Reinforcing false memories

RichardR said:
I agree the experiments need to be replicated by someone else, with more subjects, and (ideally) different protocols before they should be considered anything like "proof". As it stands they are interesting results that should provoke more studies.
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I tried seeing if false memory sensitivity varied by how hypnotically susceptible one was.

So, we had low and high hypnotics, before and during hypnosis.

I didn't find anything interesting though.
 
Luciana Nery said:
Along those lines, Richard, I also wonder if some people, being so suggestionable (is that a word??) would be more prone to feeling the effects of placebos? That being so, wouldn't that have an effect (even minimal) in the evaluation of drugs, if, for example, a control group has an unusual amount of suggestionable people? Many traits are selected upon forming a control group (age, weight, past medical history, if applicable, everything else being random). If the "level of suggestionability" (now I invented) is not being taken in consideration, how could it affect the evaluation of the efficacy of new drugs?
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A quick search turned up this paper:
If someone responds positively to a placebo, that should not be viewed as a negative evaluation of the patient’s intelligence or any other characteristic. However, what has been demonstrated is that the extent of the placebo effect is influenced by certain factors in patients, such as their attitudes towards their health, their doctor, or their treatment, and how suggestible they are.
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So it's possible. And we now know the word is "suggestible". ;)
 
Dragon said:

On the topic of pubs, a few of them have given me false memories.
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They usually just gave me false optimism, especially in terms of picking up women.
 
Oh, the recovered memory people are so evil. It's such an awful thing, and ruins so many people's lives. It's so sad.

I'm even sympathizing with Michael Jackson now, after his newest accuser said he remembered he was molested after recovered memory therapy. So, so sad.
 
bpesta said:
I tried seeing if false memory sensitivity varied by how hypnotically susceptible one was.

So, we had low and high hypnotics, before and during hypnosis.

I didn't find anything interesting though.
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I had the same question when I was reading through this thread. I wonder if one would find a correlation between alien abductees and hypnosis susceptibility.

As to the fuzziness of the pdf: The thing is just a scanned in image so the letters will be fuzzy. All letters are fuzzy to me given my presbyopia, but these letters are fuzzy even for non-presbyopes.
 
Seeing RichardR's avatar I'm reminded of another study concerning false memories.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DyeHard/Dyehard010627.html

About one-third of the participants who had read the phony ad featuring Bugs said they either remembered, or at least knew, they had indeed met Bugs at Disneyland and shaken his hand. Or foot, as the case may be.

But here's the rub. Bugs Bunny wouldn't be caught dead at Disneyland. He belongs to Warner Brothers.
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Ratman_tf said:

A series of events, with details and physical interaction is falsely remembered. Not just a word or image, but a complete interaction.
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Has that ever happened to you?

I dream very vividly, and I always have. Sometimes I have trouble remembering if something that happened when I was a kid was a dream or reality.

The mind is really amazing.
 
In one of his many books, (alas, I forget the title) Stephen Jay Gould relates how he found that two of his cherished childhood memories were false.

In one, he recalled strolling to the tennis courts nearby his Grandpa's house, and sitting there for long discussions while watching the tennis players.

In another, a childhood trip west, he recalled seing the approach to a big mountain (Shasta? Renier? hehe- I can't remember either)
as they motored along.


Only in later life did he find out that there were no tennis courts near his grandfather's old home, the nearest one was miles away. In fact, they had gone to a nearby park, which had no tennis courts whatever.
In re-creating the trip West for his own family as an adult, he was shocked to learn that the cherished view of the mountain did not exist, it wasn't visible from the roadway at all!
 
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