Discerning False Memories

“Can we really be sure if a memory is true or false?” (Wede 2023). This question is posed by Professor Wede in lecture slides 11 on the topic of Forgetting and the Biology of Memory in Unit 3. This idea of concluding whether a memory actually occurred or not has a simple answer that, no we really can not determine if a memory is true or false. Unless there is factual evidence of an event we remember occurring, if it is left up to only our minds to remember, it is an unreliable and somewhat biased source. Our imagination and emotions can easily take over and alter the way we recall certain events of the past making them more dramatic or less depending on how we felt. Dr. Wede’s slides clarify that most of our memories are not false and that the majority of them must be true or else our perception of the past would be chaos.

The reason for my choosing this topic is due to a memory that I have from my childhood that jogged an interesting question in my mind during Dr. Wede’s lecture. There is an old photo of myself in my grandparents’ house when I was about 5-6 standing on the steering wheel of an old rideable firetruck pressed against a glass door looking outside to the front patio. The reason I use this memory as an example is due to the fact that all my life I have looked at that photo and giggled about how dangerous and stupid it was for me to do something like that, however, when I think of that memory I am able to almost visualize that exact moment looking through my own eyes, even though the photo was taken from behind me. However, because the memory took place in a location I grew up visiting, I question whether or not my recalling of this event through my own eyes is an actual memory from that time or an imaginative recreation of what I believe I would have seen since I am so familiar with the environment. I have heard the story of my stupidity at that moment from my family members many times throughout my life and have viewed the photo many times more but ponder whether the memory is true or false. I will never be able to discern whether or not the memory I am able to recall in my head is true or false but I found it extremely intriguing to ponder the question of how many of our memories are true and how many more may be fictitious and/or altered in other ways.

Source:

Wede, J. (2023). Lecture 11- Forgetting and Biology of Memory (PowerPoint Slides).
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2280790/files/154869022?module_item_id=39941688

 

Rocco Cappolella 

Professor Wede 

Psych 100 

21 October 2023 

Blog Post 1 

 

The course concepts from unit three that I decided to use for this blog post are source amnesia and misinformation effect. Source amnesia happens when a person is able to remember information about a memory, but is attributing the memory to the wrong source and misinformation effect is incorporating misleading information into the memory of an event. Both of these concepts involve not being able to remember a specific event correctly. 

My example of these two course concepts comes from about two years ago, when my mom was talking to me and my sister and brought up my sister’s bachelorette party. My sister is not married, so she has never had a bachelorette party. After hearing my mom say this, we were very confused. We eventually started to understand that she was remembering her own party but got the details of the memory wrong. She did not remember when it was, how the memory came to be, and that it was her own party. She quickly came to understand that she was remembering it wrong after she remembered that my sister is not married, but initially, her brain had told her that she was remembering my sister’s bachelor party and not her own. 

The situation that my mom experienced was an occurrence of both source amnesia and misinformation effect. It was source amnesia because my mom credited the memory to the wrong source and did not remember when or how the memory took place. It was an example of misinformation effect because my mom’s memory of the event was distorted and not accurate to what actually happened. Overall, it was a strange experience for my mom, but I am glad that I have now learned what caused her to mistake her memory. 

There are 7 other errors possible that could occur when attempting to retrieve information. Others include, absentmindedness, transience, misattribution, suggestibility,bias, and persistence. Transience, absentmindedness and blocking all fall under the category of actual forgetness of memories. Misattribution, suggestibility, and bias fall under distortion where the source of information is confused. The last one of persistence is in its own category of intrusion where you’re unable to forget an ugly memory (usually being traumatic events).  Transience, a part of forgetting, is just when the information/memory happened so long ago that it no longer is accessible, another forgetful error is absentmindedness , as the forgetting is caused by a lack of attention to certain things. Tip of the tongue is apart of a bigger concept of forgetting and retrieval errors that can occur. Tip of the tongue is a phenomenon also known as Blocking where the information stored is inaccessible. The memory is right there and you know it’s there but just can’t seem to recall it. Many examples of this are not being able to remember the name of a famous actor but can describe them physically and list works they’ve been in. Distortion can happen in 3 ways, misattribution where the source of memory is confused as you may recall a dream memory as a waking memory. Another method is suggestibility which is simply false memories usually caused by leading questions causing you to assume that something happened (when it didn’t) because of the wording of the question. The last one is bias where the memories are distorted because of current belief systems. There are a couple modes on this video game called ‘Jackbox’ where trivia is involved and you must answer quickly. In many instances where I’ve known the answer but couldn’t remember the exact word in such a short timeframe leading to me having less correct answers and using the majority of the time trying to remember what the correct answer is. Other times where my friends are all talking about a movie or tv show and I want to bring up one of the actors that I can’t remember the name but I can describe them so well that all my other friends also know who I’m speaking about also experience ToT and can’t name them either but know who. Tip of the tongue is apart of a bigger concept of forgetting and retrieval errors that can occur.

 

 

Wede, J. (2023). Lecture 11 –Forgetting & Biology of Memory [PowerPoint Slides]. Pennsylvania State University PSYCH 100 CANVAS:

https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2280790/files/154869022?module_item_id=39941688

 

Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory states that children go through four stages in their lives, and as they grow older, they develop even more skills and enter a new stage, each stage being more complex than the last. Fortunately, I was able to witness it with my younger siblings. I am the oldest of five children, and I helped raise all of them with my parents, especially the two youngest, who are 9 and 7. I will try to relate each stages theory with my own experience and what I saw with them.

Stage one: sensorimotor stage. This stage is typically from birth to two years of age. At this stage, toddlers develop object permanence, which is the awareness that objects exist even when you cannot see them. But they also become more aware of cause and effect on their environment, when a child understands that they can move objects and change their surroundings. Children will typically touch, taste, feel, and look at different objects to better understand their environment. My youngest brother, Victor, was infamous during this stage. Anything he would find, he would instantly put in his mouth, and if he liked it, he would keep it; if not, he would cry until someone gave him his attention. At first, it started small, he would try to eat his toys or his plastic silverware, then it would gradually get bigger and worse. Until he accidentally tried eating a nail, but was luckily caught before then and learned his lesson to not eat things off the ground.

Stage two: preoperational stage. This stage lasts until they are about seven years old. At this stage, children are able to speak more symbolically. For example, they can relate that riding on a broom stick is just like riding a horse in a western film. They also become egocentric at this stage, thinking of only their views and wants. For example, when they play hide and seek, when they hide they only think of what they could see, so that’s why they will hide in obvious or not very good hiding spots. The older brother, Sam, was also known at this stage. This kid will get what he wants, no matter what. He has gotten into many fights with our cousins, younger or older, and would argue with us about everything. He also loves Marvel movies and always relates to them. 

Stage three: concrete operational stage. This stage usually lasts until they are eleven years old. This stage shows how children develop a more logical thinking and are more aware of external events around them. They become less egocentric and think about other people’s perspectives (some children never pass this stage). They are also able to solve basic math problems. I got to witness this moment between my youngest siblings and my father, who are seven and nine, they started asking my parents about religion, and about our culture and why do we speak two languages, and why are their so many different people, and it was just constant questions about their surroundings.

Stage four: formal operation stage. This stage is from eleven to adulthood. Children develop the ability to understand abstract ideas and different theories. For example, they are able to do algebra and geometry at this stage. They are also able to come up with a bunch of different solutions when faced with a problem, and solve it in the most logical, safer, and which ever yields a better result. I have not been able to see this in my younger brothers, but in my sister. I would be the one to help her with her math problems, and I would see how much she would learn and understand with each problem we solved, and seeing her understand these basic concepts in algebra.   

 

sources : 

 

Kendra Cherry, MSEd. “Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development in Young Children.” Verywell Mind, 5 Dec. 2022, www.verywellmind.com/preoperational-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795461. Accessed 22 Oct. 2023.

 

“Formal Operational Stage.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/science/formal-operational-stage. Accessed 22 Oct. 2023.

 

“Piaget Cognitive Stages of Development.” WebMD, www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development. Accessed 22 Oct. 2023.

 

Jamie White, M.Ed. “Help! My Preschoolers Are so Selfish!” Play to Learn Preschool, 30 Oct. 2021, playtolearnpreschool.us/selfish-preschoolers/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2023.

The concept that I have chosen for this blog post is retrieval problems. I have experienced this concept many times throughout my life and it has made a connection as to why this occurs. Retrieval failures occur when the information learned affects either prior or new learning. These are called retroactive and proactive interference. These both interfere with the learning inside your brain and are concepts of the brain’s functions. In my experience, I had trouble recalling my old house phone numbers when I was a child. I had always asked myself, why did this happen? What was happening to my brain where I could not possibly remember the new number? When I was younger, we had a house phone that was the phone number I always remembered. I memorized it so I could always call home if I needed to. This number was fairly easy to remember and I never forgot it, then we got a new one. After the old one was removed, I continuously remembered the old number and not the new one. It took me many years to decide to try and memorize the new number and when I did I noticed something interesting. Each time I tried to recall the number, I would always start with the old number’s area code and not the new one. It was not until I got to the last section that I realized and had to start over. This phenomenon continues even to this day in my life when I try to remember each of the numbers. Since we have no home line now, I have forgotten the new number and only remember the old one. To best describe what I had experienced, I would call this proactive interference as the old number clouded my recalling of the new number. In my experience with this concept, I have learned that proactive interference is the cause for my troubles with recalling information from my brain. In knowing this information, I can use strategies and eventually be able to remember the information better. This can also be used for other areas in my life besides this one and can further help in my studies and future.

When attempting to retrieve information that you have learned, there are problems that can occur. These problems have to do with the retrieval of information and memory causing an interference. Two of these retrieval problems are known as Proactive interference and Retroactive interference. According to information from Wede (2023), Proactive interference occurs when information that someone learned at an earlier time interferes with information that someone learns later. On the contrary, Retroactive interference occurs when information that someone learns at a later time then interferes with information someone learned at an earlier time. The retrieval problems with interference work both ways, having both new and old information being able to interfere with each other. Because of this, it makes it challenging to know just how accurate our memory truly is. It can be difficult determining if information we are attempting to retrieve has been interfered with by our previous or more recent memories.

Throughout my life, I have experienced both Proactive interference as well as Retroactive interference many times. An example of a time I experienced both is with using keyboard shortcuts. I recently switched from using Windows based computers and keyboards to do my work over to using a MacBook. With this change came a new set of new keyboard shortcuts I had to get used to as Mac keyboards use “command” instead of “ctrl” for many shortcuts. While I was learning and adjusting to these new shortcuts, I would often forget them and attempt to use the windows keyboard shortcuts that I previously learned. Despite having learned the Mac based shortcuts, the windows-based shortcuts I learned prior were proactively interfering with the new shortcuts I learned, making it difficult to adjust to and learn the new Mac based shortcuts. Now that I have fully adjusted to using Mac shortcuts, when I attempt to use a windows computer with windows keyboard shortcuts, I now experience retroactive interference where I am now forgetting the windows shortcuts I once knew because the new Mac shortcuts I recently learned are retroactively interfering with them. This is because Proactive and Retroactive interference work both ways, having both new and old memories interfering with each other.

Source:

Wede, J. (2023). Lecture 11 –Forgetting & Biology of Memory [PowerPoint Slides].
Pennsylvania State University PSYCH 100 CANVAS:
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2280790/files/154869022?module_item_id=39941688

 

When I was about five years old, my mom and dad took my sister and me to Disney World. This was my first and only trip there, but I only have one memory from the entire trip. The memory I have is so distinct because it traumatized me and the story has been told to me and by me numerous times. But did actually happen the way I remember it? I am not sure and this is due to memory construction. Memory construction is a term we learned in class that means our brain fills in pieces to our memory about an event. Due to this, we cannot be completely certain that things happened in the exact way we remembered them. To this day I remember when I was only 5 years old getting ready to leave our hotel to go to the pool. I was in the elevator with my mom when it opened, but she realized then that she had forgotten something. My mom told me to hold the open button while she went to grab it quickly. So I step into the elevator and hold the button, she runs back to our room and gets whatever she needed and as she is coming back down the hallway the elevator doors shut. I remember that I began to panic I had no idea what to do because I was alone in an unfamiliar place and did not know how to get back to my mom. While on the elevator, my dad and sister are already at the pool, so my mom called my dad freaking out and then together they went to the front desk. The front desk did not have security or anything so they sent their gardeners along with my parents to help find me. Ever since I was a kid, I had a pretty good sense of direction so when the elevator doors opened and I was alone I went back to our room, or at least what I thought was our room. It turned out to be the right room but the wrong floor. I distinctly remember knocking on the door and an older blonde woman opening it. She saw the panic on my face and let me in. She called the front desk to let them know that a random child just showed up at her door. As I mentioned before, this is the only memory I have from this trip, but is it accurate? I have no idea what about the memory was falsified by the brain constructing the memory to fill it in. I do believe that most of the memory is true because of how distinct it was, but some of it most definitely has been altered.

The concept that I am choosing is secure attachment. Secure attachment is a relationship between an infant and caregiver where the infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver. Children with secure attachment prefer the company of their caregiver over strangers and find it easier to interact with the world while with their caregiver. As a little girl my primary attachment figure was my mother and growing up I had severe separation anxiety from her. From preschool to third grade I would fear the moment that I would have to leave my mothers side, whether it was for school or a sleepover it would not matter, the second she would leave me I would instantly break down and the comfort that I would feel while being with her would instantly diminish. My peers and teachers would do their best to support and calm me down but nothing would compare to the serenity I would feel the instant I would see my mom again. The fear that consumed me was something far from what a young child should be thinking about. The second she would leave me my young mind would immediately think of everything bad that could happen while not being with her. What if she gets into a car accident or something terrible happens to her at work? These thoughts would run through my mind and drive me to panic and break down. Knowing the exact time she would take to get from work to my daycare I would sit at the window waiting for her car to pull into the lot so that my little heart could rise back to my chest and I could take a breath again. When selecting this concept I knew it was the perfect one to write about and relate to myself because of how attached I was to my mother. Being in her presence would calm and comfort me because she was the person I knew best out of everyone else in the world. I knew that when I was with her I was safe and protected but being with her also gave me the comfort of knowing that she was safe.