False Memory

In this essay, I attempt to outline a feminist philosophical approach to the debate concerning (allegedly) false memories of childhood sexual abuse. Bringing the voices of feminist philosophers to bear on this issue highlights the implicit and sometimes questionable epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical-political commitments of some therapists and scientists involved in these debates. It also illuminates some current debates in and about feminist philosophy.

Careful assessment of purported scientific discoveries and the resulting
interpretations is a responsibility of every scientist. The area of memory, particularly memory
for abuse, has recently seen new, highly publicized claims. These include the proposal of a
new diagnostic category, the false memory syndrome; claims about the ease with which
extensive autobiographical memories can be implanted; and estimates of the extent therapists
use risky practices likely to cause false memory syndrome. This article suggests questions to
evaluate these claims and the methods used to promote them. Implications for clinical
standards and malpractice are discussed.

This research examines the relationship between indi- viduals’ levels of life satisfaction and their associative networks of happiness. Study 1 measured European Americans’ degree of false memory of happiness using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Scores on the Satisfaction With Life Scale predicted the likelihood of false memory of happiness but not of other lure words such as sleep. In Study 2, European American participants completed an association-judgment task in which they judged the extent to which happiness and each of 15 positive emotion terms were associated with each other. Consistent with Study 1’s findings, chroni- cally satisfied individuals exhibited stronger associa- tions between happiness and other positive emotion terms than did unsatisfied individuals. However, Koreans and Asian Americans did not exhibit such a pattern regarding their chronic level of life satisfaction (Study 3). In combination, results suggest that there are important individual and cultural differences in the cog- nitive structure and associative network of happiness.

The perceived value of information can influence one's motivation to successfully remember that information. This study investigated how information value can affect memory search and evaluation processes (i.e., retrieval monitoring). In Experiment 1, participants studied unrelated words associated with low, medium, or high values. Subsequent memory tests required participants to selectively monitor retrieval for different values. False memory effects were smaller when searching memory for high-value than low-value words, suggesting that people more effectively monitored more important information. In Experiment 2, participants studied semantically-related words, and the need for retrieval monitoring was reduced at test by using inclusion instructions (i.e., endorsement of any word related to the studied words) compared with standard instructions. Inclusion instructions led to increases in false recognition for low-value, but not for high-value words, suggesting that under standard-instruction conditions retrieval monitoring was less likely to occur for important information. Experiment 3 showed that words retrieved with lower confidence were associated with more effective retrieval monitoring, suggesting that the quality of the retrieved memory influenced the degree and effectiveness of monitoring processes. Ironically, unless encouraged to do so, people were less likely to carefully monitor important information, even though people want to remember important memories most accurately.

Some therapists, as well as other commentators, have suggested that memories of horrific trauma are buried in the subconscious by some special process, such as repression, and are later reliably recovered. We find that the evidence provided to support this claim is flawed. Where, then, might these memory reports come from? We discuss several research paradigms that have shown that various manipulations can be used to implant false memories--including false memories for traumatic events. These false memories can be quite compelling for those who develop them and can include details that make them seem credible to others. The fact that a memory report describes a traumatic event does not ensure that the memory is authentic.

Our memories are not always the perfect representation of past events. We are certainly prone to forgetting, but somewhat less obviously, our memories are also susceptible to distortion. We are even capable of developing whole, new memories that are entirely false. False memories have consequences for people in their daily lives. Scientists have studied false memories in a laboratory setting in order to understand how they develop. Here, we describe various research methodologies and theoretical explanations for false memory phenomena.

Provas dependentes da memória de uma testemunha podem ser as única evidências de que um crime ocorreu. Entretanto, os procedimentos utilizados em oitivas de testemunhas ou reconhecimentos de suspeitos podem alterar a memória original do fato. Tais riscos são ainda maiores dado que no Brasil provas dependentes da memória humana são consideradas provas repetíveis. A repetibilidade desta prova não leva em conta o possível esquecimento de informações, ou a inserção de informações pós evento, que modificam a memória original. Este artigo visa apresentar as capacidades e limitações das provas dependentes da memória humana, comparando como a legislação e procedimentos utilizados para produção dessas provas por atores de justiça. Ao final, são discutidas políticas públicas que podem auxiliar a diminuir a distância entre conhecimento científico e práticas adotadas no nosso país. Se por um lado não é possível mudar o funcionamento da memória humana, é imprescindível pensar em mudanças no sistema de justiça que ajudem a preservar esta prova que deveria ser considerada irrepetível.

Con questo studio si vuole fornire una valutazione sull’attendibilità intrinseca del testimone analizzando in particolare le differenze delle strategie argomentative che le due parti processuali, accusa e difesa, utilizzano al fine di modellare il convincimento del giudice avvalendosi di specifici consulenti esperti in materia. A tal scopo, si partirà da un inquadramento teorico e giuridico della testimonianza e da un’analisi sulla letteratura in tema di memoria con particolare riferimento alla memoria autobiografica e alle memorie di eventi traumatici prendendo in considerazione le convinzioni e gli errori più diffusi tra giudici e giurati nella valutazione della credibilità del testimone.
Si mostrerà quindi come il ricordo e la testimonianza possono essere influenzati da diverse fonti di distorsione che necessitano di esser prese in considerazione in ambito forense.

Delusions are fixed ‘false beliefs’ and, although a hallmark feature of schizophrenia, no previous study has examined if delusions might be related to ‘false memories’. We used the classic Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm to compare false memory production in schizophrenia patients who were currently experiencing delusions (ED), patients not experiencing delusions (ND) and healthy control participants. The ED group recalled twice as many false-positive memories (i.e., memory for words not previously seen) as both the controls and crucially, the ND group. Both patient groups also recognised fewer correct words than the healthy controls and both showed greater confidence in their false memories; however, on the recognition task, the ED group made more false-negative (i.e. rejecting previously seen words) high confidence responses than the ND group.

En los últimos tiempos, la investigación psicológica ha estado dando cuenta de un fenómeno que sobrepasa el entendimiento tradicional de los procesos de memoria. Sin influencia externa alguna, las personas recuerdan hechos completos o fragmentos de ellos que nunca sucedieron. Estos recuerdos son conocidos como falsas memorias espontáneas. Durante la última década, el interés mostrado por estudiar este tipo de falsas memorias se ha visto multiplicado por razones teóricas y prácticas (e.g. Mark L. Howe, Dante Cicchetti, Sheree L. Toth, and Beth M. Cerrito. (2004). En este artículo se comparte una discusión teórica sobre el fenómeno y se ofrece evidencia de su fortaleza práctica, manifiesta en persistencia a través del tiempo y repetición de pruebas.

Le désaccord entre psychanalystes sur la nature des pensées refoulées a ouvert la porte à des critiques radicales de la théorie qui définit et fonde la psychanalyse, la théorie du refoulement. Or, la diffusion du mouvement analytique n’a pas paru trop affectée par de telles objections. Il est possible d’éclairer cette relative imperméabilité en examinant comment une théorie auxiliaire, la théorie du complexe d’Œdipe, a permis à la psychanalyse de se développer et de durer, en lui faisant éviter plusieurs des réticences suscitées par les objections méthodologiques. Pour éclairer ce rôle, cette théorie est comparée avec la théorie de Freud qu’elle a remplacée, la théorie de la séduction. Ainsi, nous pouvons mieux cerner les conditions qui ont permis un accueil favorable de la psychanalyse dans les sociétés démocratiques contemporaines.

This chapter examines the role of the witness as a narrator, writer, and historian through a comparison of the writings and testimony of Primo Levi and those of Georges Perec. Despite the significant differences between the two, which cannot be ignored, both Levi and Perec focus on the role and the ability of the witness to provide authentic testimony. Based upon this comparison between Levi’s testimony and that of Perec, I argue that the very fact that we are in an era of testimony in which the witness is also his own historian means that there are no innocent “uncontaminated” witnesses. Moreover, I attempt to show that Levi and Perec, each in his own way, propose an authentic model for bearing witness.

«Papà, a che serve la storia?»: questa era la domanda che quasi 80 anni fa Marc Bloch poneva all'apertura di Apologia della storia, un libro che ha segnato generazioni di lettori. Oggi, di fronte a un tempo radicalmente diverso dal passato, dove le categorie di continuità tra le generazioni appaiono saltate, la risposta più semplice sembra essere: «a nulla». La storia sembra diventata nient'altro che un racconto suggestivo, da rendere il più possibile spettacolare, intrigante e misterioso. Se poi ci si inventa qualcosa, pazienza, tanto è sempre più arduo distinguere tra fatto e racconto, tra avvenimento e propaganda, tra vita reale e virtual reality. Ma è proprio per questo che la storia serve, anzi è imprescindibile. Il suo metodo critico è fondamentale per riprendere a orientarci, distinguendola da tutto ciò che le somiglia. Un libro sorprendente che restituisce alla storia il ruolo che le compete nella società contemporanea.

Os erros no reconhecimento de pessoas constituem um fator estatisticamente importante nos casos de erros judiciais, em muitos dos sistemas de justiça do mundo. Estudos de neurociência e de psicologia do testemunho, realizados ao longo das últimas décadas, têm contribuído para uma melhor compreensão sobre o funcionamento da memória humana e alertado para os problemas relacionados à falta de acurácia da prova de reconhecimento de pessoas. São inerentes a essa modalidade de prova de memória variados riscos epistêmicos (aí incluídos os riscos da ocorrência erros honestos, de sobrevaloração do resultado probatório etc.), o que recomenda uma mudança de atitude, por parte dos atores do sistema de justiça, em relação a esse tipo de prova, abandonando uma posição de confiança ou credulidade exagerada e adotando uma atitude ceticismo epistêmico.

Memory is by nature, reconstructive (http://www.fmsfonline.org/). It is continuously moving and changing based upon our personal narrative, suggestions about reality, and shifts in belief systems whether, cultural, religious, or social in persuasion (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). Because of this constant, the notion of False Memory (FM) creation or manipulation in psychotherapy provides some ethical queries in psychological practice. The False Memory Foundation Syndrome Foundation (FMFS) explains that false memories, also known as “pseudo-memories and memory illusions,” as memories partially based in reality, but that have been influenced or altered due to the incorporation of new information, suggestions from other sources and even splits in personality. The latter stems from a defense mechanism that retells the story in a way that helps the patient effectively deal with the occurrence in a way that allows for normalcy (Loftus, 1995). So as scholar-practitioners, and professional psychologist, how do we effectively deal with the possibility of false memories? What do we do to mitigate their detrimental effects on both the therapeutic process and the outside social ramifications for the client and the perception of sound ethical practice amongst our peers? Most of the time the occurrence of pseudo-memories is harmless, but when these coaxed memories define events that place blame on potentially innocent people because of the framing involved then serious considerations and precautions need to be heeded (Pope, 1994).

En Belgique, la jurisprudence autorise l’utilisation de l’hypnose avec les témoins et les victimes volontaires dans les enquêtes judiciaires. Cette méthode n’est pas une technique d’enquête à proprement parler ; elle est davantage à considérer comme un complément aux méthodes d’audition classiques. Elle reste toutefois une pratique mineure réservée aux faits graves tels que meurtres, attaques de banque, viols, traite des êtres humains, etc. lorsque les indices à disposition des enquêteurs sont insuffisants à faire émerger la vérité. Bien que controversée, la méthode a prouvé son efficacité dans de nombreux dossiers. En effet, dans 60% des cas, elle permet de récupérer de nouvelles informations utiles à la progression de l’enquête.

Kaum ein anderes Medium scheint besser geeignet, traumatische Verletzungen zu visualisieren und zu speichern, zu kommunizieren und zu transformieren, als der Film. Er macht sie sichtbar, indem er sie als Wunden ausstellt, er öffnet sie, legt den Finger in sie hinein oder bepflastert sie. Dabei bereichert er um neue Interpretations- und Darstellungsweisen sowie symbolische Deutungsmuster.

Der internationale, interdisziplinäre und bilinguale Sammelband mit Beiträgen von Geistes- und MedienwissenschaftlerInnen widmet sich der Paradoxie scheinbar un/sagbarer und un/darstellbarer  historischer Traumata. Diese lassen ein bewusstes Erinnern und eine adäquate Repräsentation des traumatisierenden Geschehens zunächst scheitern. Abgesehen von dieser Lücke bildet das „Trauma“ jedoch eine besondere zeitliche Struktur der Nachträglichkeit und Latenz, Indexikalität und Wiederholung aus. Diese ‚traumatische Zeitform‘, die in Alpträumen, Flashbacks, Loops, Halluzinationen und anderen Geisterscheinungen Ausdruck findet, lässt Parallelen zur Zeitlichkeit und Ästhetik des Films erkennen. Entlang klinischer, theoretischer und kultureller Traumakonzeptionen werden Spielfilme aus den letzten Jahrzehnten und unterschiedlichen nationalen Kontexten untersucht, in denen individuelle und kollektive Traumata – unter anderem in Verbindung mit der Shoah/dem Holocaust, dem Vietnamkrieg, den Irakkriegen, dem Israel-Palästina-Konflikt und 9/11 – inhaltlich und strukturell sowie ästhetisch-narrativ gestaltet werden.

La procuración y administración de justicia en la época moderna está emplazada a usar con mayor decisión los resultados de la investigación científica. Sólo a partir del uso adecuado de la información provenida de ésta se podrán ir asegurando niveles más altos de justicia en el seguimiento de procesos jurídicos. La psicología es quizá la ciencia auxiliar más importante con la cual cuenta el Derecho en la valoración de las causas y consecuencias humanas del delito. En la obtención y análisis de las pruebas testimoniales esa relación se hace mucho más patente. La psicología es la ciencia que mejor explica el funcionamiento de la memoria, base de los testimonios, y su investigación es la que más puede contribuir en la prevención de los testimonios con falsos recuerdos.
El reconocimiento del cómo y cuándo surgen los falsos recuerdos es crítico para que abogados, ministerios públicos, jueces, investigadores judiciales, policías, médicos forenses, trabajadores sociales, psicólogos y otros profesionales relacionados con la procuración y aplicación de la justicia cumplan su trabajo de mejor manera. El presente artículo tiene como propósito informar sobre los orígenes y naturaleza de los falsos recuerdos y el lugar más común que éstos pueden tomar en la conformación de las pruebas testimoniales.

Kita sering sekali mengalami kelupaan. Kelupaan pun ada yang disengaja dan tidak. Seperti, aku tadi kesini mau ngambil apa ya? Atau anda berjalan ke tempat biasa anda parkir motor ketika pulang sekolah, padahal anda pindah parkir motor ke tempat yang lebih dekat atau anda tidak ingat NIM anda di SMA selama 3 tahun karena anda menghapal NIM kuliah.
Kemudian terdapat juga kelupaan yang disengaja karena pengalaman traumatik, memori yang ditekan oleh seseorang yang disingkirkan dari kesadarannya. Maka jangan heran jika tiba-tiba anda merasa sedih, bisa jadi memori itu terlintas di benak anda.
Selanjutnya, ketika kita berusaha keras untuk mengingat sebuah memori, apakah memori tersebut akurat? Atau jangan-jangan kita keliru. Maka, pada makalah ini penulis ingin membahas tentang kekeliruan memori yang di mulai dari pendeskripsian kasus, analisis teoritik dan penyelesaiannya.

Статья, представляющая собой заключение книги в которой подвергаются критическому разбору антиисторические сочинения Бориса Акунина и авторов "новой хронологии", ставит вопрос: в чем сущность того болезненного явления исторического сознания в современной России, которое получило название "фолк-хистори". Автор приходит к выводу, что в основе создаваемой "фолк-хистори" картины мира лежит систематическая апелляция к обыденному сознанию, попытка перенести мнимые очевидности этого сознания на дисциплины, где истина может быть установлена только посредством строгой формальной процедуры. В этой апелляции к умственному горизонту обывателя - секрет популярности соответствующего жанра у читательских масс и в ней же секрет систематических ошибок, провалов в логике и осведомленности, которые демонстрируют фолк-историки. Техники создания фолк-исторического дискурса и его фактические и логические несостыковки разбираются на примере попыток писателя Дмитрия Галковского объявить фальсификацией новгородские берестяные грамоты.

THE GUARDIANS OF MEMORY
AND THE RETURN OF THE XENOPHOBIC RIGHT

Translated by Alastair McEwen

Copyright © Bompiani, 2019
USA Edition copyright ©
2020 CPL EDITIONS
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-941046-32-6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
For a Memory Culture Beyond Victims and Perpetrators.
By Michael Rothberg. 9

Introduction
What Went Wrong? 19
By Valentina Pisanty

Chapter I, The Duty of Memory. 31
Chapter II, The Discourse of History 75
Chapter III, Collective Memories 109
Chapter IV, New Cinema of the Shoah 153
Chapter V, The Spectacle of Evil 201
Chapter VI, Denial and Punishment 229

Appendix 263
End notes 285
Bibliography 307
Filmography 329
Index 335

The utility of using indices of neural function to identify deception relies on finding highly reliable and valid approaches that adequately identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent. A class of approaches, based on the guilty knowledge technique (GKT), assume that guilty individuals will recognize specific crime-relevant details, whereas innocent individuals will not. Memory distortions, however, may limit the accuracy of such procedures. To investigate these limits, two studies were conducted to examine whether brain electrical activity could differentiate true from false recollections elicited by the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. The design of each study maximized the opportunity of finding electrocortical differences between true and false recognition. Each study found very high rates of false recognition, with little evidence that brain electrical activity could differentiate true from false memories. Results suggested that under certain conditions both true and false recollections can produce a pattern of brain activity indicative of recognition.

In the present study, the persistence of personal false memories (FMs) after social feedback that denies their truth was assessed. Participants imitated actions performed by the experimenter (Session 1) and watched a doctored video with performed and critical "fake" actions (Session 2), followed by a memory rating and a recognition task. A few days later (Session 3), participants were clearly told that some memories were false and received daily reminders of the correct list of objects/actions before testing their memory again in Session 4. Results of both memory ratings and recognition indicated effective FM implantation. Interestingly, response times for correct rejections were longer for fake than true objects, suggesting participants struggled to ignore false suggestions. Crucial for our aim, Session 4 showed that FM persisted also after the debriefing and repeated presentations of correct list of objects/actions, suggesting that FMs for actions are rather difficult to discard. KEYWORDS action memory, false memories, persistence of false memories

A chapter in : Lucas Gottzen, Margunn Bjørnholt, Floretta Boonzaier (eds.), Men, Masculinities and Intimate Partner Violence (Routledge)

This chapter studies ‘antifeminist’ discourses identified by participants in a research project on the effects of antifeminism on organisations dealing with women victims of male violence in Quebec, Canada. It focuses on the masculinists discourses affecting the analysis of the interviewed participants. After having defined the masculinist-antifeminist discourse, this chapter analyses the tactics of ‘masculinist’ actors (e.g. socials workers, activists, researchers) mobilised to undermine the expertise of feminist participants. Among the 87 interviewed feminists, many argue that the rhetoric on ‘parental alienation’ and the ‘false memories syndrome’, as well as the ‘symmetry of violence between partners’, undermined the legitimacy of their analysis on male violence against women. The masculinist discourses on violence against intimate partners thereby become intertwined with the rhetoric implying that feminists’ analyses are too ‘subjective’. Also, it is argued that such antifeminist rhetoric leads to believe that male-perpetrators of violence against women are not responsible for their deeds. Finally, this chapter recalls the importance to consider masculinist-activists’ explicit task of fighting for the preservation of white heterosexual male supremacy to better understand their discourses about intimate violence.

O presente trabalho pretende apontar as possíveis distorções da memória envolvendo o reconhecimento pessoal no processo penal e suas consequências para o projeto de vida do condenado. Para isso, desenvolvemos o estado da arte da psicologia do testemunho para entender como a memória é armazenada, conservada e recuperada e examinamos as interferências que ocorrem durante esse processo. A seguir, tratamos dos efeitos das distorções da memória para a prova penal. As complexidades envolvidas neste processo se tornam ainda mais evidentes quando percebemos que, na prática forense brasileira, existe uma dependência da prova cujo conteúdo é fundamentalmente a memória. Os efeitos do tempo são nefastos sobre a testemunha e sua memória do evento e repercutem, especialmente, na prova testemunhal e no reconhecimento. Nessa perspectiva, o trabalho se propõe a analisar a ocorrência de erros judiciários advindos dos (d)efeitos da memória e seu impacto no projeto de vida do réu. Após conceituar o dano ao projeto de vida e identificar como, em seara processual penal, tal poderia ocorrer notadamente em função de condenações baseadas fundamentalmente em provas dependentes da memória -, concluímos o trabalho com a análise da legislação de Estados norte-americanos que já incorporaram os subsídios científicos mais recentes aos seus procedimentos policiais e judiciais, com vistas a atenuar os persistentes problemas da memória na constituição da prova.