Repressed & Recovered Memories

Question 1

The “expiry date” for convictions to be made after a crime is called:

Answer 1

The Statute of Limitations

Question 2

One of the important issues in the Susan Nason case was that some of the details recalled by Franklin-Lipsker were already publicised by the media, some of which were false. Referring back to the “memory decay and distortion” lectures, which psychological phenomenon has likely occurred?

Answer 2

The misinformation effect

Question 3

According to Freud, traumatic events are banished from conscious recall until we are able to cope psychologically with them. This defence mechanism is called:

Answer 3

Repression

Question 4

Self-help books and therapy techniques such as rebirthing, hypnosis and dream work were very popular methods of therapy for patients who were believed to be repressing traumatic memories of abuse. True or false?

Answer 4

True

(Among other “dubious” therapy techniques were guided imagery, age regression and past life analysis. While these and self-help books were very popular in the 90s, they are extremely criticised today for entertaining the possibility that people are always repressing traumatic memories.)

Question 5

Hypnosis is not particularly useful for recovering repressed memories, but can be useful for helping people break harmful habits (e.g. smoking). True or false?

Answer 5

True

(In the case of repressed memories, hypnosis claims to be able to induce an “altered state” but is more likely to just decrease the threshold for reporting information, thus making people immensely suggestible.)

Question 6

Name the approach for deciding what constitutes evidence for recovered memories?

Answer 6

The 3-pronged evidence approach

Question 7

Retrospective, prospective and which other type of memory study are commonly used to examine repressed memories?

Answer 7

Case studies

Question 8

A repressed memory study where individuals are interviewed about their history of abuse and memory continuity is:

Answer 8

Retrospective

Question 9

A repressed memory study where individuals with an already-documented history of abuse are interviewed years later is:

Answer 9

Prospective

Question 10

A repressed memory study that examines an individual case or group of cases is:

Answer 10

A case study

(These can be prospective OR retrospective.)

Question 11

Identify one of the problems with Williams’ (1994) study on repressed memory research:

a) participants were questioned directly about the documented abuse
b) participants reported abusive events outside of the documented events
c) repression was the only reason for participant’s not remembering abuse.

Answer 11

b) participants reported abusive events outside of the documented events.

Question 12

Repressed memory research is flawless. True or false?

Answer 12

FALSE!

Question 13

Lab research, retractors and false memories elicited by dodgy therapy techniques serve as evidence for:

Answer 13

False memories

Question 14

One problem with retracting an abuse allegation is that retractors are legally unable to sue therapists for eliciting a false memory, or take criminal action against them: true or false?

Answer 14

False

(Many people have sued their therapists for eliciting false memories, and retractors are actually useful for psychologists in gaining insight into processes by which memories are uncovered.)

Question 15

In Loftus & Pickrell’s (1995) false narrative paradigm study, 25% claimed to have remembered and described an event that never happened. Which technique was used to elicit these false events?

Answer 15

Guided imagery

Question 16

Considering that an event is plausible, constructing a narrative, making a “source monitoring error” and what else are considered the “recipe” for a false memory?

Answer 16

Belief

(A person must believe that the memory happened for it to be implanted. It is important to distinguish between belief and memory in this context - one can believe a memory happened without it actually having occurred and vice versa.)

Question 17

A source monitoring error is also known as:

Answer 17

Misattribution

Question 18

As demonstrated by Pezdeck et al. (1997) in their Jewish-Catholic students study, if a memory is plausible it is more or less likely to become a false memory?

Answer 18

More

Question 19

Loftus predicted the sharp rise in the number of exorcisms requested in the US in 2000. This is because the re-release of the movie “The Exorcist” increased what?

Answer 19

Plausibility

Question 20

As demonstrated by Garry et al. (1996), which cognitive component increased participant’s vulnerability to constructing a false memory?

Answer 20

Imagination

Question 21

Participants are always unwilling to admit when they have made up a memory. True or false?

Answer 21

False

(Participants are often either genuinely surprised when told they have reported a false memory, or they are surprisingly very willing to admit they made something up.)

Question 22

It is possible to convince someone they have committed a crime that did not happen. True or false?

Answer 22

True

Question 23

How might sleep paralysis explain false memories of alien abductions?

Answer 23

Write answer.

Question 24

In the DRM paradigm, the word that is recalled but not actually present in the list is known as:

Answer 24

The critical lure

Question 25

Following findings from McNally et al (2004) that 60% of alleged alien abductees showed physiological signs of PTSD, it is clear that:

a) Traumatic memories can be repressed then uncovered at a later time, or
b) the latter is false.

Answer 25

b - the latter is false.