False Memories Using The Deese / Roedinger - 1262 Words

Human minds are filled with all different kinds of memories. From short term memory to long term memory, people’s every day routines are heavily influenced by the memories they possess. Remember the time in elementary school when you peed your pants, or the time in high school when you got to kiss your crush, or how about that time you saw your favorite celebrity star in the mall? What if these memories were not actually real? Are they memories or are they made up stories? Mendez and Fras (2011) suggest that false memories are just recollections of events that did not occur. These memories could be your imagination or a he said she said story heard through the grapevine. False memories can be created by misattributing the source of the information (Sternberg, 2011). Examples of confusion that could lead to false memories can consist of intentions turned into actions, imagination turned into perception, or something only heard about turned into perception (Sternberg, 2011). One of the ways researchers measure false memories is using the Deese/Roedinger–McDermott paradigm (DRM) (Mendez Fras, 2011). Mendez and Fras suggest that the use of the DRM, â€Å"indicates that false memories are associated with the need for complete and integrated memories, self-relevancy, imagination and wish fulfillment, familiarity, emotional facilitation, suggestibility, and sexual content† (2011). Mendez and Fras also state that FMRI studies show that the area of the brain associated with false