False Memories in Children - Essay Example

False Memories in Children Fuzzy-Trace Theory Fuzzy-trace theorys concept of no-identity judgement, identity judgement and similarity judgement provide a unified account of the false-memory incidences that are so much common in children. This includes the concept of false-recognition effects and misinformation effects. Mis-information effects can be defined as the false acceptance of misleading post-event information and false rejection of actual events. These effects are brought about by the variability in rates of similarity, nonidentity judgement, and identity.

On the other hand, false-recognition effects are the raised false-alarm rates for unrepresented distractors that preserve the interpretation of presented targets. These are brought about by the increased rates of similarity or false identity judgement about distractors or due to decreased rates of nonidentity judgement. Prevalence information and children false memories Does prevalence information promote childrens false memories for an implausible event? Research has indicated that 7-12-year-old children heard a true narrative about their first school day and a false narrative about an implausible event.

Breaking the age group into groups of 7-8 and 11-12 years respectively, plausible and implausible events are likely to rise. However, prevalence information increases the number of false memories in the 7-8 age group, but not in the 11-12 group. Recent studies have demonstrated that children can develop memories of events that never happened (false memories) and a three step-process explains how these false memories are formed. First, an event has to be considered reasonable. Second, the event has to be examined as something that happened genuinely and finally, images and thoughts about that event have to be mistaken as memory details.

Early studies have shown that children are more likely to create false memories of plausible than implausible events. Further research indicates that it may be difficult to implant false memories of an implausible event. Creating false memories Recently, false memories have captured the attention of both psychologists and the public at large. The main motivation for this recent increase in interest is the rise in the number of cases in which memories of formerly unrecognized abuse are revealed during therapy.

Scientists have argued that certain therapeutical practices can cause the creation of false memories. Several scientists have contributed greatly to the topic distinguishing mainly between reproductive and reconstructive memory. Reproductive memory refers to accurate, rote production of material from memory, whereas reconstructive memory stresses in the active process of filling in missing components while remembering, with errors often occurring. Generally, it has been assumed that the act of remembering materials rich in meaning (real life events) gives rise to reconstructive processes (Causing errors), while the act of remembering more simplified materials (e.g. jokes, word lists) gives rise to reproductive memory (accurate memory).

References Stein, L. (1998). Memory falsification in children: A developmental study of spontaneous and implanted false memories. S.l.: Graduate College University of Arizona.