Source Amnesia – Karly Jardin

A term from unit three that relates to a personal experience of mine is source amnesia. Source amnesia is when a person attributes an event to the wrong source; usually something we have either experienced, heard, read, or imagined. Source amnesia is related to the misinformation effect, incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event. An experience I had this past Thanksgiving with my grandmother came to mind when learning about source amnesia. Every Thanksgiving it is a tradition to sit at the table for hours talking and reminiscing on our favorite memories together. When it was my grandmas turn to share, she said that her favorite memory from this past year was when we watched fireworks on the beach in Outer Banks during our summer trip. She did indeed have a memory of watching fireworks, however we never watched fireworks on the beach, nor in Outer Banks.

Originally my family just thought that my grandma was confused, as she was almost 80 years old and people often say that your memory fades with age. My grandma usually had a very accurate memory, despite her age and could recall memories from when my mother was a small child and even when she herself was a child. It was not until this lesson that I realized that she may have been experiencing source amnesia. My grandma did indeed watch a firework show during the summer she was referring to; however, it was at her state fair in Missouri on the Fourth of July. Our trip to the Outer Banks was the week following that firework show so it is likely that she attributed the firework show to the wrong memory.

Basically, what we originally believed was caused by her being confused based on her age, could have potentially been source amnesia and not related to her age at all. Many of us have experienced source amnesia in some way and likely blamed it on something different. Ultimately this lesson has opened my eyes to the idea of source amnesia, rather than just pure confusion of an event.