False Memories – An Interview With Dr Anastasi
False memories are vivid memories that an individual has of an event that has not occurred in their life. For example, individuals may have an extreme vivid memory of an event that happened before they were born and only heard about it through family members. The false memories feel as real and vivid as real memories, which made me wonder if we could tell them apart from each other. This is what the article, ‘Distinguishing between memory illusions and actual memories using phenomenological measurements and explicit warnings’ by Jeffrey S. Anastasi, Mathew G Rhodes and Mathew C. Burns talks about. Read further to find out more about the research done by Mr. Anastasi on the topic.
- I was wondering if you could touch a bit on the research for the audience that may be learning about it for the first time.
The general topic is based on the idea of repressed memories. There were many individuals who had “recovered” memories of sexual abuse that they had potentially repressed. This abuse had taken place when they were children. Due to the emotional aspect of the events, these individuals were thought to have repressed these memories. During prolonged therapy, many of these individuals slowly began to uncover these memories of abuse. Interestingly, it seems that many of these individuals had not actually been abused at all, but still had vivid memories of this abuse. This phenomenon of individuals having vivid memories of some event that never actually happened led to a plethora of research investigating whether this could actually be possible. This is the false memory research.
- What got you interested in studying false memories?
When I was in graduate school (in the early 1990s) was the time that many of these repressed memories were happening. Numerous individuals “recovered” memories of abuse and many of these individuals later recanted their memories. These were normal, average people as well as many famous individuals (movie actors, etc.). I found the topic fascinating that someone could have such a vivid memory of an event that never actually occurred.
3. In the article, you talk about how explicit warnings play a role in being able todistinguish between false memories and real memories. Outside a controlled experiment, do you think people are provided with these explicit warnings to help them differentiate between false memories and real memories?
Even in our research, individuals who are warned still have false memories. While they can lower the incidence of false memories when they are given an explicit warning, they still get false memories and are confident in those false memories. In therapeutic situations, I think the therapists are oftentimes encouraged when the individual is able to remember something from their past that might be causing their current problems. The therapist is doing everything in their power to try and help their client to get at the root of the problem. With this type of motivation to help their client to get better, they may sometimes hastily accept whatever their client says as factual. They may also inadvertentlylead their client to fabricate memories or form memories for events that never occurred. Again, I think that they would never do this purposely, but many of the techniques that are common in recovered memory therapy are highly suggestive and much research has shown that they do lead to fabricated memories.
- In a criminal case, do you think the extent to which a witness can differentiate between false and real memories affect the reliability of their memory?
Absolutely. If an attorney is able to discredit a witness because their memory differs from what may be objectively true (i.e., a video recording of the actual crime), this would certainly discredit the witness and affect how reliable a jury might view that witness. Unfortunately, false memories can be formed very easily and may involve something as simple as suggesting that something was present. For example, in a study conducted by Loftus and Zanni, individuals were asked if they remembered seeing any broken glass at a car accident scene. There was no broken glass. Some of the participants were asked if they remembered seeing any broken glass. Other witnesses were asked if they remembered seeing the broken glass. Those who were asked if they remembered seeing “the” broken glass were significantly more likely to remember seeing this nonexistent broken glass. So, very subtle suggestions is all it takes to affect one’s memory.
- Where are studies in this area at the moment and where do you anticipate findings going in the next year or so?
There are a number of studies that are showing how photographs can be used to help jog one’s memory. These photographs aren’t fabricated photographs showing a false event, but simply photographs from that time in the person’s life that is around the time of the memory that is being coerced. Interestingly, these photographs serve as cues and as a foundation to build false memories. Other research is starting to look at the brain areas that are activated when someone recalls real or false memories. I think this research approach is going to become more popular. Some of this research has shown that thinking about or imaging a false event activates the same brain areas that are activated when one is actually looking at something occurring. Thus, it’s very difficult to distinguish between something that was actually seen and something that was simply imagined.
- Do you have any additional resources or further readings for those who want to learn more about the topic?
There are numerous studies that have been conducted by Steve Lindsey and Marianne Garry that have looked at the effects of photographs on false memory generation. Marianne has also done a lot of work on imagination inflation which is very much related to this topic. In my own lab, we’re looking at the effects of photographs on people’s false memories for fake news events. Thus far, these photographs make individuals much more confident that these fake news events actually occurred.
Having false memories can be a problem as it can lead to people pressing charges against individuals that they believe abused them but in reality did not. Research has shown us that slight suggestions like the broken glass study can alter a person’s memory of the actual level. This makes me wonder how much we can trust our own memories knowing that we can’t differentiate between false and real memories.
This topic is very interesting. I recently finished watching the Netflix special, The Keepers. One of the topics in that special were repressed memories. I find it interesting that there is much topic of debate on whether repressed memories count as official evidence in a court of law. I sided with the defendant in this case, but after reading this interview, it might be more understanding to question whether this counts as evidence. How can we use a repsressed memory if it could potentially be fabricated? I can understand now, that fabricated memories could be stronger and more prevalent than we realize. The use of pictures by lawyers can prove helpful because it allows the person to really see what they think they might be remembering. Much like the case with The Keepers, who’s to say that repressed memory isn’t something that someone is using to play the victim?
To the author, it might help to question how this connects to other facets of this particular topic. We understand that false memories are a thing that happens, but if there is no current research, what about something closely related that could help shed light not even considered? Great work, overall! Very intriguing and thought provoking!
Thank you for the interview, this is a great development for criminal cases, especially when minor details tend to be easily forgotten and/or replaced. The thing about subtle suggestions does make me more aware about what I hear, for it co-related with my thoughts. I was just thinking, apart from criminal cases, could an area to venture be amnesia? Given that victims do not remember their past, could their brains also work to input false memories? Just a thought 🙂
Super intriguing topic to consider, I never really thought about the subject! It appears that “false memories” are a fairly new concept, and as someone who is going into counseling psychology this was a useful reading. Dr. Anastia brings up a very important point when talking about the language used during therapy or criminal cases that can fabricate false memories. The human mind is easy to manipulate with simple vocabulary.
My only concern is distinguishing the real from false memories. Rape victims already face many people who doubt their stories, therefore, this “false memory” could be used against them (though unlikely). Overall, for an interview on a loose concept such as this, it is well written and the questions did lead to insightful answers. I would totally love to know what other researchers think, such as Steve Lindsey and Marianne Garry. I also suggest bringing in an anecdote into the article or maybe a personal experience Dr. Anastia has had with false memory, if any.
I really like how this interview had a solid introduction and background information, unlike many interviews that just dive right in. I’ve found the subject of false memories fascinating ever since I learned about the Loftus and Zanni study a couple years ago because it makes me wonder if any, or which, of memories could be fabricated. It’s scary to think that all of my memories may not be accurate.
I wonder why, as mentioned in the beginning of the interview, people form false memories of being abused. Besides therapists possibly shaping their clients’ responses, what else could make a new client come to a therapist with false memories of abuse?
This article is very informative to its readers. As far as formatting, I do suggest omitting the italicized font, as this can be harsh on the eye. Otherwise, the topic is covered very well, and the questions asked are very intriguing. It would be interesting to go more in depth with this topic, and perhaps inquire about things such as, for the everyday person, what things may influence us to have fake memories? This could help discover what some causes are, for someone not in therapy or otherwise, may be for fake memories.
On a more personal note, I have dealt with long-term amnesia in the past, and it would be very interesting to research what the likelihood or ratio of returned memories to amnesia patients are real versus fake.
I believe having retrograde amnesia can make it easier to implant false memories, but it would be interesting to see a side by side ratio.
This article was a fantastic read: great topic, organization, and development of ideas. Your interview questions covered everything I wanted to know and allowed for elaboration on the interviewees part. Something to add, however, would be the qualifications of Jeffrey S. Anastasi, Mathew G Rhodes and Mathew C. Burns as I have no idea who these people are or why I should listen to them without an introduction of their reliability. I also would have enjoyed a conclusion of the ideas discussed and your own opinion at the ending of the article.
The inclusion of how false memories can affect a criminal sentence is a startling prospect. I never would have thought of how this can change the outcome in a courtroom and, honestly, how simple it might be to discredit a witness considering people sometimes don’t even trust their own memories.
Very well done!
What’s neat too is that eye witness testimonies are often viewed as the most reliable source in the courtroom, yet, as we study memories we realize this just isn’t true. If we change the word in a phrase like, “car crash” or “car collision” people will “remember” how fast the cars were going. Car that “collided” were going much faster than the cars that “crashed.” It just shows how much language shapes our perceptions of everything, and are perceptions are just memory.
Exactly! In a philosophy course I took last semester, they covered a topic similar to this. I believe one of the ongoing theories that never managed to be entirely disproved is that reality is simply our perception of events and we cannot even trust our senses to know what is truly going on around us.
I see that you posted a link to your own work and I will definitely be checking it out!
False memories are absolutely fascinating and another one of my favorite topics in psychology!!
It’s so fascinating but also completely problematic as Dr.Anastasi mentioned, it can be used in law and falsely convict someone. There are also cases where in police investigations during the interrogation, they say key words that cause false memories. As mentioned before, it’s not usually intentional, but it does play an effect.
I wrote a paper on false memories as my final in my cognitive psychology course and relating it to the Mandela Effect. If anyone would be interested in reading and and then discussing it, I have it on my page here. 🙂 https://portfolium.com/entry/cognitive-psychology-academic-work
First off, I have to say I LOVE the beginning. I love how you first introduce the speaker, and then have him briefly describe his research, so as an audience for the first time reading will be able to understand. Thank you for that, it made the article a lot easier to understand. Overall, this was a really awesome article. The questions and answers to these questions were very clear and understandable. I thought this was very intriguing to learn. Now the real question is, if we can’t trust our own memory, how does the justice system work in terms of witnesses being credible for “seeing” these events if we can’t differentiate between real and false memories?
This interview has a very interesting topic, and I like how the author has presented it to the readers concisely and straight to the point. The questions were well-structured and on point to the topic which allows the readers to widen their understanding as they read along the interview. Though, I was kind of anticipating for the part where the interviewer asks Dr. Anastasi for the underlying cause as to how these phenomena usually happen within people at a certain situation, and I think they failed to discuss that in a bio-psychological sense. Nonetheless, I am looking forward for newer findings regarding the one where Dr. Anastasi explains the present difficulty of recognizing certain parts of the brain in differentiating between thinking about a false event and in simply looking at reality. Also, I believe this research can greatly develop how therapy practitioners improve the treatment of their patients.
This topic is very interesting. I like how the author first introduces the speaker, and then his work and what false memories are.
I remember seeing an experiment on TV where they tested the effects of photographs on people’s false memories. They edited childhood photographs from individuals so that the children would stand infront of the castle in disneyland, even though no one of them has ever actually been to disney land, and the individuals were able to tell stories about their time in disney land. They told that they’ve hugged micky or seen princesses even though nothing happend.
Overall this was a really awesome and informativ article, the questions were very intelligent thought through.
The fact that the concept of false memories was discovered on analysing repressed memories seems to be pretty fascinating. All this while I considered repressed memories as the ultimate truth (from that individual’s perspective, of course). But on reading this article, I find myself thinking how easy it is to get ensnared by false memories. There have been times when I distinctly and vividly remember an incident, which the people around me have no recollection of. Once I delve deeper into whatever it is I remember, I realise that this was just a figment of my imagination. It goes to show how powerfully false memories can change your perspective about reality.
Very interesting read, especially with the overlays of the legal implications of shuch memories.
what are explicit warnings exactly? How are the researchers becoming absolutely positive about the non existent events of child abuses of which clients are having vivid memory? Those are getting tagged as non existent on what grounds?
Very interesting, I know that one’s mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined..however false memories are a whole other dimension of fascination! I believe that brain research is the way to go to crack down the code. However, it does complicate things that the area in the brain the may be active in forming false memories is also active when watching an event happen…But then again what really is our reality? How do we actually know what we’re seeing is the truth? Everybody’s perception is different; I’ll never be able to see what my friend is seeing. So our reality is within our minds…but we will never truly know what is and what is not…
This article is really well written. It’s very easy to understand and follow , especially if the reader does not anything about false memories. Also, mentioning another study at the end of the article is really useful for those who want to find out more.
However, the article could be even more better if more details on the first study was given. Such as details concerning the explicit warning, what crime participants watched and more importantly, the significant role an interviewer/police can have in producing false memories through leading questions
Suggestibility (which false memories are a part of) is an absolutely interesting topic and, as Dr Anastasi pointed out, he is at these times a real issue in the judiciary world. A LOT of studies have been conducted and we are just starting to understand how it works and appears !
Dr Anastasi is one of the researchers studying false memories, which are the long term, cognitive part of suggestibility, but there are also other forms that can bother the search for truth : interrogative suggestibility is for example a short term and more social form of suggestibility, where the subject still knows that what he’s saying doesn’t match with his actual memory, but says it anyway because an authority is there.
It’s a very good thing that a lot of people are interested in that subject, because there is still much to learn !
I have heard of false memories before and everytime I think about it, I get a little terrified. If we cannot trust our own memories, what can we trust?
D. Anastast mentioned fabricated memories of abuse as an example. Can false memories also happen on a smaller scale whithout being instigated (like in the broken glass study), do they happen on their own?
And do we know why they occur?
Is this a more recent phenomenon or do we have knowledge of this happening to older generations?
Very interesting topic. I wish there could a have been some information on false memories that didn’t involve some traumatic event like abuse or car accidents. I and many people I have known have had false memories about average things. I used to have extremely vivid memories of how I, my brother, and my friend each got our birth marks but of course they were birth marks so those instances never happened. I understand how false memories can be triggered by suggesting that something happened but what about memories where you simply make something up on your own or something happens to someone else and you thought that it had happened to you.
I am excited to see what research in this field uncovers. As for now I hope that investigators are aware that human memories are very easily altered and take that into consideration when questioning witnesses.
False memories are big problem for everyone in the police, and anywhere else, because lots of people really trust their memories, and sometimes those memories could be manipulated. There is one reasearch, where scientist created false memories, suggesting an image of the bright lights and people who are lost. Later, most of the people said that they think they were kidnaped by aliens. The question is where does it all come from, these false memories? What happens to the brain that changes the memorie? Are false memories some kind of protection for the brain?
What kinds of false memories are most likely to be created? If a person’s going to have a false memory, is it more probable that the memory will be about a highly emotional event or an average happens-to-everyone sort of event? People tend to remember emotional events in great detail, and they tend to really stick in the brain, but there usually seems to be no reason to doubt the validity of memories of average events, which might make them stick better.
The idea of false memories is extremely interesting, especially when involved with criminal cases. The legal system’s involvement can get very interesting when it comes to witnesses because of memory. This is why despite what people think, psychology plays a large role in the criminal justice system. There is the idea of competence in court but also credibility of witnesses and victims themselves. It is actually kind of scary to think that we do not even know what is real and what isn’t sometimes when it comes to our memory such as people with repressed memories that recounted memories that are found to be false. The fact that our brain even copes from things such as abuse and repress our memories is fascinating in of itself. The part where Dr. Anastasi discusses photographs is very interesting. They can probably jog someone’s memory the best because it is a clear and objective representation rather than accounts that we make on our own. This is why living in a time where technology and photographing events is so prevalent can be a good thing. Whenever I look at a photo, I am able to remember small details about events that I probably would never even remember if I did not have a photo of it to begin with.
This was informative. I whis you could put a little more of Dr Anastasi background at the beginning.
From the point of view of criminal cases or past traumas is even expected the false memories, but what about the memories we create and are normal? Could that affect us and we dont realize is because a false memory? For example, Im sure a dog tried to attack me when I was like 3 or 4 years old, and since then Im terrified of dogs or pets in general. But in my memory I was with my dad and he doesnt remember it. What if a simple memory is fake and affect what we are?
Now I’m thinking about false memories and our preception of reality. Very interesting this article.
This article is super informative and especially since it is something that anyone can experience at any time of the day. This kind of thing is super important to research since the police and in court, they struggle with getting the facts right and with false memories it just adds more of a problem. I would definitely love to see where this research goes in the future and the connections that will be found in relation to it. I would have loved to learn more about Dr. Anastasi and some other findings that there have been about false memories.
False memories have always been a topic of curiosity. I wrote a paper about children and false memories, pertaining to crimes. There have been numerous cases where children profess that a person committed a crime and he/she is sent to prison. However, it was later discovered that the individual was innocent. The children only said this because of the environment that they are not familiar with. If crimes are to be solved more accurate, investigators should pay close attention to how people act in their environment and a new environment.
Great interview. The topic itself is very fascinating, and am also intrigued to know about false memory recollection of witnesses. They are thought to be the most valuable proof provided in the courtroom, this topic questions that notion.
Sometimes, I’ll recall a memory and wonder if it was a dream or not. When dreaming, dreams can be felt realistically and can easily be confused with memories, later in life. Can this also lead to false memory projections? However, the questions really is how do we differentiate a false memory? I would have liked if this were explored more.
Overall, the article is very informative. Good structured, with clever sequence of questions, I would appreciated if a brief conclusion was given with some links to Dr. Anastia’s profile or research. Also I appreciate the fact that the interview covers where the overall research stands.
The phenomenon of false memories has always intrigued me. False memories can be highly dangerous when they are used to determine high-impact and high-risk decisions, mainly in the legal field. I am especially interested in the role of false memories in crime. False memories of confessors or witnesses may lead to the incorrect conviction of innocent people. In the case of coerced-internalized false confessions, confessions result from pressure and coercion from the police, and often, the confessors have internalized that they are guilty when they are not, and some have even developed false memories of themselves committing the crime. In another example where a woman was assaulted in her own home when watching tv, she incorrectly identified the TV show host as her attacker. However, I realised that it is not just about false memories themselves, but also the fact that we can misattribute the source of our memories. The memories may be correct, but we get confused about where these memories come from. For example, Ronald Reagan often confused his real-life memories with those from his acting career. It can be quite scary how our memories of things are almost never entirely correct!
Luckily, in the field of crime, we are now more aware of the possible pitfalls of relying on witness testimonies or verbal proclamations alone, and are starting to use scientific evidence instead to determine the guilty. For example, the Innocent Project is an ongoing project in US that is uncovering wrongful convictions through the use of DNA testing. In light of this, what I wished I could have read more about in this interview article would be how to prevent the dangerous impacts of false memories, especially since it has been highlighted that people are largely not even aware that their memories are inaccurate, but in fact, are actually largely confident of them?
I recently took classes in both Experimental Social Psychology, and Criminal Psychology and this was a topic which was discussed a lot in both classes. If anyone is interested in learning more about the classical studies involving false memories, I suggest researching Elizabeth Loftus. She conducted a very famous experiment called “Lost in the Mall”, which essentially took people and convinced them that there was a time when they were a child in which they were lost in a mall, and asked them to recall (or fabricate I suppose) details. It explores the more anecdotal applications of the phenomena than just looking at the theoretical circumstances. In my Experimental Psychology class, my group conducted an experiment which attempted to convince University students that the confederate had a class with them, and we found interesting gender differences. (If anyone would like to read the final paper please let me know) However, false memories can also tie into the idea of conformity. Events like The Oklahoma City bombings and 9/11 are often the topic of a lot of conformity based false memories. Because people experienced a trauma at this time, they were more susceptible to gaps in memory, which they attempt to fill with memories spoken of by other witnesses of the event.
A follow-up study based on an experiment by Eagly and Chvrala was conducted in 1994 (Collin, Di Sano, and Malik, 1994). The study was conducted using a 2 x 2 design, incorporating gender of subjects and gender of confederates as between-subjects variables. The subjects were asked to classify ambiguous colors into their components–first alone, and then with a confederate who opposed their previous answers. Ultimately, they found conformity levels which matched with those of classic conformity studies. However, in this design, there were limited differences in conformity between the gender of the confederates, yet the difference between same-sex compared to cross-sex interactions were not investigated. This lack of difference may be the result of a type II error due to the incredibly small sample size of the experiment.
Confederate gender is a factor that could impact conformity due to normative social influences: if people want to be accepted by the confederate, they may conform more or less depending on the confederate’s gender. One recent study found that participants who wanted to impress others would rather make a known error than look bad in front of other people (Wright, London, and Waechter, 2010).
Ultimately, false memories have applications outside of the criminal psychology field, and can be impacted heavily by social conformity and traumatic situations. I think this article fails to notice the far reaching applications and could be expanded to include more current research relating to false memories applicability to conformity.
I am in love with this article! The topic of humans conjuring false memories in both dire or non-dire situations have been of a complete wonderment. I’m confident many of us have, in many points of our lives experienced these bouts of active false memories, and whereby we’d ask another person or participant present in these memories whether, “did this really happened as it did in my head?” to guarantee the reliability of our own memories over time.
I believe those who are in more conscious control of their own consciousness and subconsciousness would be more aware of these explicit signals. However, the likelihood for many of us to create these false memories occurs in events where our role as first-hand or second-hand witnesses is required to resolve an issue. On the contrary, false memories can result in exacerbating conditions or severe discredit outcome. An example would be witness or suspected individuals held accountable in court. I’ve watched a TV show covering on Criminal Law and Psychology where two suspected prison convicts were brought into court in a case of cold-blood murder of their own inmate. Suspect A denied responsibility of murder and accused Suspect B. Suspect B did the same, but included that Suspect A was the one who initiated the murder and tried to compel her in. Suspect A argued that the deceased inmate was already dead when she woke up and was convinced that she saw Suspect B tying her legs. At the end of the court session, it was revealed that the prison officer in-charge of the deceased prisoner that have murdered her before releasing her back in the cell, so to blame Suspect A and B for her death.
What we can conclude from here is the accumulation of false memories from Suspect A and Suspect B, possibly derived from fear or simply to protect themselves and frame the other? More clearly, Suspect A’s memory of her waking up from sleep to find her inmate dead did not happen in reality as much as she was self-convinced. If the court had not find convict the prison officer’s responsibility for the murder, would we have then trust Suspect A’s words– derived from her own false memory that she was deemed convinced by? This results in the reality of just how lethal our false memories can be?
The reality that, our “real” memories and false memories are created and activate the same region of the brain also heightens the horrifying question of whether how much could we actually rely on ourselves and our memories. However I’m a bit relieved that there are more research and studies on-going about this psychological phenomenon. All in all, this article have been somewhat mind blowing!
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The questions asked were cleverly and thoroughly constructed. The opening question based on heavy consideration of readers who might initially only have a glimpse of this topic or zero idea of its existence have provided us the necessary foundation before delving a little bit more on this topic. Thank you for that. The questions posed have somewhat elaborated and drill in the deeper understanding of such a phenomenon, that it have successfully made this article a wholly informative and terrific one. I have looked forward to the article listing out more preventive measures to avoid false memories from being created. It would have been a better ending and conclusion to the article.
Thank you for this great article!
Very interesting and extensive topic. This is definitely a good one to be discussed. I would really like to see more articles following this one, ones that talk specifically about certain studies, ones that talk about the causes of false memories in more depth, ones about how we can identify false memories, etc.
I’d love to know how often we create false memories. Based on my previous knowledge and what I learned in this article, it’s incredibly easy to create these false memories. How can we prevent creating false memories? How can we help others recover the correct memories?
The article contained some educational aspect, however, I honestly disagree with some of the arguments the interviewee presents. The working definition that is provided, plus the example that is given afterward to illustrate a better understanding only represents the extreme side of false memories. (VeryWell.com, “What Is a False Memory” by Kendra Cherry, in my opinion provides a clear and unbiased definition and illustration about false memories)
In addition, I understand why the interviewee will bring up the concept of repressed memories. Although, it was unnecessary. It only added more to the extreme levels of false memories. Repressed memories and false memories are two separate concepts, however, they can overlap, but that is not always the case with every individual.