Creative Memories
I
recall the time our house was bombed by the Germans. Actually, I don’t. But I
do recall my mother telling the captivating story. We love stories—especially
stories that inspire us by overcoming great odds or keep us in suspense as to
the death-defying outcome.
From
time to time a famous person tells a tale that stretches credulity and seems fit
for a party or a pub rather than a place of leadership. We want people we can
trust. If they lie about their past, won’t they lie to us about important
matters?
For
decades, psychologists have published studies that plumb the limitations of
human memory. Since Bartlett published his famous work in 1932, we have been
suspicious about the accuracy in human memory. To paraphrase, Bartlett
explained that the processes of relying on memory to help us adapt to life
events also lead to errors.
A few
years ago (2012), psychological scientist, Daniel Schacter provided a helpful
summary of three factors involved in the way memories are distorted as a part
of “Adaptive Constructive Processes.”
Three Factors Influencing Accurate Memories
1. The misinformation effect.
This
is the effect demonstrated by the research of Elizabeth Loftus and her
colleagues. When information is presented to us after an event, that recent
information can distort the original event memory. Simple questions of eye-witnesses
are enough to introduce information into their memories of things that were
never present.
Deliberately providing misinformation also distorts memories.
Numerous studies have confirmed the misinformation effect in both lab work and
in live-action events. Unfortunately, false memories can be planted that
contain elaborate details about personal experiences that never happened.
Loftus commented on the problems inherent in autobiographies and memoirs when
she wrote about attacks on Edward Teller’s story and suggested we could “appreciate
it not as a deliberately self-serving untruthful chronicle but for its possible
insights into normal memory-distortion processes. Untruths are not necessarily
lies (2012, p. 872).” As Loftus notes, it can be hard to tell the difference between
an “honest” and “deliberate lie.”
2. Gist-based memory effect.
We
tend to remember the gist of what happened. But we can be stubbornly sure that we
learned something that never happened when something new is similar to what we
did in fact learn. Psychology students learn this from examples of word lists (DRM;
Deese-Roediger-McDermott memory illusion) that contain thematically similar
words (e.g., words linked to sleep) and then are presented with a new word they
never saw but because it is linked to the theme they are sure of the accuracy
of their memory. False recognitions are a part of human memory. Researchers
find this “gist” aspect of memory adaptive and commonly found in creative
people who can employ the gist of what they have learned to solve novel
problems.
3. Imagination inflation.
Schacter and his colleagues as well as Loftus
and her colleagues have shown that imagining something can actually create a
false memory that an event really happened. This can be quite alarming if one
is focused on the accuracy of the past. But the capacity of our brains to
simulate experiences is an adaptive process if we are trying to play out
various future options before committing to a course of action. Schacter writes
of the “striking similarities between remembering the past and imagining the
future (2012, p. 605).”
Our Memories and Our Identities
Intelligent
people who write autobiographies and memoirs or write about history based on
the memories of others ought to understand human memory and other factors such
as the heuristics we rely on when thinking (see Kahneman, 2011). Exercise caution.
Leaders ought
to demonstrate a modicum of humility when it comes to recalling their personal
history—especially when a self-serving story has the potential for leaving their character open to attack.
Journalists,
investigative reporters, and critics also ought to be aware of human memory
when attempting to “discover” the truth about one situation or another. When it
comes to details, human memory is not perfectly reliable. Care is needed in
separating those natural distortions from the deliberate self-serving efforts
to deceive others, which can lead to public disasters if not challenged. Aggressive investigators may have the spotlight shone on them if they major in common minor memory errors.
Psychotherapists and counselors ought to know better when it comes to commenting in reports on the memories of their clients. Reporting a client's history as if it were factually accurate is common but accuracy is not consistent with memory research. Similarly, expecting clients to provide accurate details about their life is not reasonable.
Parents and teachers ought to be careful when they are focused on accusing a child of lying. All brains distort events. Memory processes and capacity increase as brains mature. And of course, memory declines in older adults. Children, parents, and teachers along with all humanity do not provide accurate information about their past behavior. Lying is something else.
All of us ought to take care to document important information and store it in more than one place. Relying on our memory for vital information is not reasonable.
Regardless of how well our memory functions, our memories are so important to who we are. Loftus (2003) observations on memory and
identity are insightful.
“People’s
memories are not only the sum of all that they have done, but there is more to
them: The memories are also the sum of what they have thought, what they have
been told, what they believe.
Who we are may be shaped by our memories, but our memories are shaped by who we
are and what we have been led to believe (2003, p. 872).”
And
“We seem to reinvent our memories, and in
doing so, we become the person of our own imagination (2003, 872).”
Personal Note
That bomb story my mother told– my guess is a bomb really did explode near our house in
England. The other day I saw a published map of bombs that fell in London
during the blitz and there were a couple close to our house in West Finchley.
My mother recalled being forcibly trapped in the closet under our stairs when
the floor buckled upward. Later, another blast caused the floor to settle and
she was able to open the door but couldn’t walk for awhile.
References
Following
are my sources. If you are interested in the subject, I recommend reading
Kahneman, Loftus, and Schacter.
Kahneman,
D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow.
NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Loftus,
E. F. (2003). Make-Believe Memories. American Psychologist, 58(11),
867-873. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.58.11.867
Loftus,
E. F. (2005). Planting misinformation in the human mind: A 30-year
investigation
of the malleability of memory. Learning & Memory, 12,
361–366.
doi:10.1101/lm.94705
Schacter,
D. L. (1999). The seven sins of memory: Insights from psychology
and
cognitive neuroscience. American Psychologist, 54, 182–203.
doi:10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.182
Schacter,
D. L. (2012). Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory. American
Psychologist, 67, 603–613. doi: 10.1037/a0029869
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