The cognitive neuroscience of true and false memories.
Of central relevance to the recovered/false memory debate is understanding the factors that cause us to believe that a mental experience is a memory of an actual past experience. According to the source monitoring framework (SMF), memories are attributions that we make about our mental experiences based on their subjective qualities, our prior knowledge and beliefs, our motives and goals, and the social context. From this perspective, we discuss cognitive behavioral studies using both objective (e.g., recognition, source memory) and subjective (e.g., ratings of memory characteristics) measures that provide much information about the encoding, revival and monitoring processes that yield both true and false memories. The chapter also considers how neuroimaging findings, especially from functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, are contributing to our understanding of the relation between memory and reality.
Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. marcia.johnson@yale.edu
Marcia K
MK
Johnson
Carol L
CL
Raye
Karen J
KJ
Mitchell
Elizabeth
E
Ankudowich
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D013404:Suggestion