False memories

University of Southampton

Department of Psychology

Year 3 Dissertation

'Misconceptions and inaccuracies: Analysis of the debate between clinical and experimental psychologists as to the nature of forgetting, and methodologies used to proliferate arguments in the recovered/false memory debate.'

Candidate number: 98087754

Dr. Phil Higham

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, 2001

Contents

DescriptionPage number

Title page1

Contents2

Personal Commentary3

Abstract4

Introduction: A brief outline of some of the main debates5-8

In the recovered/false memory debate.

The nature of forgetting an abuse memory: The concepts of 9-15

delayed recall and meta-awareness are covered

in this section.

Experimental evidence and the lab: Can studies based around 16-23

such methods be applicable to the to a therapy setting?

Several key experiments are described, with

emphasis placed on their applicability toward

a therapy setting.

Summery:Conclusions and further discussion of the debate23-26

References27-30

Personal commentary

When I first starting reading around the subject of recovered/false memories I started to gain a comprehensive view, or what I thought was a clear view of the debate at hand.

Among more than 1,400 adult females, childhood sex...

English: Thirty year old Tera holds a Bachelor of ...

Memories Sticks

Initially thinking that all recovered memories were false and that therapeutic community was full of poorly trained 'professionals' whose sole goal in life was to make money. How wrong could I be! After further reading I learnt that the debate is more complex than that which could ever be taught in a lecture course. Finally understanding some of the points involved I delved into the literature reading profusely for three or so months. Finally after several revisions I came up with two of what I believe main debates within the debate on recovered memories. I hope I have done it justice and sincerely hope you do to.

On a final note I would like to thank those who have helped...