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Lecture 20 Psyco 350, A1Fall, 2006

• N. R. Brown

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Lightening the Load

• What you will NOT be held responsible for.
• Chap 8
• pp. 192-199 in Chap 9
• Chap 10
• pp. 26-44 in Chap 2
• Chap 16

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Outline

• History Memory
• Background
• The Living-in-History Study
• Extensions of LiH

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The Recovered Memory Controversy

• Background
• Adults report recovering forgotten memories of
  childhood sexual abuse (CSA).
• Memories often recovered during therapy.
• Profound emotional legal repercussions

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The Recovered Memory Controversy

• Assumptions
• traumatic memories can be repressed/suppressed
• recovery techniques produce valid memories of
  real events.
• recovering forgotten CSA memories has therapeutic
  value.
• Questioned Assumptions
• Do/can people repress/suppress traumatic
  memories?
• Can recovery techniques produce false memories?

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Theoretical Response Lindsay Read

• Memory is fallible subject to distortion.
• Relevant Phenomena
• Misinformation Effect blend facts suggestion
• Source Amnesia forget source of information
• Imperfect Reality Monitoring mistaking imagined
  events for real ones
• Reconstruction past events reconstructed from
  fragmentary details and schematic knowledge.

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Clinical Practice (circa, 1990)

• When CSA suspected, recovery techniques employed
  (over sessions)
• Techniques
• guided imagery
• hypnosis
• dream interpretation
• survivors groups
• uncritical acceptance of claims

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False Memories of CSA

• Memory recovery techniques may lead some clients
  to create illusory memories.
• -- Lindsay Read
• Imagined and/or suggested events can take on a
  realistic vividness and detail w/ extensive
  memory work.

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False Memories of CSA

• Step 1 create CSA story
• Step 2 elaborate on CSA story
• (suggestion, imagery, interpretation, hypnosis,
  social facilitation)
• Step 3 forget or mistake origin of CSA story
• (source amnesia, failed reality monitoring).
• Implication
• It should be possible to create FM in the lab.

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Implanting FMs /w Narrative Hyman et al. (1995)

• Issue Can FMs be implanted using clinical
  techniques?
• Method
• Preparation Solicit event descriptions from
  parents
• Materials
• 3 real event descriptions
• 1 false event description (spill punch bowl at
  wedding)

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Hyman et al. (1995) Procedure

• Phase 1
• Recall as much as possible about each event
  continue to reflect outside of lab.
• 2-day delay
• Phase 2 repeat procedure
• Phase 3 repeat procedure

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Hyman et al. (1995) Results

• true memories increase across phases
• false memories increase across phases
• Phase 2 FM 25
• Accessing background knowledge predicts FM
• FMS for 11 or 30 Ss who accessed BK
• FM for 2 of 21 Ss who did not access

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Hyman et al (1995) Sample FM
Background Knowledge
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Hyman et al (1995) Sample FM
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Hyman et al. (1995) Results

• Accessing background knowledge predicts FM
• FMS for 11 or 30 Ss who accessed BK
• FM for 2 of 21 Ss who did not access BK
• Interpretation
• suggestion BK source confusion ?FM

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Creating FMs w/ PhotosWade, Garry, Read,
Lindsay (2002)

• Method
• 3 real childhood photos
• 1 doctored childhood photo
• Task
• recall as much as possible
• three phases ? 1 week apart

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Creating FMs w/ PhotosWade, Garry, Read,
Lindsay (2002)

• Results for False Photos
• 1st Interview 30 FMs
• 2nd interview 50 FM
• Conclusion
• Photos compiling for support of generating false
  event and accept false memory.

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Implanted False Memories

• Other demonstrations
• Lost in mall (Loftus Pickrell, 25)
• Overnight hospitalization (Hyman 20)
• Rescued by lifeguard (Heaps Nash 37)
• Plausibility-driven Limitations on FMs
• participation in others religious rituals
  (Pezdek 8)
• invasive medical procedure (Pezdek 0)

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Three Stages Required to Implant FMsHyman
Loftus (1998)

• Plausibility Assessment/acceptance
• source (family, experts)
• content (likelihood, consequentiality)
• Memory Construction (creation of a plausible
  imagined event)
• Actively relate proposed event to self-knowledge
• Imagery, journaling, dream interpretation
• Source Monitoring Error.
• Situational/social demands
• Delay
• Repetition

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Implanting FMs

• FM research
• demonstrates FMs can be implanted
• refines techniques for creating FMs
• Ethical Question
• Is it time for a moratorium on this type of work?

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Can CSA be Forgotten Williams (1994)

• Participants
• 129 women contacted 17 yrs after reported sexual
  abuse
• Age at report
• 10 months to 12 years
• Task
• 3 hr interview questions about
• sexual history.
• NOTE Index event not specifically probed

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Williams (1994) Results

• 38 failed report index event
• suggest repression-based forgetting of CSA very
  common.
• Victim-perpetrator relation affected recall
• by-stranger (82) gt by-relative (53)
• recall ? as degree of force ?
• Younger victims less likely to recall event

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All respondents 129 100
remembered 80 62
not remembered 49 38
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Williams (1994) Decomposing the Non-responses

• 38 failed to report index event.

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All respondents 129 100
remembered 80 62
not remembered 49 38
other abuse 33 26
no other abuse 16 12
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Williams (1994) Decomposing the Non-responses

• 38 failed to report index event.
• But
• 68 (33/49) of non-responders report other abuse.
• Non-repression based explanations
• schematization
• retrieval (motivational) failure
• coding mismatch

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All respondents 129 100
remembered 80 62
not remembered 49 38
other abuse 33 26
no other abuse 16 12
under 3 yrs 5 4
3 or older 11 8.5
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Williams (1994) Decomposing the Non-responses

• Thus, Pure failure to report CSA relatively
  uncommon (8.5)
• failure to report may reflect
• willingness to disclose
• forgetting

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Williams (1985) Conclusion

• This conclusion consistent with
• flow-up study (Goodman et at. 2003)
• n 168 failure to report 10
• General findings re memory for trauma
• people remember a variety of traumatic events
  (including war horrors and major disasters)
  only too well (McNally, 2003 Porter Birt,
  2001 Porter Peace, submitted Shobe
  Kihlstrom, 1997 Thompson, Morton, Fraser,
  1997)

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Caveat

• There are documented corroborated cases of
  recovered memories of sexual abuse.
• In general
• memory recovered w/out theory
• recovery accompanied by strong emotional reaction
• abuse occurred in teens or later

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Recovered Memory Controversy Summary

• Lindsay Read
• memory fallible subject to distortion
• therapeutic techniques capable of implanting FMs
• Hyman et al Wade et al
• FMs can be implanted
• Williams ( Goodman)
• failure-to-report CSA occurs, but forgetting CSA
  uncommon.
• Conclusion Recovery techniques should be used
  with extreme caution if at all.