Study shows how false memories rerun 7/7 film that never existed
* James Randerson, science correspondent
* The Guardian,
* Wednesday September 10 2008
* Article history
Four out of 10 people have false memories of the 7/7 London bombings, according to researchers who questioned students about what they remembered seeing on news reports of the events.
Some people claimed to have seen non-existent CCTV footage of the bus exploding in Tavistock Square in July 2005, while others gave detailed descriptions of footage which did not exist.
The study shows how prone people are to "false memories", which the researchers say police and social workers must take into account when evaluating witness testimony or "recovered" memories of childhood abuse.
"Taken as a whole, this is further evidence that our memories are not perfect," said Dr James Ost, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth. "They are not like a videotape you can rewind and replay for perfect recall. Because of this, memory alone is not reliable enough to form the basis of legal decisions."
He gave questionnaires to 150 British students and 150 Swedish students on what they remembered of the Tavistock Square bomb three months after the attacks. None had seen the bomb first hand. He asked the students what they remembered about TV footage of the aftermath of the bomb and about CCTV images of the bus exploding and a computer reconstruction of the event.
Neither the CCTV or the computer reconstruction existed, but 40% and 28% of British respondents claimed to remember seeing them. The equivalent figures of the Swedish participants were 16% and 6%.
Some of the students embellished their accounts with details they could not have witnessed. One wrote: "The bus has stopped at a traffic light. There was a bright light and a loud bang and the top of the bus flew off."
The study backs up previous research by Ost in which people claimed to have seen non-existent footage of the crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana.
Ost presented the research at the British Association Festival of Science in Liverpool.
Childhood Sexual-Abuse: Differences In Recovered Memories
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/137678.php
03 Feb 2009
When a child experiences a traumatic event, such as sexual-abuse, it may not be until well into adulthood that they remember the incident. It is not known how adults are able to retrieve long-forgotten memories of abuse and there has been some controversy as to the authenticity of these reports. The results of a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that there are important differences between people who gradually recover memories of abuse during suggestive therapy sessions and those who recover memories of abuse more spontaneously. Psychologist Elke Geraerts of the University of St. Andrews and her colleagues reveal that these people are either susceptible to recovering false memories or have a tendency to forget earlier recollections of the abuse.
The study volunteers included 120 women who were classified into four groups, based on their responses during a preliminary interview. The groups were: women who spontaneously recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse on their own, women who gradually recovered memories of childhood sexual-abuse during suggestive therapy sessions, women who had never forgotten having been sexually-abused and women who had never been sexually-abused. All of these women participated in a false-memory test. They studied a list of related words (such as bed, rest, awake and tired). After a few minutes, they were shown a set of words (which included ones they had studied as well as new words) and had to indicate which words were on the original list.
The results showed that the women who recovered their memories of childhood sexual-abuse during suggestive therapy were the most prone to false memories. For instance, women from this group were more likely to select sleep (in the example above) as having been on the original list, when in fact, it was not.
The women then participated in another memory test, which measured the participants' propensity to forget what they had just remembered. The results of this test revealed that the group who spontaneously recovered memories of childhood sexual-abuse was the most likely to forget that they had successfully remembered certain words earlier.
The authors note that their findings argue against the generalization that all recovered memories of childhood sexual-abuse are based on false recollections and "that such effects appear to be associated with suggestive therapy, not recovery of childhood sexual-abuse in general." They conclude that this research has important implications for clinicians who treat patients reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual-abuse. The authors suggest that these clinicians should consider the context of the recovered memories to most effectively treat their patients.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information.
Article "Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Recovered-Memory Experiences of Childhood Sexual Abuse"
Source: Barbara Isanski
Association for Psychological Science
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Whoa, this is strange [about the 7/7 memories], because I could have sworn I saw footage about the bus blowing up, in my memory it was from a mobile phone and I even seem to "remember" that I thought how strange that the person caught it at exactly the right time.
The results showed that the women who recovered their memories of childhood sexual-abuse during suggestive therapy were the most prone to false memories. For instance, women from this group were more likely to select sleep (in the example above) as having been on the original list, when in fact, it was not.
Beltania said:What a fascinating thread!
The Thunder-bird is an interesting one - interesting that other people have a "memory" of it too! I was looking up some information regarding the legend of The Thunder-bird, and came across someone writing about a photo they'd seen... or thought they'd seen. They seemed to remember seeing a sepia photo of a group of men holding up a pterodactyl, but, since no record of this photograph can be found, had entertained the possibility that it was a "false memory" after hearing accounts of it.
Now, this made me three kinds of freaked, because up until that point, I had assumed that I myself had seen this same picture, even recalling the way the people were holding onto the wings, but now it seemed to me that I had simply picked up the suggestion of it, probably through reading this exact same article when a little younger (I started to recognise passages in the text - I've always enjoyed casually researching this kind of thing and probably had come across it before)
So, I created a false memory from someone else's false memory!
Another, slightly more "normal" F.M. involves me as a child of about 7. I was alone downstairs, and my mother was either asleep or in the bathtub upstairs. My dad was probably around the house somewhere too. I heard a knock on the door and went to have a peek, since I was shy, and wanted to wait until one of my parents went to answer it. I remember seeing the silhouette of at least one person against the frosted glass on the upper half of the door. Since neither of my parents were on their way, I got a bit flustered, and called out to ask who it was. A male voice that I didn't recognise replied "it's your mummy and daddy!" Since I knew this wasn't true, I told them that my mum was upstairs, and made myself scarce, making sure I told my mother all about it.
A couple of years back, when I was about 13, I brought up the subject again, but, to my surprise, my mother remembered nothing about the incident. Since my parents were always very concerned for my safety when I was a child, I doubt they would have passed over something like this lightly if it had been real. However, there is also a very real possibility that she really had forgotten it herself. Either way, I put it straight out of my mind until this very day, when I read this thread.
Just as we've seen it is possible for false memories to be implanted by external suggestion, is it also equally plausible that real memories can be just as easily passed off as fantasy, or wiped entirely, by people around you claiming them to be untrue?
One volunteer claimed to have had vivid memories of being a hockey player - even though her parents confirmed she had never played hockey in her life.
rynner2 said:The mythical memories: How a fifth of us fondly recall happy events... that never actually happened
SHAYBARSABE said:rynner2 said:The mythical memories: How a fifth of us fondly recall happy events... that never actually happened
It's the skippy universes syndrome. How do you know you've been in the same universe all your life?
ramonmercado said:SHAYBARSABE said:rynner2 said:The mythical memories: How a fifth of us fondly recall happy events... that never actually happened
It's the skippy universes syndrome. How do you know you've been in the same universe all your life?
I sometimes wonder about that. I feel there are small changes occurring in the history books every so often.
Dial 1471 to confirm whether or not you've got J's Caller Line Identity saved on your phone line. Shows that the last person to have called your phone (unless concealed). If shows as yesterday/Boxing Day etc, then, sadly, it was merely a dream.Happened recently: I woke up at five in the morning to the phone ringing. Wife's sister. I let the phone go to record and very definitely heard J wittering on about how much she loved her sister, et c et c, and any tough talking was for wife's own good, and how they looked forward to seeing us again, et c et c. I just laid in bed and thought things like "yes, we love you, J, but it's five in the morning, **** off!", as you do.
Checked the answerphone later. Nothing. Wife said she hadn't heard a thing. I went "Huh?" as I'd definitely experienced it. Even discreetly and embarrassedly approached J when we next met. no, she hadn't made an early-morning call, no reason to.
But....so real. Either it's drugs for diabetes playing me up or my subconscious mind is so unimaginative that this is the best dream it can give me. I know J can be a bit of a sceaming banshee, but nobody's died yet (touches wood and iron.) i remain baffled.
Al-Megrahi does seem to have been the fall guy for this & for some reason Gadaffi went along with it & paid compensation. The evidence against him was beyond flimsy.
Paul Foot did an investigation into it years ago & concluded that the PLO were more than likely responsible, in retaliation [I think] for the US accidentally shooting down a passenger plane in the middle east some months previously.
Must try and track down that article.
Could it have been a dissident split from PLO? PLA maybe?