What science tells us about false and repressed memories

The False Recognition Test, a new tool for the assessment of false memories, with normative data from an Italian sample

INTRODUCTION

False memory can be defined as remembering something that did not happen. To a certain extent it is a normal phenomenon, but its occurrence seems to increase in healthy and pathological aging, possibly providing relevant clues on some clinical conditions in the spectrum of dementia. We adapted a well-established Deed-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, frequently used in experimental contexts, to devise a new neuropsychological assessment tool, the False Recognition Test (FRT), that can investigate classical facets of episodic memory performance (i.e. free recall and recognition), and assess proneness to produce semantically related and non-semantic false memories. Here we describe the FRT and provide normative data and correction grids to consider the possible effects of age, gender, and education on the FRT scores.

METHOD

Two-hundred and thirty-two Italian healthy individuals (99 male) aged 18-91 years, with different educational levels (from primary to university) underwent the FRT, together with validated tests for cognitive screening and episodic memory assessment and one scale for depression.

RESULTS

Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that age and education significantly influenced performance on FRT. From the derived linear equations, we provide correction grids for the raw scores of the FRT, and equivalent scores estimated using a nonparametric method. Correlational analysis showed significant associations between FRT subscores and cognitive, executive and memory functions, and depression.

CONCLUSION

The FRT may constitute a useful instrument for both clinical and research purposes.

Do Psychedelics Facilitate Emergence of Unconscious Psychological Processes?

Psychedelic substances have a long history of use in traditional healing and religious ceremonies worldwide and are increasingly being investigated for their possible therapeutic usage. However, there is still a lack of consensus regarding how best to characterize the psychological effects of psychedelics and how they bring about the positive therapeutic outcomes observed in clinical studies. The aim of this article is to review available evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies on psychedelic-assisted therapy, as well as neurobiological studies, in relation to the hypothesis that psychedelics facilitate the emergence of emotionally charged unconscious material, originally proposed by pioneering psychedelics researcher Stanislav Grof. The reviewed process studies of therapeutic mechanisms in psychedelic-assisted therapy and qualitative studies of treatment participants clearly indicate that the psychedelic experience is associated with the subjective experience of having increased access to and awareness of emotions, memories, and perceptions that are normally avoided or outside of conscious awareness. Brain-imaging studies point to several different neurobiological effects of psychedelics that might be related to these subjective psychological experiences. Available evidence also indicates that this process might constitute an important therapeutic mechanism in psychedelic-assisted therapy, worthy of further investigation.

Two Cases of Malingered Crime-Related Amnesia

Amnesia is a frequent claim in major crimes, and it is estimated that the complete or partial absence of memory following a crime ranges from 25% to 50% of total cases. Although some cases may constitute a genuine form of amnesia, due to organic-neurological defects or psychological causes, and possibly combined with a dissociative or repressive coping style after an extreme experience, malingering is still fairly common in offenders. Therefore, one of the main goals in medico-legal proceedings is to find methods to determine the credibility of crime-related amnesia. At present, a number of lie and memory detection techniques can assist the forensic assessment of the reliability of declarative proof, and have been devised and improved over the past century: for example, modern polygraphs, event-related potentials, thermal imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, kinematic, and facial analysis. Other ad hoc psychological tests, such as the so-called Symptom Validity Test (SVT) and Performance Validity Test (PVT), as well as the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT), can also be used. To date, however, there is little evidence or case reports that document their real usefulness in forensic practice. Here, we report two cases of crime-related amnesia, whereby both defendants, who were found guilty of homicide, appeared to exhibit dissociative amnesia but where the application of SVTs, PVTs, and aIAT detected a malingered amnesia.

Becoming Secondary Survivors: Exploring the Effects of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence on the Health and Well-Being of Families in Northern Uganda

The enduring consequences of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and its catastrophic effects on the health and well-being of survivors has been well documented. However, there is a dearth of evidence on the impact of CRSV on families of survivors who care for them. The aim of this study was to explore the ripple effects of CRSV on families of survivors living in three post-conflict districts in northern Uganda: Gulu, Lira, and Pader. We present emerging themes from qualitative interviews with 22 family members including parents, siblings, and partners. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated to English, and imported into MAXQDA Analytics Pro 12. We used a modified approach to grounded theory to analyze the data. Our findings show that family members faced multiple challenges as a result of their indirect exposure to survivors that were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. These included negative impacts on their relationship with the survivor, secondary traumatic stress, stigma, and challenges with caring for children born in captivity. Participants also shared coping mechanisms they used to mitigate psychological distress, including focusing on their faith, seeking support from social connections, and memory repression. The interviews revealed that most female participants did not seek formal care because they feared stigma and did not think it would be available for individuals not directly affected by sexual violence. Our findings point to the importance of moving beyond a narrow focus on the impact of CRSV on survivors and health care workers to a broader view of understanding the effects on families, and designing interventions that address their needs. Integrating care for families and other informal caregivers might mitigate secondary trauma, and ensure individuals are emotionally protected and equipped to care for survivors.

Oversimplifications and Misrepresentations in the Repressed Memory Debate: A Reply to Ross

Ross argued that false memory researchers misunderstand the concepts of repression and dissociation, as well as the writings of Freud. In this commentary, we show that Ross is wrong. He oversimplifies and misrepresents the literature on repressed and false memory. We rebut Ross by showing the fallacies underlying his arguments. For example, we adduce evidence showing that the notions of dissociation or repression are unnecessary to explain how people may forget and then remember childhood sexual abuse, stressing that abuse survivors may reinterpret childhood events later in life. Also, Ross overlooks previous critiques concerning dissociation. Finally, we will demonstrate that Ross misrepresents work by Freud and Loftus in the area of repressed and false memory. His article confuses, not clarifies, an already heated debate on the existence of repressed memory.

The importance of the smallest effect size of interest in expert witness testimony on alcohol and memory

Memory experts are sometimes asked to evaluate the validity of accounts of witnesses, victims, or suspects. In some of these cases, they are asked what effect alcohol has on the validity of such accounts. In this article, we offer a guide on what expert witnesses can reliably say about how alcohol affects memory. We do so by resorting to effect sizes from previous studies and meta-analytic work, and address this novel question: Are these effect sizes meaningful in legal cases? More specifically, we argue that any determination of whether individual studies about alcohol and memory are practically relevant for legal cases, scientists must focus on the smallest effect size of interest. We make the case that a decrease or increase of only 1 detail, especially an incorrect detail, should be regarded as the smallest effect size of interest in this line of research. In line with this idea, we show that effect sizes in the alcohol and memory literature are often larger than this smallest effect size of interest. This finding is important because it implies that alcohol often exerts a practically relevant and meaningful detrimental effect on the reporting of both correct and incorrect details, which in turn negatively affects the validity of witness testimony.

A court ruled case on therapy-induced false memories

We report on a unique Italian criminal case in which a court ruled that a therapist implanted false memories of abuse in a young girl. Using therapeutic excerpts, we show that the therapist used a multitude of problematic interventions that are all linked to false memory creation. Specifically, an analysis of the therapeutic excerpts showed that across many sessions, the therapist asked highly suggestive questions to the girl, implying that she was abused by her father. In addition, the girl underwent EMDR techniques that have been associated with memory undermining effects. Our analyses showed that although before treatment the girl did not have any recollection of being abused by her father, she gradually started to remember the abuse and identified the father as her abuser during the therapeutic sessions. Our case report clearly shows the danger of suggestive pressure in a therapeutic context causing patients to form false memories of abuse and supports the need to prevent the therapeutic practice of suggestive techniques.

Lower-dose psycholytic therapy - A neglected approach

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and similar psychoactive drugs have been used in psychotherapy since 1949, when the first clinical study with lower-dose LSD showed therapeutically relevant effects. This caused an intense interest among psychotherapists and researchers, alike, on an international scale. In 1960, the use of serial lower-dose LSD/psilocybin sessions in a psychoanalytical framework, which was dominant at the time, was named "psycholytic therapy". Psycholytic therapy was usually conducted in clinical environments, on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. Psycholytic therapy was developed and established over a 15-year period on the European continent, where it was used at 30 clinical treatment centers and by more than 100 outpatient psychotherapists. Psycholytic approaches were employed minimally in North America, where the psychedelic approach (use of one or two high-dose sessions for "personality-transforming mystical experiences") became the dominant method in use. The leading figure in psycholytic therapy was Professor Hanscarl Leuner in Germany, who laid the ground with his uniquely fine grained analysis of the LSD reaction in a 1962 monograph. He was central in establishing and distributing psycholytic therapy in Europe and abroad. The article provides comprehensive background information and outlines the essential features of psycholytic therapy. Evidence for the efficacy of psycholytic therapy is reviewed and a case for the inclusion of the psycholytic approach in the field of substance-assisted psychotherapy is made.

Believing in dissociative amnesia relates to claiming it: a survey of people's experiences and beliefs about dissociative amnesia

Dissociative amnesia is one of the most controversial categories in the field of psychiatry and clinical psychology. Self-reports of dissociative amnesia in the general population, and beliefs about this topic, have so far not been subjected to empirical scrutiny. Here, we surveyed a sample from the general population (N = 1017), revealing that about a tenth (n = 102) claimed to have experienced dissociative amnesia. Some claims pertained to amnesia for traumatic autobiographical experiences (e.g., sexual assault), while other claims reflected memory loss for experiences that can be regarded as non-traumatic or non-stressful (e.g., dissociative amnesia for an anniversary). Importantly, many participants believed in the existence of dissociative amnesia, and those who claimed dissociative amnesia indicated even more belief in this phenomenon than the rest of the sample. Finally, many participants indicated to have at least once claimed to have feigned memory loss in their life, and that they experienced some form of forgetting when trying to retrieve events for which they lied upon. Overall, our findings suggest that claiming dissociative amnesia goes hand in hand with believing in dissociative amnesia.

Dissociation and false memory: the moderating role of trauma and cognitive ability

The term dissociation is often used to refer to a diverse range of psychological symptoms, including perceptual impairments, emotional detachment, and memory fragmentation. In the present study, we examined whether there was a relation between participants' self-reports of dissociative experiences and their memory performance in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm-a laboratory-based procedure that is frequently used to investigate false memory. University students (N = 298) completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ). Participants were also administered a standardised intelligence test (Shipley-2), and they were tested in the DRM paradigm. Overall, experiencing trauma and dissociation, as well as lower levels of cognitive ability, were associated with higher false memory. These findings are discussed in the context of the activation monitoring theory of DRM false memory.