My parents have always taken lots of pictures and videos of major events in our lifetime. Occasionally as a family, we would sit down and watch home video’s together and look at photo albums. There are so many pictures and videos that I have seen millions of times that I can “remember” exactly when it happened and what had happened. Then one day during class we learned about forgetfulness and that there is something called discerning false memories which means that everything we think happened doesn’t necessarily mean we actually remember what happened. Since I have seen these pictures so many times, there is a chance that I could have created an image in my head about what happened instead of actually remembering what really happened. So all of the events that I thought I remembered from looking at pictures and or videos, doesn’t mean I actually remember them. There is a good chance that most of these events I actually do remember, but there is a good chance that I don’t remember some of them. In order to prove it you need some sort of evidence that proves what happened. It is a fact that most of the memories in your head are true because otherwise our lives would be a mess. After recently looking at these pictures over break, I questioned whether or not I actually know what happened or not. I couldn’t tell if I actually remembered being at the event, or if I had constructed a fake event in my head. I tried to think if these memories I had were real or not but it was very difficult to decide. It is very hard to distinguish a difference because we believe we remember what happened but since we can not be sure we doubt ourselves.
6 thoughts on “Discerning False Memories”
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My family and I just actually watched many of our home videos so I can relate. This happened after we learned about the idea of implanting false memories in class, so I too had to discern what I could visually remember or not. As for me rolling on the floor as a baby, I know I wouldn’t have remembered that. Others, however, like having barney at my house for my sister’s birthday… I think I actually remember! False memories are such a strange phenomena.
You’re blog post is very relatable! I’ve also had experiences in which I filtered missing pieces of information in order to make the memory more coherent. For example, whenever I conversed with my parents about my childhood, my parents and I would bring up different segments of the memory. And I tended to combine those different segments together and called it as “memory.” I was in fact pretty convicted that my memory was accurate even though I didn’t remember half of it. However, this example serves to show how memory is a constructive process, and people have the tendency to fill the missing pieces.
I also had a lot of family photos taken when I was younger and I always found it confusing when I could remember these events but nothing else from that time period. Now I realize that these memories are all false. I suppose that realizing that I can’t remember what happened before and after the pictures is a way to discern whether the memories are real. However, when there are no pictures for the memories it can be near impossible to tell if they are the truth. I have had several arguments with my brother when each of us thinks that he is right in remembering an event. I would always have a seemingly complete memory in my mind of what happened, but my memory could have been false and most likely my brothers was too in some manner. Even though it is disconcerting to believe that many of your memories are not true, solace can be found in the fact that some are true.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I found it very interesting and relatable. I had an experience much like yours and Elizabeth’s in that I have a picture from my second birthday. In the picture, I had just received one of my favorite toys of my childhood. I always told myself that I remember opening the present and being so excited. I now know this is not true, and I can only remember the experience because of pictures from that day. I also remember playing with the toy itself in my later years which also contributed to my false memory of opening the present for the first time.
I completely agree that sometimes it is hard to figure out whether you actually remember something or if you just planted memories because you’ve seen the pictures so often. I have a similar experience with this. I always claim that my first memory is from when my mom and grandpa took me to the swimming pool. I still say that I can remember the exact echoes from the indoor pool, but I don’t think this is actually true. I have looked at the picture from this gathering so often that I think I have implanted these memories into my head. I was only two years old, but I have always stood by the fact that I can remember this exact event. I really enjoyed reading your blog entry!
In the past few years, I have come to believe that a large part of my academic life came to be as a result of the phenomenon that we have learned to be called “discerning false memories.” I can vividly recall my parents taking me to many Penn State football games and driving through campus when I was a very young child; it was these memories that conditioned me to aspire to go to Penn State during my elementary school years. However, when I went the 2007 PSU vs Notre Dame game with my parents, they asked me if I enjoyed my first Penn State football game. Of course I debated with them that they had taken me to many prior to that, but to this day they adamantly deny taking me to Penn State as a child.
I find it so bizarre that our brain has the ability to build these false memories and convince ourselves that they actually occurred. These false memories are the foundation of who I am as an academic today, and I cannot determine where they originated. As glad as I am that I ended up at Penn State due to these false memories, but they have also taught me to not always trust my own memory, which, to be honest, is a very strange sensation.