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False memory is the psychological phenomenon in which a person recalls a memory that did not actually occur. False memory is often considered in legal cases regarding childhood sexual abuse.〔Bremner, J. et al. (1996). Neural mechanisms in dissociative amnesia for childhood abuse: Relevance to the current controversy surrounding the "false memory syndrome." ''American Journal of Psychiatry, 153''(7), 71-82.〕〔Davis, J. (2005). Victim narratives and victim selves: False memory syndrome and the power of accounts. ''Social Problems, 52''(4), 529-548.〕〔Ware, R. (1995). Scylla and Charybdis – Sexual abuse or false memory syndrome – Therapy-induced memories of sexual abuse. ''Journal of Analytical Psychology, 40''(1), 5-22.〕〔Christianson, S.; Loftus, E. (1987). Memory for traumatic events. ''Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1''(4), 225-239.〕 This phenomenon was initially investigated by psychological pioneers Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud. Freud wrote ''The Aetiology of Hysteria'', where he discussed repressed memories of childhood sexual trauma in their relation to hysteria.〔Gleaves, D. et al. (2004). False and recovered memories in the laboratory and clinic: A review of experimental and clinical evidence. ''Clinical Psychology-Science and Practice, 11''(1), 3-28.〕 Elizabeth Loftus has, since her debuting research project in 1974,〔Loftus, E. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction – Example of interaction between language and memory. ''Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13''(5), 585-589.〕 been a lead researcher in memory recovery and false memories. False memory syndrome recognizes false memory as a prevalent part of one's life in which it affects the person's mentality and day-to-day life. False memory syndrome differs from false memory in that the syndrome is heavily influential in the orientation of a person's life, while false memory can occur without this significant effect. The syndrome takes effect because the person believes the influential memory to be true.〔Kaplan, R. (2001). Is there a false memory syndrome? A review of three cases. ''Comprehensive Psychiatry, 42''(4), 342-348.〕 However, its research is controversial and the syndrome is excluded from identification as a mental disorder and, therefore, is also excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. False memory is an important part of psychological research because of the ties it has to a large number of mental disorders, such as PTSD.〔Friedman, M. (1996). PTSD diagnosis and treatment for mental health clinicians. ''Community Mental Health Journal, 32''(2), 173-189.〕 == Manipulation of memory recall through language == In 1974, Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer conducted a study to investigate the effects of language on the development of false memory. The experiment involved two separate studies. In the first test, 45 participants were randomly assigned to watch different videos of a car accident, in which separate videos had shown collisions at 20 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, and 40 miles per hour. Afterwards, participants filled out a survey. The survey asked the question, "About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" The question always asked the same thing, except the verb used to describe the collision varied. Rather than "smashed", other verbs used included "bumped", "collided", "hit", or "contacted". Participants estimated collisions of all speeds to average between 35 miles per hour to just below 40 miles per hour. If actual speed were the main factor in estimate, it could be assumed that participants would have lower estimates for lower speed collisions. Instead, the word being used to describe the collision seemed to better predict the estimate in speed rather than the speed itself.〔 The second experiment also showed participants videos of a car accident, but the critical manipulation was the verbiage of the follow-up questionnaire. 150 participants were randomly assigned to three conditions. Those in the first condition were asked the same question as the first study using the verb "smashed". The second group was asked the same question as the first study, replacing "smashed" with "hit". The final group was not asked about the speed of the crashed cars. The researchers then asked the participants if they had seen any broken glass, knowing that there was no broken glass in the video. The responses to this question had shown that the difference between whether broken glass was recalled or not heavily depended on the verb used. A larger sum of participants in the "smashed" group declared that there was broken glass. In this study, the first point brought up in discussion is that the words used to phrase a question can heavily influence the response given.〔 Second, the study indicates that the phrasing of a question can give expectations to previously ignored details, and therefore, a misconstruction of our memory recall. This indication supports false memory as an existing phenomenon. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「False memory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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