Beliefs about Autobiographical Memory: Critical Analysis

1. Abstract

There are many conflicting views about memory. Much research has been done in this field for example, beliefs about memory repression (Patihis et al 2014) and others on eyewitness testimony (Wise et al, 2011). The aim of the current study was to examine beliefs about memory and compare it to scientific evidence. Eighty participants completed a ‘36 questions/statement’ questionnaire derived from Akhtar et al (2018) study (see Appendix B). The results indicated that negative memories and childhood trauma are viewed more heavily and that the more detailed the memory, the more accurate was its account. When compared to scientific evidence, there was little evidence to compare to as scientific evidence suggests that beliefs about memory are likely to be repressed due to their nature. The hypothesis for this project was : The general population would have strong beliefs about traumatic memories, especially those that are vivid and detailed.

It was concluded that people therefore share a common sense of memory belief system. There is further scope in this area to research in terms of memories, particularly traumatic memories, which are repressed and whether these can be accurately recalled and bought to the forefront. There would then be future implications for this notion of repressed memories to be compared to scientific evidence.

2. Introduction

Autobiographical memory is a memory that contains episodes from an individual’s life (David Rubin, 1986) based on a mixture of episodic and semantic memory. It is a type of explicit memory and it is found that autobiographical memories are recalled as stories and narratives (David Rubin, 1986).

Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) proposed that autobiographical memory is created within a self memory system (SMS). The Self-memory system contains an autobiographical knowledge base and knowledge of the self, what the self is, what the self was, and what the self can be. This system is split into three broad areas: lifetime periods, general events, and event-specific knowledge. Lifetime periods demonstrates the early years of a person’s life such as: time spent at school or entering the workforce. General events are recalled as such that when one memory is recalled, clusters of memories are recalled around that one memory. These are single representations of repeated events. Event specific knowledge is in the form of visual images and sensory perceptual features.

It has been established that one of the most important beliefs about memory is that memory is like a video or a photograph (Justice et al 2012). It has also been established that beliefs such as memories for dramatic events tend to be held more strongly than other memories. This was found by Magnussen et al 2006, he found that 80% of participants in his study tend to remember an emotional event more than others

Beliefs about autobiographical memory is a core aspect of this study. This is because it informs us about what other people think about memory and what their beliefs about memory are (Conway, 1980). It is found that in jurors and police care areas, beliefs about memory are a core aspect to study since we need to know what people’s perceptions about memory are as a whole. This is important because we need to know what beliefs about memory people hold. Additionally, a tool that can be used to measure an individual’s memories is the Personal Beliefs about the Memory Instrument (PMBI).

Steven Jay Lynn, 1980 stated that beliefs about memory in the form of scientific memory beliefs is not a mechanism of what people think of past experiences but actually a coherent style of the self across situations and what people think about this. This shows that scientific memory beliefs are a core aspect to research. Scholars have also found that memories are reconstructive rather than reproductive therefore people’s beliefs about memory will be the same (David Rubin, 1986). It has also been found by Steven Jay Lynn, 1980 that many clinicians and laypeople hold beliefs about memory that contradict scientific evidence.

In previous work, it has been found that memory is such an aspect that it could get reconstructed (Daniel Simons, 2018). This is the scientific memory beliefs. It has been found that memories need to be placed in context and in sequence to make any sense (Fluvish, 1989). This indicates that no matter what beliefs an individual has, it needs to make sense by putting it in sequence. This shows that an individual’s beliefs about memory do not make sense unless placed in a contextual and a sequential way and this is how the general population will tend to have scientific views on beliefs about memory.

Memory researchers and experts have stated a lot of information about scientific memory beliefs (Conway et al 2014). They have done this through recent surveys (Benton, 2006). The surveys had looked at which common sense knowledge is consistent with the knowledge of scientific study of human memory. It was found by Simons and Chabris (2011) that 63% of the US public had agreed that memory works just like a video camera, in the UK this figure was 70% (Conway et al 2014). Additionally, in a survey done by Patihis et al (2014) over 70% of US public and 68% of the UK public believed that repressed memories can actually be retrieved accurately in therapy. These are just some of the scientific memory beliefs that the general population hold.

Beliefs about memory are known to have a vast approach to itself. Comparing this to scientific memory beliefs is also very contradicting. For example, one of the memory beliefs are that accounts of events that are rich in detail are more accurate than accounts that are less detailed. (Melinder and Magnussen, 2015, p 56,) had stated that when asked by the general population; 33% of clinicians, 16% of laypersons, and 31% of judges disagreed. It is well known that in the scientific literature, that false memories can be accompanied with such rich details (for a review see Arndt, 2012) and accurate memories can be vague and actually lacking in detail. It is known that individuals may recall the meaning or past experiences rather some or a lot of episodic memories (Brainerd and Reyna, 2002). This shows that scientific memory beliefs are different compared to beliefs about memory of the general population.

Peter Halligan, a famous Psychologist stated that scientific memory beliefs are very essential. He demonstrated that memory beliefs are the most powerful component of upfront human nature, however some has been neglected. He found that a lot of substances can affect scientific memory beliefs. Also, Mathew Liberman, a Psychologist at the University of California, found that scientific memory beliefs are such a thing which can help us categorise other aspects whether in a good way or bad. This shows us that scientific memory beliefs have many areas for research and have demonstrated a lot about memory beliefs. This study will be looking at memory beliefs and comparing it to scientific memory beliefs and measure people’s beliefs about memory. It will then be compared to scientific memory beliefs on the general population to establish what they think about memory beliefs compared to what results this study finds.

Previous results also suggest that scientific beliefs about memory are very interesting to research. Bell and Loftus (1989) found that the MAD (memory accuracy details) belief is a scientific belief about the general population. This is when the eyewitness testimonies were reported to have very specific details such as: the robber was wearing a green jumper (Bell and lofts 1989). This evidence was judged to be more accurate than the evidence of witnesses who did not report specific details. This was called trivial persuasion since the specific details they used were peripheral. More scientific beliefs are the most famous BIM belief. This is known as the ‘burnt in memory belief’. This belief states that highly emotional experiences give rise to highly more accurate memories. This was a widespread belief found by Magnusson et al 2006. They found that 70% of participants in their survey believed that memory for a dramatic event to be better than memory for an everyday basic event. Also, 80% of respondents believed that the memory of others and their own for emotional events would be accurate than memoires of less emotional everyday events. These were just some of the scientific beliefs that were held by the general population and shows scope for our hypothesis which was: The general population would have strong beliefs about traumatic memories, especially those that are vivid and detailed.

However, the general population have found that people tend to have beliefs about memories of their own and others’ as well, but these beliefs are often wrong since they are not based on scientific evidence. This shows that it has been found that beliefs about memory should be based on scientific evidence and only then they are acceptable and right, otherwise they are wrong and unacceptable. Also, it has been found by Magnusson et al, 2014 that jurors have no knowledge about scientific memory beliefs. Most of your memory about ‘historic sexual abuse’ comes from the media. It has been found that jurors have memories as well and they often reflect memory of others too, and this makes informed ‘common sense’ judgements of memory evidence but the question is will they be able to make this judgement?

Some key scientific memory beliefs are that ‘memories are highly complex mental representations that actually serve many functions. This means that memory is a complex phenomenon that serves many functions. This is just one of the key scientific memory beliefs that the general population hold about memory. Another scientific memory belief about memory is that memories are fragmentary and also temporary mental constructions. Many people think of memory as this aspect and many studies have shown that this is true. Magnussen et al 2014 have stated that 90% have thought this.

Another key scientific finding of beliefs about memory within the formal settings such as courts, is that memory can mislead. This is a key finding within eyewitness testimonies found by Loftus and Palmer 1960.The consequences can either be severe in either direction such as conviction or wrongful exoneration. Currently studies of beliefs about memory within courts are becoming a widespread scientific memory belief to study and produce future research from.

Memory beliefs have established that the ‘beliefs about memory’ of individuals are very important. This is because it tells us what the beliefs of the individual is. Whereas, the scientific findings about beliefs about memory are a core aspect. One of the aspects of scientific memory beliefs, have also shown that there is something called the ‘AaE’ beliefs This belief is a widely held belief that shows that other people can have earlier memories than one’s own first memory. Strange and Hayne, 2013 had established that it is not normal to encounter a small subset of participants in studies of an individual’s first memories who actually recall memories from the preverbal period (Wells et al 2013). It was found that accounts of early memories have led to the belief that other people also have early memories. This shows us that that scientific beliefs about memories are a key model to discuss and research in this era’s pandemic.

This was a replication study of Akhter et al, 2018, however as in their study of memory was using the general population, memory experts and police were participants, the present study only used the general population. The aim of the present study is to examine beliefs about memory and compare this to scientific memory beliefs. The hypothesis for this project was that the general population would have strong beliefs about traumatic memories, especially those that are vivid and detailed.

3. Method

Participants

There were 80 participants sampled across the population, 58.7% were females and 18.8% were males. Participants were recruited from the University of Hertfordshire studying BSc Psychology via the Sona system for course credit. The participants were aged between 18-30 years old. The mean age was 21 years and standard deviation was 8.2

These participants were recruited upon an opportunity sample since all participants were given an equal chance of opportunity to take part in the study. The study was advertised on a poster which was stuck on a wall on campus at the Hertfordshire university which was available to all participants and participants could read it and take part according to their own wish. Participants were recruited via Sona and Sona was linked to Qualtrics.

Design/Materials

The design of this experiment is a within subject design as all the participants were exposed to every condition. The questionnaire used contained 36 questions (see Appendix B) involving all the areas such as: the nature of memory, determinants of accuracy, the relation of emotion and trauma to memory. This questionnaire was obtained from a previous study that had used the general population, police and memory experts (Akhtar, 2018).

Participants were required to complete this questionnaire within a 25-minute time-period. Each question was accompanied by a 5-point scale which were the following:

• like a great deal,
• like somewhat,
• neither like nor disagree,
• dislike somewhat and
• dislike a great deal.

Respondents chose one of these options to reflect their agreement/disagreement with the statement. Prior to participants completing Akhtar et al (2018) 36 questions questionnaire, they were required to answer three compulsory demographic questions. This encompassed of name, age and gender. A small group of the general population completed this questionnaire. These questions were provided by a Qualtrics web link and participants could complete the survey in their own time. Also, ethical considerations were taken into place here since we took the participants will to right to withdraw at any time while conducting this study and informed consent was given as well.

Within this study, a lot of materials were used for example, a pen and paper, a questionnaire (see appendix B), a calculator and a computer. A pen and paper were used to devise an experimental questionnaire and a consent form. A Calculator was used to do a few basic calculations and to help do the analysis on the results. A questionnaire was included which had 36 statements. This was taken from a previous study called ‘the commonsense belief system’ (see Appendix B) and was measuring memory. Finally, a computer was used to use three software’s. These were called: Sona, Qualtrics and SPSS. Qualtrics was used to set up my data and transfer my data to spss from Qualtrics, for data analysis. The software Sona was used to publish the study and get participants studying psychology to take part in this study. Finally, SPSS was used to do data analysis on the data found in this experiment and in this case, it was a factor analysis.

Procedure

Participants signed up for the study (but linked to Qualtrics) and were displayed with an introduction of what the study was about and what it involved. After the participants had briefed themselves, informed consent was taken electronically. Participants then proceeded to answer three demographic questions consisting of name, age and gender after consent had been given. These questions were mandatory and thus generated a forced response, meaning participants were unable to proceed to the next step if these questions were left unanswered. After the demographic questions had been answered, participants then proceeded on to the 36 questions, questionnaire (see Appendix B). The 36 questions, questionnaire consisted of statements such as: It is possible for a highly vivid, very specific, detail in an account of a memory to be wholly false; Memories of traumatic memories may contain details that are false; A ‘flashback’ of a traumatic memory causes a re-living of the remembered event and Memories of traumatic experiences can be kept out of mind. There were 36 statements like these in total which participants were required to respond to using a 5-point scale which was: ‘like a great deal, like somewhat, neither like nor dislike, dislike somewhat or dislike a great deal’. Participants were required to select one of these 5 options when responding to each statement.

Once participants had completed the questionnaire and had reached the end of the study, the data collected was exported from Qualtrics to SPSS. Once all data had been fully extracted into SPSS, a principal component analysis was run on the data. Once the analysis had been run, the results needed to be interpolated and conclusions formed.