houghton: Mifflin Harcourt

Weiten, W. (2010). Psychology: Themes and Variations: Themes and Variations . Cengage Learning.

Further Information

Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American, 277 (3), 70-75.

Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories.

False Memories, Their Causes and Implications

Introduction, how false memories are formed, implications on the nature of memory, causes of accidental or intentional memory.

False memories are remembrances of events and experiences that never occurred, or they denote event recalls of incidences that occurred differently from how one perceives them. Through the use of findings from researches, analyses, and theoretical frameworks, it can be shown that false memories arise from coaching or accidental association of the event with other occurrences in the subject’s life.

Loftus and Pickrell (1995) carried out research among twenty-four Washington university students. They collected information from the participant’s relatives about their childhood experiences. All subjects were expected to give additional details on what they remembered about four events in their childhood. One of these events (the third one) was a false event. A follow-up interview of the participants was done; they were expected to give more details about the events. Another interview was done after the first one. Participants were told that they had been deceived and asked to identify the false event among the four.

It was found that seven of the twenty-four subjects remembered the false memory. When debriefed about the experiment, five subjects wrongly identified some of the true events as false ones. The study, therefore, illustrated that people could be led to remember events that never took place through suggestion. The participants were given cues from the interviewers and took this as background information. The cues were probably general knowledge from other experiences. It was hypothesized by the authors that the false information given must have been stored by the participants together with the background or schematic knowledge.

Afterward, when asked to recall the false event, the subjects then combined the false event with the schematic knowledge and formed one component, which is the pseudo memory. False memories are thus created through suggestion and association with long term memory.

Hyman et al. (1995) also explain that the social demands of an interview process have a direct effect on the way false memories are formed. In their study, the researchers explained to their subjects that they were expected to recall certain components of the experiment, which placed a lot of pressure on them. Similarly, patients in therapeutic settings may also be under pressure to recall certain events if demands are placed upon them by their therapists.

When more than one external person claims that the false event is true (as was the case in the interview), the chances are that the subject will also believe it is true. The parent of the interviewee as well as the experimenter both affirmed that the false event had occurred. This placed a lot of pressure on the subject to agree with the majority that the event had occurred.

Furthermore, people tend to treat their parents as powerful authority figures. The experimenter is also respected highly by the interviewee, thus illustrating why the subject is likely to believe him or her. It has been shown that when social demands are combined with ambiguous stimuli, then the subject is likely to bow to social demands. In the research carried out by Hyman et al. (1995), the subject under discussion was a childhood experience. The matter may likely have been highly ambiguous because it occurred at a time in the past. The interviewee was likely to react to the social demands due to this ambiguity.

Roediger and McDermott (1995) explain that false memories can be well understood through the implicit associative response school of thought. This theory assumes that subjects tend to encode certain words when they see them or hear them. For instance, if someone hears the word cold, one is likely to think about or associate it with hot. Later on, when the person is asked whether he or she can remember the word hot from the previous encounter, one is likely to claim that he or she can, even when that is not true. An implicit associative response will have occurred in this case. Sometimes the association can occur consciously, or it may be done subconsciously. Unless a subject can monitor their reality carefully, it can be quite easy to mix up false events with real ones.

This information on the formation of false memories can be used to understand and deduce the nature of memory itself. Some people tend to depend upon external cues to recall false memories implies that memory does not exist in a vacuum. In other words, little bits of memory does not exist independently from each other. Sometimes one experience may be affected by another. Those disruptions can be brought on by other memories that occurred prior to the event under question or experiences that occurred after the said event.

Reception of misleading information can affect how people recall an event because it merges with the old information in a way that can cause the real event to become supplanted, altered, or extremely distorted. Studies on false memories provide great insights on the formation of memory because they illustrate how new information can affect individuals without prior detection. It is now possible to know why revised data can trick witnesses during court testimonies.

Hyman and Pentland (1995) explain that mental imagery can play a huge role in the ability of subjects to recall certain events that occurred to them. It has been shown that people tend to classify particular events as memories if they possess clear mental images of them. Consequently, if an external party intentionally gives mental imageries concerning certain false events, then subjects are likely to think of them as actual memories even when they are not.

These associations show that the intentional creation of false memories can be done when the external party provides mental images to the person under consideration. In psychological circles, this may be akin to strong mental imagery suggestions provided to patients about childhood experiences. It can sometimes be done through tapes, books, and explicit descriptions of the supposed childhood event.

Sometimes the false memory formation process occurs unintentionally if the forces that interfere with memory are created generally. If another similar event occurs after the event is under consideration, these two entities may merge and distort it. As a result, memories can become false.

False memories usually occur due to suggestions offered by interviewers or psychologists if the subject is undergoing therapy. Social demands of the interview process or the therapeutic session can cause an individual to accept the false memory as true. Alternatively, mental imageries given by the external party can also lead to this problem. Such processes illustrate the possibility of the creation of false memories due to intentional coaching. Sometimes the false memory can occur unintentionally due to implicit associative responses. Events that occurred before or after the event can interfere with the actual experience under consideration. False memories, therefore, have high chances of occurrence in the clinical setting, and psychologists need to guard against coaching or to cause them during practice.

Hyman, I., Husband, H. & Billings, J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied cognitive psychology , 9,181-197.

Hyman, I. & Pentland, J. (1996). The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories. Memory and languages , 35(6), 101-117.

Loftus, E. & Pickrell, J. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric analysis , 25, 720-725.

Roediger, H. & McDermott, K. (1995). Creating false memories: remembering words not presented in lists. Experimental psychology , 21(4), 803-814.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section False Memory

Introduction, general overviews.

• Books for Academic Audiences
• Books for Popular Audiences
• False Memories for Words
• Early Research on False Memories for Childhood Events
• Imagination
• Static and Video Images
• Implausible and Impossible False Memories
• Individual Differences Predicting False Memories
• Emotion and False Memory
• Consequences of False Memories
• Meta- and Mega-Analyses
• Criminal Justice Applications
• Case Studies
• Theoretical Explanations
• Critiques and Responses
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• Non-Believed False Memories
• Beliefs about False Memories and Ethics of Implanting False Memories

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False Memory by Cara Laney Thede , Elizabeth Loftus LAST REVIEWED: 27 June 2018 LAST MODIFIED: 27 June 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0216

Memory accuracy and memory distortion have been studied for well over a century, but it is only in the last few decades that researchers have actively implanted memories for events that did not happen at all. This research area arose out of a need to explain consequential memories that were appearing in courtrooms and implausible memories that were appearing in therapists’ offices—some of these issues are addressed in this bibliography. In the intervening years, researchers have implanted complex, detailed, and emotional memories for event, including implausible and even impossible events. Techniques vary from presentation of thematic word lists to falsified feedback and images to repeated interrogation. Research has addressed who is likely to develop false memories and under what circumstances. Recent research has focused on the cognitive neuroscience of false memory and various factors that could potentially distinguish between true and false memories.

For those desiring to familiarize themselves with the research on false memory, there are several good options. Bornstein 2017 gives an extremely readable background on the historical context of false memory research, including repression and hypnotically induced memories, as well as recent research findings. Newman and Lindsay 2009 provides an argument for why false memories exist and how they relate to the overall functioning of human memory. Neuschatz, et al. 2007 and Newman and Garry 2013 are two different perspectives on the historical context and broad research findings in edited volumes intended for academic audiences (see also Books for Academic Audiences ). Laney and Loftus 2013 focuses on current directions in false memory research.

Bornstein, B. H. 2017. Popular myths about memory: Media representations versus scientific evidence . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Chapter 3 (“An Unholy Tetrad”) covers the history of and ongoing issues with the popular concepts of repression and recovered memories, and the related scientific evidence.

Laney, C., and E. F. Loftus. 2013. Recent advances in false memory research. South African Journal of Psychology 43:137–146.

DOI: 10.1177/0081246313484236

Describes relatively recent research on false memories, including their consequentiality and emotional content.

Neuschatz, J. S., J. M. Lampinen, M. P. Toglia, D. G. Payne, and E. Cisneros. 2007. False memory research: History, theory, and applied implications. In The handbook of eyewitness psychology . Vol. 1, Memory for events . Edited by M. P. Toglia, J. D. Read, D. F. Ross, and R. C. L. Lindsay, 239–260. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Deep and thorough treatment of the history of research on false memory and related phenomena, implications of the research, and techniques that may help mitigate the effects of false memories.

Newman, E. J., and M. Garry. 2013. False memory. In The SAGE handbook of applied memory . Edited by T. J. Perfect and D. S. Lindsay, 110–126. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Clear and helpful overview of the misinformation effect and false memories for complete events. Addresses many of the issues covered in this bibliography, including theoretical issues, plausibility, images, and imagination.

Newman, E. J., and D. S. Lindsay. 2009. False memories: What the hell are they for? Applied Cognitive Psychology 23:1105–1121.

DOI: 10.1002/acp.1613

Describes how memory errors, including false memories, can be explained as byproducts and sometimes even features of a powerful memory system.

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How to Recognize False Memories

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

What Are False Memories?

Research on false memories, what causes false memories, tips for recognizing false memories.

False memories are more common than you might think. Learning how to recognize false memories can help you separate the facts from the fabrications.

Most of us like to believe that we have a reasonably good memory . Sure, we might forget where we left our car keys once in a while and of course, we have all forgotten someone's name, an important phone number, or maybe even the date of our wedding anniversary. But when it comes to remembering the important things, like a cherished childhood event, our memories are accurate and trustworthy, right?

At a Glance

The reality is that memory is imperfect, and all people experience false memories occasionally. These memories may form because we misperceive things or because other information interferes with the memory's creation, storage, or retrieval. Even strong emotions can affect how we remember things. Being more aware of this fallibility may help you better recognize the potential for false memories.

A false memory can be defined as inaccurate recollections of past events, mistaken details in a memory, or even complete fabrications of events that did not actually take place.

While we might liken our memories to a camera, preserving every moment in perfect detail exactly as it happened, the sad fact is that our memories are more like a collage, pieced together sometimes crudely with the occasional embellishment or even outright fabrication.

Research has helped demonstrate just how fragile human memory can be. We are frighteningly susceptible to errors, and subtle suggestions can trigger false memories .

Surprisingly, people with exceptional memories are still susceptible to making things up without even realizing it. In some cases, large groups can even share the same false memory, a phenomenon known as the Mandela effect .

In one famous experiment carried out in 1995, memory expert Elizabeth Loftus was able to get 25% of her participants to believe a false memory that they were once lost in a shopping mall as a child.   Another 2002 study revealed that half of participants could be led to wrongly believe that they had once taken a hot air balloon ride as a child simply by showing them manipulated photo "evidence."  

Most of the time, these false memories are centered on things that are fairly mundane or inconsequential. Simple, everyday events that have few real consequences.

But sometimes these false memories can have serious or even devastating consequences. A false memory relayed during criminal testimony might lead to an innocent person being convicted of a crime. Clearly, false memory has the potential to be a serious problem, but why exactly do these incorrect memories form?

To learn how to recognize these memories, the first step is to identify some of the ways in which false memories could be constructed. There may be a few different factors involved in the formation of these false recollections.

Inaccurate Perception

Human perception isn't perfect. Sometimes we see things that aren't there and miss obvious things that are right in front of us. In many cases, false memories form because the information is not encoded correctly in the first place.   For example, a person might witness an accident but not have a clear view of everything that happened.

Recounting the events that occurred can be difficult or even impossible since they did not actually witness all of the details. A person's mind might fill in the "gaps" by forming memories that did not actually occur.

In other cases, old memories and experiences compete with newer information.   Sometimes it is old memories that interfere or alter our new memories, and in other instances, new information can make it difficult to remember previously stored information. As we are piecing old information back together, there are sometimes holes or gaps in our memory.

Our minds try to fill in the missing spaces, often using current knowledge as well as beliefs or expectations.

For example, you can probably distinctly remember where you were and what you were doing during the terrorist attacks of 9/11. While you probably feel like your memories of the event are pretty accurate, there is a very strong chance that your recollections have been influenced by subsequent news coverage and stories about the attacks.

This newer information might compete with your existing memories of the event or fill in missing bits of information.

If you've ever tried to recall the details of an emotionally-charged event (e.g., an argument, an accident, a medical emergency), you probably realize that emotions can wreak havoc on your memory. Sometimes strong emotions can make an experience more memorable, but they can sometimes lead to mistaken or untrustworthy memories.

Researchers have found that people tend to be more likely to remember events connected to strong emotions, but that the details of such memories are often suspect. Retelling important events can also lead to a false belief in the accuracy of the memory.

One older study found that negative emotions, in particular, were more likely to lead to the formation of false memories. Other studies have suggested that this false memory effect has less to do with negative emotions and more to do with arousal levels.

False memories were significantly more frequent during periods of high arousal than during periods of low arousal, regardless of whether the mood was positive, negative, or neutral. More recent research, however, found that the emotional tone, whether positive or negative, affected false memories more than arousal levels.

Misinformation

Sometimes accurate information gets mixed with incorrect information, which then distorts our memories for events. Loftus has been studying false memories since the 1970s and her work has revealed the serious consequences that misinformation can have on memory. In her studies, participants were shown images of a traffic accident.

The interviewers included leading questions or misleading information when questioned about the event after seeing the images. When the participants were later tested on their memory of the accident, those who had been fed misleading information were more likely to have false memories of the event.

The potential severe impact of this misinformation effect can be easily seen in the area of criminal justice, where mistakes can literally mean the difference between life and death. Some research suggests that false recollections during the interrogation process often contribute to wrongful convictions.

Misattribution

Misattribution can also play a role in the formation of false memories. Have you ever mixed up the details of one story with the details of another? For example, while telling a friend about your last vacation you might mistakenly relate an incident that happened on a vacation you took several years ago.

Misattribution might involve combining elements of different events into one cohesive story, misremembering where you obtained a particular piece of information, or even recalling imagined events from your childhood and believing they are real.

Fuzzy Tracing

When forming a memory, we don't always focus on the nitty-gritty details and instead remember an overall impression of what happened. Fuzzy trace theory suggests that we sometimes make verbatim traces of events and other times make only gist traces.

Verbatim traces are based on the real events as they actually happened, while gist traces are centered on our interpretations of events.

How does this explain false memories? Sometimes how we interpret information does not accurately reflect what really happened. These biased interpretations of events can lead to false memories of the original events.

So what can you do to tell if a memory is real or false? The reality is that there is no way to determine whether a memory is true or not unless you have some type of independent, outside evidence.  

Some strategies that may help improve your ability to trust a memory include the following:

• Look for outside evidence . If other evidence contradicts what you remember, it's important to question the accuracy of your own recollection.
• Remember that false memories happen to everyone . It doesn't matter how confidently you or someone else recalls the memory. It doesn't matter how much emotion lies behind it or how strongly you feel about it. You still might be wrong.
• Be aware of how outside influences might affect your memory . Even how a question is phrased might alter the details you reconstruct from memory. 
• Avoid misinformation . Consider the sources and stay away from clickbait headlines that are loaded with emotionally-provocative text designed to sway your opinions. Consider the purpose of the information, check sources, and use online tools to help determine if an image is altered or misattributed. 

While researchers are still learning more about the mechanisms behind how false memories form, it is clear that false memory is something that can happen to virtually anyone. These memories can range from the trivial to the life-altering, from the mundane to the potentially fatal.

"Nearly two decades of research on memory distortion leaves no doubt that memory can be altered via suggestion," wrote Loftus and Pickerell in a seminal 1995 article.  

The bottom line is this: Everyone remembers the past differently, and these memories are not always accurate. Distortions, misinformation, and other factors can all contribute to the formation of false memories. While there's no sure-fire trick for telling if a memory is true or false, being aware of the fallability of memory can be helpful.

Shaw J. Do false memories look real? Evidence that people struggle to identify rich false memories of committing crime and other emotional events . Front Psychol. 2020;11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00650

Loftus EF, Pickrell JE. The Formation of False Memories .​ Psychiatric Annals .1995;(25)12:720-725.  doi:-5713-19951201-07

Wade KA, Garry M, Read JD, Lindsay DS. A picture is worth a thousand lies: using false photographs to create false childhood memories . Psychon Bull Rev . 2002;9(3):597-603.  doi:10.3758/bf03196318

Devitt AL, Schacter DL. False memories with age: Neural and cognitive underpinnings . Neuropsychologia . 2016;91:346-359.  doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.030

Radvansky GA. Human Memory (Second Edition) . Pearson . 2010.

Brainerd CJ, Stein LM, et al. How Does Negative Emotion Cause False Memories? . Psychological Science .  2008;(19)9:919-925. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02177.x

Corson Y, Verrier N. Emotions and false memories: valence or arousal? . Psychol Sci . 2007;18(3):208-11.  doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01874.x

Brainerd CJ, Bookbinder SH. The semantics of emotion in false memory .  Emotion . 2019;19(1):146-159. doi:10.1037/emo0000431

Loftus EF, Palmer JC. Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory . J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav . 1974;(13)5:585-589.  doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(74)80011-3

Gudjonsson GH. The science-based pathways to understanding false confessions and wrongful convictions .  Front Psychol . 2021;12:633936. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.633936

Brainerd, C. J., Stein, L. M., Silveira, R. A., Rohenkohl, G., & Reyna, V. F. (2008). How Does Negative Emotion Cause False Memories?  Psychological Science, 19(9),  919-925. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02177.x.

• Brainerd, C. J., & Reyna, V. F. (2005). The Science of False Memory.  New York: Oxford University Press.
• Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F., & Ceci, S. J. (2008). Developmental Reversals in False Memory: a Review of Data and Theory.   Psychological Bulletin, 134(3),  343-382.
• Corson, Y. & Verrier, N. (2007). Emotions and False Memories: Valence or Arousal?​  Psychological Science, 18(3),  208-211.
• Dingfelder, S. F. (2005). Feelings' Sway Over Memory.  Monitor on Psychology, 36(8),  54.
• Loftus, E.F. & Pickrell, J.E. (1995) The Formation of False Memories.​  Psychiatric Annals , 25, 720-725.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Psychology Essay Example: False Memories

False memories occur when people take a certain mental experience for a real past experience. When people are asked to describe something that happened at a particular time, they rarely provide accurate answers that fully comply with objective reality. Their memory will be altered by other post-event information, experience, or memories. How does this happen? What are the possible consequences? Can false memories be artificially created? If yes, then what could be the possible consequences? This essay will address all of those questions below.

Those who have watched the movie Inception might be familiar with the idea that memories can be artificially created in humans. This occurs much more commonly and easier than it is depicted in the film. Simply speaking, information, which we receive following a particular event that has already been imprinted in our memory, distorts our memory of this event. It can happen naturally and artificially. In fact, there have been studies of false memories and their intentional creation. Below are some examples.

In the 1990s, a so-called “Lost in the mall” technique and experiment was suggested by E. Loftus and colleagues. In the experiment, the researchers asked a 14-year-old boy Chris to write about four of his childhood memories every day. Three of those memories were true, and the fourth was false. It involved Chris being lost in the shopping mall. During the experiment, his older brother was helping him to “reconstruct” the false memory. At the end of the experiment, Chris had constructed a realistic and detailed story of how he was lost in a mall and then reunited with his family. When the boy was told that this memory was a false one, he could not believe it for some time. The experiment with a shopping mall was reenacted with different subjects and with slightly varying procedures. Although the ethics of the experiment were questioned, it made a significant contribution to the study of false memories.

Our brain’s capability to dramatically alter the real events in our perception post factum allows us to both forget some events and substitute them with others. This can apply, in particular, to traumatic memories. By changing the traumatic ones to neutral, people might try to cope with negative experiences. On the other hand, as the experiments above have demonstrated, people could also be artificially traumatized by false memories. Counseling psychologists should be especially attentive to such matters.

The study of false memories in humans and their formation can be helpful in various areas, from general psychology theory to forensic psychology and psychotherapeutic counseling. It is important to remember that people’s memories of actual events are always modified to certain extent by information that follows. It will not always result in generation of false memories, but it surely can. That is why it is especially important to understand the nature of false memories, understand their origin, and be able to distinguish them from the real ones.

This essay has been written by WorldEssays.com writers.

• Bjorklund, D. F. (2000). False-memory Creation in Children and Adults: Theory, Research, and Implications. Psychology Press.
• Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F. (2005). The Science of False Memory. Oxford University Press.
• Coan, J. A. (1997). Lost in a Shopping Mall: An Experience with Controversial Research. Ethics & Behavior, 7(3): 271-284.
• Conway, M. A. (1997). Recovered Memories and False Memories. Oxford University Press.
• Johnson, M. K., Raye, C. L., Mitchell, K. J., Ankudowich, E. (2011). The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories. R.F. Belli (ed.), True and False Recovered Memories: Toward a Reconciliation of the Debate. Springer Science & Business Media, 15-52.
• Loftus, E. F., Coan, J., Pickrell, J. E. (1996). Manufacturing false memories using bits of reality. In Reder, Lynne M., ed. Implicit Memory and Metacognition. Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory. NY: St. Martin’s Press.
• Loftus, E. F., Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, Vol 25(12): 720-725.
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5 A Neurobiological Account of False Memories

• Published: October 2017
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This chapter discusses human functional neuroimaging findings about how the brain creates true and false memories. These studies have shown that different brain systems contribute to the creation and retrieval of false memories, including systems for sensory perception, executive functioning and cognitive control, and the medial temporal lobe, which has long been associated with episodic and autobiographical memory formation. Many neuroimaging findings provide support for an associative account of false memories, which proposes that false memories arise from associating unrelated mental experiences in memory. At the same time, other neuroimaging findings suggest that false memory creation may depend on states of brain activity during memory encoding. Finally, the chapter briefly provides cautionary notes about using functional neuroimaging as a tool to assess private mental states in individual cases in the courtroom.

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Don’t Fight False Memories in Dementia

False memories are common in alzheimer’s and other dementias and usually benign..

Posted May 9, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• What Is Dementia?
• Find a therapist to help with dementia
• False memories usually can be ignored as you redirect your loved one to another topic of conversation.
• People commonly falsely remember that they are still working or that they attended an event that they didn’t.
• If a false memory is frightening to your loved one, reassure, comfort, and redirect them.

I was recently called by a patient’s daughter in distress. The daughter explained how her mother told her the story of how she was bound, gagged, taken to a secret location, and held for ransom. It wasn’t clear how the kidnappers had broken into her locked memory care unit, how they left with her, or how she was returned. But her mother was entirely convinced that this happened and, understandably, was very upset by it.

As I touched on briefly in a prior post , false memories are very common in dementia . Your loved one’s faulty memory may lead them to remember all sorts of things that are not true, such as thinking that they are still working when they retired many years ago, believing that their parents are still alive when they are long since deceased, and thinking that you have been gone for hours when you just stepped out for 10 minutes. They may also confuse things that happened to someone else with things that happened to them—maybe even something that they saw on television! (This latter situation is likely what happened to the patient above: She confused events she saw on television with her own life.)

The best advice I can give if your loved one is having false memories is to not fight them or even try to correct them unless they are distressing. If, after watching a travel program, your loved one thinks that they took a trip to Venice even though they have never been to Italy, don’t bother correcting them—let them enjoy the fantasy . If they falsely remember that a family member—now deceased—is going to come pick them up and take them “home,” you might want to simply reassure them and redirect them to another activity or topic of conversation.

Sometimes your loved one may mix up memories and become convinced that someone who loves them did something hurtful to them, when it actually isn’t true at all. They may become upset when they see the person because of this false memory. In these circumstances, the 4Rs may be helpful: Reconsider the situation from their point of view, relax as you reassure them that whatever it is it isn’t true, and then redirect them to another activity or topic. Have the individual who is “accused” of doing the hurtful thing spend time with your loved one doing enjoyable activities. Because emotional memory is relatively preserved in dementia, they may soon develop a good feeling about the person and stop remembering their false memory.

Now my mother is having false memories—she tells me she spoke to her parents last night, but they’ve been dead for 30 years! Should I correct her and tell her she’s wrong? No. Unless there is some reason to correct her, it’s best to just ignore the false memory and redirect her to another activity or topic of conversation.

© Andrew E. Budson, MD, 2024, all rights reserved.

Budson AE, O’Connor MK. Seven Steps to Managing Your Aging Memory: What’s Normal, What’s Not, and What to Do About It , New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

Budson AE, O’Connor MK. Six Steps to Managing Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Guide for Families , New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Budson AE, Solomon PR. Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, & Dementia: A Practical Guide for Clinicians , 3rd Edition, Philadelphia: Elsevier Inc., 2022.

Andrew Budson, M.D. , is a professor of neurology at Boston University, as well as a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

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At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
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