Creating False Memories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Creating anomalous Memories - Essay ExampleThe act of rec altogether enhanced later remembering of twain studied and nonstudied material. The results reveal a powerful illusion of memory People remember events that never happened.False memories-either remembering events that never happened, or remembering them quite differently from the way they happened- postulate recently captured the attention of both psychologists and the public at large. The primary impetus for this recent surge of interest is the increase in the material body of cases in which memories of previously unrecognized abuse are reported during the course of therapy. Some researchers have argued that accredited therapeutic practices can cause the creation of false memories, and therefore, the apparent recoin truth of memories during the course of therapy may truly represent the creation of memories (Lindsay & Read, 1994 Loftus, 1993).Although the concept of false memories is currently enjoying an increase in publ icity, it is not new psychologists have been studying false memories in several laboratory paradigms for years. Schacter (1995) provides an historical overview of the study of memory distortions. Schacter (1996) spoke of the flimsy nature of memory and the Seven Sins of memory, discussing how our memories can fail us in certain situations. Where is the weakness in a memory system that functions according to the principle of semantic relatedness and integration There is one long-familiar case of false memories being produced in a list learning paradigm Underwood (1965) introduced a technique to study false mention of quarrel in lists. He gave subjects a continuous recognition task in which they decided if each presented word had been given previously in the list. Later address bore various relations to previously studied words. Underwood showed that words associatively related to previously presented words were falsely recognized. Anisfeld and Knapp (1968), among others, replicat ed the phenomenon.Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human memory and moral processes, including such activities as perceiving, remembering, using language, reasoning and solving problems.There are two historic lessons in cognitive psychology. First, mental processes can occur with very little conscious awareness. This is especially true of processes that have received a great deal of practice, such as reading skills. Second, even though these processes can operate very quickly, they are quite complex, involving difficult motor, perceptual and mental acts. Their complexities make it even more amazing how efficient, rapid, and evidently automatic they are. Intuitive analysis of examples such as How many hands does Aristotle have indicates that many important mental processes can occur automatically, that is, very rapidly and below the level of conscious awareness.Memory consists of the power, act, or process of recalling to mind facts previously learned or past experi ences. It also refers to process, mental act in which stored information is recovered for some current use. Aside from this, memory also refers to a place, a location, where all the events, information, and knowledge of a lifetime are stored. Cognition, on the other hand, refers to all the processes by which the sensory excitant is