证据和虚假的记忆理论 The Evidence and Theory of False Memories
Abstract
In recent years there has been a blast of research on false memories in recalling events that did not happen. Steffens & Mecklenbrauker (2007) define these memories as “a subjective experience of remembering something of that something did apparently not happen in reality” (p 12). Yet, children, adolescents and even adults continue to report that they had been sexually abused in the past or witnessed other crimes where even though they are earnest the memory is false. Whatever the case false memories are potentially related to many of the contemporary theories today such as Psychoanalysis and Disassociative Amnesia, however, even though there is an abundant amount of evidence that supports these theories there is still much research needed to maintain the hypothesis of false memories that are presented through the theoretical debate.
Introduction
As an introduction to the practical relevance of false memories Steffens & Mecklenbrauker (2007) describe a woman who has been in therapy for many years because “she has trouble trusting men; has panic attacks; has a distant relationship with her father; and suffers from disturbing nightmares” (p 12). However, at some point in the therapy she “recovers” faint memories of early childhood abuse by her father. She is not sure if these are old memories or reconstructed memories of her beliefs and feelings. Yet, the self help literature for victims is quite clear. For instance, “you must believe that your client was sexually abused, even if she sometimes has doubts because no one invents abuse” (Steffens et al, p 12).
Memories like these are processed everyday in the brain. People recollect and reconstruct memories based on certain event using sights, words, sounds and taste. However, distinguishing what a person experienced and events that might have been imagined, heard of, thought of or even dreamed about could possibly have gaps in the reproduction of the event because a person’s imagination is filled with distortions.
This is why many researchers today are finding that the part of the brain that places memories determines whether a person’s memory is true or false. As humans our memories are not always completely correct or right all the time. There are many occasions where people might feel strongly about past events yet, the details of the event might be distorted or not have occurred. Therefore, what a person remembers about an event, especially if the event lacks witnesses or other corroborative physical evidence, has a significant impact on the memory.
Memories are a complicated process and the quality of a specific memory does not mean it is reliable or accurate. For example, vivid detailed memories are often inaccurate reconstructions of events. For that reason the continuity of the memory does not guarantee truth or falsity. This is because the memory is a reconstructed phenomenon that strongly influences a person’s emotions, social expectations, implied beliefs of others, or inappropriate interpretation. For instance, in a study conducted by Steffens & Mechklenbrauker, researchers found that strongly established memories often are confused with misleading post event information that was witnessed prior (2007). People were asked whether they “saw a car run over the stop signal,” yet in later questionnaire they indicated they saw a stop signal when there really had been none (p 14).
Whereas, in another study Zaragoza & Mitchell (1996) found that after people watched a movie of a burglary and questioned them on the beginning of the scene where a young man was dressed in jeans, t-shirt and gloves who entered the house, participants answered the question the young man wore gloves when actually he did not (p 295). This suggests that misguided information presented was zero in a control condition one out of three times. However, since the participants were told from the beginning that there was misguided inf
