Tricks That Can Fool Your Memory.

Take a moment to think back, maybe around ten years ago. Do you recall what you were up to that day? I certainly can't, and I'm pretty sure most people can't either. We might have a faint recollection of what life was like back then, but the day-to-day memories from that time seem to have vanished. However, some psychologists argue that you might have been holding onto unpleasant memories from that day, waiting to resurface -- also known as repressed memories. This concept was quite popular in the past, but now we understand that these memories aren't always as clear-cut as they seem. The notion of repressed memories is often mentioned in mainstream psychology, but it's important to note that it has a specific definition. For instance, a repressed memory isn't something you've simply forgotten about, like your first day of elementary school art class. And it's not just about forgetting something, like the fact that you can't recall what you had for breakfast three weeks ago. I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning. The true definition of a "repressed memory" comes from the well-known but often misunderstood psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. His theory was that if you had thoughts or experiences you didn't want to confront consciously, like memories of abuse, they would be pushed into your unconscious mind. Freud believed that everyone harbored desires, motivations, and memories just waiting to be uncovered. Back in the 1980s, it was common for therapists who followed Freud's theories to suspect their patients had repressed memories of trauma or abuse. However, some therapists might have been a bit too eager in identifying trauma when it wasn't actually present. Many employed guided imagery techniques with their patients, like picturing what a potential abuse scenario might look like, to help them recall these supposedly hidden memories. This approach sounds terrible today, and it's no longer considered an effective therapy for dealing with abuse. Aside from sounding pretty sketchy, it also looked a lot like how you could create false memories. Sometimes people struggle to differentiate between their real memories and the ones they've imagined happening to them -- like if you think you remember something from your infancy because your family has told the story countless times. So suggesting experiences to patients can make them more prone to misremembering them as true. For patients who had experienced abuse, it was positive that therapists were finally acknowledging how widespread it was and taking their experiences seriously. But if a patient comes to your office claiming they've never been abused, you definitely don't want to accidentally convince them of it. Thanks to that imagery technique, it's likely that many supposedly repressed memories from that era were actually just things suggested by well-meaning therapists. Research backs up this idea. Some studies have shown that people who believe they've recovered repressed memories are more likely to develop false memories.

For instance, in a study published in 2000 in Psychological Science, researchers examined 57 women. Some had consistently recalled abuse from their past, while others believed they had recovered memories of abuse or suspected they had repressed memories. They included these individuals and a control group, which consisted of people who were certain they had never experienced abuse, in a memory test. This test involved recalling lists of words that were related. In previous studies, it has been found that most people tend to create false memories and mistakenly recall words that were not on the list. The findings indicated that individuals who had always recalled their traumatic experiences were just as likely to have false memories of the missing words as the control group. However, those who had recovered memories were approximately 20% more likely to have these false memories from the lists. This phenomenon extends beyond word lists to more significant events, not just simple word lists. Another study, published in 1999 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, examined 24 people and discovered that they could induce false memories of unusual life events, such as breaking a window with their hand or getting stuck in a tree. They achieved this using the same guided imagery technique that therapists employ to uncover recovered memories. Another study from 1989 surveyed around 130 children whose school was attacked by a shooter. Several children remembered being present at the scene of the shooting, yet they were not actually there. One boy even remembered walking to school, turning back upon hearing shots, and seeing someone lying on the ground, only to find out from his parents that they were all on vacation that day. It's crucial to note that all of this research is correlational. No one has conducted research on repressed memories by randomly assigning individuals to experience trauma to assess their memory of it. Therefore, it cannot be definitively stated that repressed memories are always false, but it is clear that demonstrating their reliability is extremely challenging, and for the majority of people, it is relatively easy to develop a false memory. Without corroborating evidence, distinguishing between a true recovered memory and a false one can be difficult. Nonetheless, when it comes to trauma and abuse, the majority of individuals retain continuous memories of these events, making it essential to take them seriously. Even if someone cannot prove their repressed memories are real, experiencing traumatic, troubling, or stressful thoughts is a valid reason to seek professional help. Despite what the internet and television shows often suggest about repressed memories, such as many of Freud's theories, they are not as straightforward as they may seem.