Scientists can implant false memories — and reverse them
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One of the biggest sources of false memories, says Oeberst, is clinical psychologists who believe in repressed memories. This is the idea that a person who has experienced a traumatic event could selectively forget memories of their trauma
“It’s really well documented that what those people usually suffer from is to not be able to forget. They have flashbacks, they have PTSD, they cannot push it away,” says Oeberst. “There’s not much evidence for repression.”
The psychologists implanted false memories in 52 subjects with a median age of 23, thanks to critical assistance from the subjects’ parents.
The parents identified events that had and had not happened to their kids — and generated two events that were plausible but had not happened. The researchers then asked the test subjects to recall each event, true or not, including details like who was present and when it happened.
They met multiple times; by the third session, most participants at least believed the false events had happened. More than half had developed actual false memories of them.
This wasn’t the first time researchers have demonstrated how easy it can be to implant false memories. But it was the first time they tried to reverse them — without revealing to the subjects what had happened.
They found two key methods helped participants differentiate their own real recollections from the false ones:
Asking them to recall the source of the memory
Explaining to them that being pressured to recall something multiple times can induce false memories
Why this matters — Ultimately, the team found rich, false memories can mostly be undone. And they can be undone relatively easily.
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/how-to-reverse-false-memories-study
“It’s really well documented that what those people usually suffer from is to not be able to forget. They have flashbacks, they have PTSD, they cannot push it away,” says Oeberst. “There’s not much evidence for repression.”
The psychologists implanted false memories in 52 subjects with a median age of 23, thanks to critical assistance from the subjects’ parents.
The parents identified events that had and had not happened to their kids — and generated two events that were plausible but had not happened. The researchers then asked the test subjects to recall each event, true or not, including details like who was present and when it happened.
They met multiple times; by the third session, most participants at least believed the false events had happened. More than half had developed actual false memories of them.
This wasn’t the first time researchers have demonstrated how easy it can be to implant false memories. But it was the first time they tried to reverse them — without revealing to the subjects what had happened.
They found two key methods helped participants differentiate their own real recollections from the false ones:
Asking them to recall the source of the memory
Explaining to them that being pressured to recall something multiple times can induce false memories
Why this matters — Ultimately, the team found rich, false memories can mostly be undone. And they can be undone relatively easily.
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/how-to-reverse-false-memories-study
