Was Brian Williams A Victim Of False Memory

Memory refers to the persistence of learning in a state that can be revealed at a later time (Squire, 1987). A memory is a network of neocortical neurons and the connections that link them. That network is formed by experience as a result of the concurrent activation of neuronal ensembles that

It is said that there are many different versions to a story. There is one persons story, then there is an other person’s story, and then, there is the truth. “Our memories change each time they are recalled. What we recall is only a facsimile of things gone by.” Dobrin, Arthur. "Your Memory Isn't What You Think It Is." (online magazine). Psychology Today. July 16, 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/am-i-right/201307/your-memory-isnt-what-you-think-it-is. Every time a story is told, it changes. From Disney movies to books, to what we tell our friends and colleagues. Sometimes the different sides to the story challenge the

False memory refers to cases in which people remember events differently from the way they happened or, in the most dramatic case, remember events that never happened at all. False memories can be very vivid and held with high confidence, and it can be difficult to convince someone that the memory in question is wrong.

Every act of remembering is also, intrinsically, an act of forgetting. Giving preference to particular details of an event lessens the immediacy of others. Thus, memory is its own, unique narrative culled from an almost endless sea of details present, and sometimes not present, in the original event. Memory is the past, reformulated and interpreted through the lens of the present (Huyssen 1995). When an event is commemorated through a physical act of memory, the narrowing of possible details becomes even more finely tuned, limited by the physical scope of possibilities for bodies in a three-dimensional space.

The study of creation of false memories has been a topic of interest since the 1930s when Bartlett (1932) conducted the first experiment on the topic. Though the results of this experiment were never replicated, they contributed greatly to research by distinguishing between reproductive and reconstructive memory (Bartlett 1932 as cited in Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Reproductive memory refers to accurate production of material from memory and is assumed to be associated with remembering simplified materials (e.g., lists). Reconstructive memory emphasizes the active process of filling in missing elements while remembering and is associated with materials rich in meaning (e.g., stories).

As mentioned earlier, for example, the images of the second plane flying into the building will surely stay with me; however, smaller details of the incident, which have become generalized over the years, are not nearly as clear or in order like they were on the day they happened. This is not at all surprising, since according to Perina (2002), flashbulb memories “do, in fact, degrade over a short period of time” (para. 1). The extent to which these events fade or change in our thoughts can vary in degree, and is generally believed to be directly proportionate to a person’s level of involvement in the events that occurred.

If you show me that movie ticket, I will look at it and all I will see is a movie ticket, with absolutely no memory behind it. Although I may have the urge to go to the movies, I will not be remembering any specific event upon seeing your movie ticket. This tells us that in order for recollection to occur there must be a previous – for lack of a better word, interaction – to the thing one is being reminded

Memory is a set of cognitive processes that allow us to remember past information (retrospective memory) and future obligations (prospective memory) so we can navigate our lives. The strength of our memory can be influenced by the connections we make through different cognitive faculties as well as by the amount of time we spend devoting to learning specific material across different points in time. New memories are created every time we remember specific event, which results in retrospective memories changing over time. Memory recall can be affected retrospectively such as seeing increased recall in the presence of contextual cues or false recall of information following leading questions. Memory also includes the process

Fallibility of Memory can affect the way we see things in our daily life more than we can see. Our mind can turn stories from other people into what we think is our own memory. “‘... you know Robert, you weren’t there!’”(NPR Networks 2:12). In the animated video, This American Life: Animation from Season 2, there is a man and his wife who both think they experienced an event until the man’s wife tells him that he wasn’t even there. Because the woman had told him the story a few times and a few more to others in front of him, his mind had changed the memory of his wife telling him the story to him actually being there to experience the story.

Repressed memories is yet another controversial psychology topic, one that may lead to different explanations based on the opinion of different experts. The reality is that there can be more than one explanation on a per case basis. As American Psychology Association suggests memories can be forgotten and remembered or it can be suggested and remembered as true, moreover the latter seems to be much more common than the actual retrieval of accurate forgotten memories. I have focused my research on two articles from Harvard University, one trying to understand and validate repressed memories through a word study on dissociative memory and the other trying to disprove it by researching and looking for cues of repressed memories on works of fiction and nonfiction.

False memories are an apparent recollection of an event that did not actually occur. The reason why false memories happen are due to the fact that one's brains can only handle so much.There has been several experiment pertaining to the phenomenon, to find how it works.In the next part of the experiment the psychologist showed the participants a word list.False memories are very common and can happen to anyone. On very rare occasions false memories can be harmful to someone and the people around them.False memories are so common that they affect all of a person's memories. False memories can be made more clear by others memories or they could become more distorted. False memories have caused many wrongful convictions. A psychologist

Memory – what it is, how it works, and how it might be manipulated – has long been a subject of curious fascination. Remembering, the mind-boggling ability in which the human brain can conjure up very specific, very lucid, long-gone episodes from any given point on the timeline of our lives, is an astounding feat. Yet, along with our brain’s ability of remembrance comes also the concept of forgetting: interruptions of memory or “an inability of consciousness to make present to itself what it wants” (Honold, 1994, p. 2). There is a very close relationship between remembering and forgetting; in fact, the two come hand-in-hand. A close reading of Joshua Foer’s essay, “The End of Remembering”, and Susan Griffin’s piece, “Our Secret”, directs us

When a person has a fabricated or distorted recollection of an event, they are experiencing a false memory. A false memory is a mental experience that is mistaken for a veridical representation of an event from one’s personal past. (Kendra Cherry) There are two types of false memories: minor and major. A minor false memory can be some as simple as someone thinking they left their keys on the table, but actually left them in the bedroom. A major false memory could be someone believing they have been abducted from aliens. False memories occur frequently and can take control over someone’s life. Therapists have many approaches that they use to try and help one recollect their memory. While trying to help, they may actually worsen the problem. Research supports the salience of false recollections over accurate ones in people, potentially indicating that every person in a given society can fall victim to their effects. Revealing that this theory has more truth than many expect affecting many people within our societies.

Human minds are filled with all different kinds of memories. From short term memory to long term memory, people’s every day routines are heavily influenced by the memories they possess. Remember the time in elementary school when you peed your pants, or the time in high school when you got to kiss your crush, or how about that time you saw your favorite celebrity star in the mall? What if these memories were not actually real? Are they memories or are they made up stories? Mendez and Fras (2011) suggest that false memories are just recollections of events that did not occur. These memories could be your imagination or a he said she said story heard through the grapevine. False memories can be created by misattributing the source of the information (Sternberg, 2011). Examples of confusion that could lead to false memories can consist of intentions turned into actions, imagination turned into perception, or something only heard about turned into perception (Sternberg, 2011). One of the ways researchers measure false memories is using the Deese/Roedinger–McDermott paradigm (DRM) (Mendez & Fras, 2011). Mendez and Fras suggest that the use of the DRM, “indicates that false memories are associated with the need for complete and integrated memories, self-relevancy, imagination and wish fulfillment, familiarity, emotional facilitation, suggestibility, and sexual content” (2011). Mendez and Fras also state that FMRI studies show that the area of the brain associated with false

Memory does not work like a video camera, smoothly recording every detail. Instead, memory is more of a constructive process. We remember the details that we find most important and relevant. Due to the reconstructive nature of memory, the assimilation of old and new information has the ability to cause vulnerable memories to become distorted. This is also known as the misinformation effect (Loftus, 1997). It is not uncommon for individuals to fill in memory gaps with what they assume they must have experienced. We not only distort memories for events that we have observed, but, we may also have false memories for events that never occurred at all. False memories are “often created by combing actual memories with suggestions received from