The idea of false memory has been studied since the days of Sigmund Freud. It’s defined as a fabricated or distorted recollection of an event (Cherry). The study of false memory has been used to help understand how the smallest things can make such a big impact on how we remember certain events in our minds. Most people think that a person’s memory is always accurate and can’t be changed, but many studies have been done to prove this wrong. “Though the term ' 'false memory ' ' is slippery and inadequate, there is now little doubt that the phenomenon exists. A rash of satanic ritual abuse claims in the 1980 's and 90 's -- claims that were never substantiated but destroyed families and ruined reputations -- demonstrated fairly conclusively
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This article, titled “Paradoxical Effects of Warning in the Production of Children’s False Memories” and published in January of 2014, contained the results of a study that was created by Chiara Mirandola and Francesco Del Prete following the concept of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Mirandola and Del Prete presented four age groups (7-8, 10-11, 12-13, and young adults) with lists of semantically associated words and one critical lure that was closely related. There were also three different groups within each age group: one with no warning, one with a basic warning, and one with a specific warning and examples of what the lure could be. Two interesting points of data were gathered from the results. The first is that, out of groups with no warning, the young adults group was most likely to create false memories of the critical lures than the other groups, and that they reported distinct, vivid memories of studying the lure. On the opposite hand, the second point was that out of groups that received a clear, specific warning, the children in the 7-8 age group were most likely to create false memories. Mirandola and Del Prete concluded that this result could be stemming from the children attempting to gather the gist of the set of words, and then when the lure is presented, the children grouped the lure into the list of studied words. This study was beneficial to the study of false memories because it reinforces the fact that an individual’s age affects the creation of false memories. After researching false memory with Del Prete for this article, Mirandola was intrigued and eager to discover more about the false memory syndrome phenomenon; she decided to continue researching false memory as part of her post-doc
This article, titled “Paradoxical Effects of Warning in the Production of Children’s False Memories” and published in January of 2014, contained the results of a study that was created by Chiara Mirandola and Francesco Del Prete following the concept of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Mirandola and Del Prete presented four age groups (7-8, 10-11, 12-13, and young adults) with lists of semantically associated words and one critical lure that was closely related. There were also three different groups within each age group: one with no warning, one with a basic warning, and one with a specific warning and examples of what the lure could be. Two interesting points of data were gathered from the results. The first is that, out of groups with no warning, the young adults group was most likely to create false memories of the critical lures than the other groups, and that they reported distinct, vivid memories of studying the lure. On the opposite hand, the second point was that out of groups that received a clear, specific warning, the children in the 7-8 age group were most likely to create false memories. Mirandola and Del Prete concluded that this result could be stemming from the children attempting to gather the gist of the set of words, and then when the lure is presented, the children grouped the lure into the list of studied words. This study was beneficial to the study of false memories because it reinforces the fact that an individual’s age affects the creation of false memories. After researching false memory with Del Prete for this article, Mirandola was intrigued and eager to discover more about the false memory syndrome phenomenon; she decided to continue researching false memory as part of her post-doc