False memory

[Teacher]

Many people imagine human memory as a kind of archive with neatly arranged folders labeled "keep forever", the only problem in which is to find the right folder, but it, if necessary, is solved by special techniques, hypnosis and the like. This, to put it mildly, is not entirely true.

The first experiments on false memory implantation were carried out in the 90s of the last century by Elizabeth Loftus. She handed out to 24 participants in the experiment short (one paragraph) descriptions of four stories that happened to them between the ages of 4 and 6 - three of which were true (told by the participants' relatives), and the fourth was about how the participant got lost in a supermarket as a child. was completely fictional. The participants were told that they were participating in an experiment to study the possibility of detailed recovery of childhood memories, and were asked to first write, and then a week later tell in an interview the details of the four stories given to them, as they remember them.

Of the 24 participants, six not only "remembered" how they got lost in the supermarket, but also recounted the episode in vivid detail, although they noted that their memories were slightly more vague than the other three episodes. However, an outside observer could not determine from their speech which of the four events was false. Subsequent experiments showed that, depending on the initial conditions, some form of false memory implantation in a similar experiment conducted by Loftus is achieved in 20-40% of participants.

The greatest success was achieved by Kimberly Wade in 2002. In the experiment, she used not a description of the story, but a fabricated photo of a hot air balloon flight, which a participant in the experiment allegedly performed earlier. As a result, about 50% of the participants formed full or partial memories of this flight - which never happened.

The case of Paul Ingram, who was accused by his own children of regularly raping them when they were from 4 to 12 years old, was widely known. The charges were brought years after the alleged events, so there was no physical evidence. Ingram denied everything, but after five months of interrogation under pressure from the police, he suddenly confessed to literally all sins, including not only the rape of his own children, but also participation in satanic rituals, including the murder of 25 children. However, psychologist Richard Ofshe, who became interested in this case, decided on an original experiment: he prepared a deliberately fictional story that Ingram's children also claim that he forced them to have sex with each other. Ponalachu Ingrem denied these events, however, after a few hours, he gradually began to "remember" the events described by Offshe, and as a result wrote a three-page written confession. When later told Ingram that these events were completely fictional, he refused to believe it. This case shows well that almost any false memory can be implanted, including sharply negative ones. And, of course, we are talking here not only about the false memories of Ingram himself, but, probably, about the false memories of his children (this is also indicated by the fact that they remembered the violence allegedly committed by their father already in adulthood, and that, that during the trial they recalled more and more details). This case shows well that almost any false memory can be implanted, including sharply negative ones. And, of course, we are talking here not only about the false memories of Ingram himself, but, probably, about the false memories of his children (this is also indicated by the fact that they remembered the violence allegedly committed by their father already in adulthood, and that, that during the trial they recalled more and more details). This case shows well that almost any false memory can be implanted, including sharply negative ones.

Another interesting experiment, already on the accuracy of memories of real events, was staged by Ulrich Neisser. In 1986, the day after the Challenger disaster, he interviewed a number of people where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the disaster - it is believed that the memory is clearly imprinted on the circumstances in which a person experiences a strong emotional shock. After a while, Neisser repeated the same survey among the same people - and almost none of them had the late version coincided with the earlier one, moreover, when they were shown a recording of the first version of their answers, people simply did not believe in it. It's funny that the same incident happened to Neisser himself: as he says,

Human memory is not an archive with folders "to keep forever", it is not even a documentary newsreel. This is a set of neural circuits that are constantly stimulated. Therefore, our memory is changeable and is able to reproduce even what was not in physical reality, but took place to be in our psychic reality.