Manipulation of Memory

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to determine whether or not it is possible to plant false memories into the brains of unsuspected individuals, through creative methods, like the process of suggestive questioning. Methods/Materials Collected 551 points of data from the entire eighth grade class at my school. Blanket permission was received from teachers before hand. A video clip was shown. In this video clip my teacher was wearing a pink hat. As soon as the video ended a survey was given to everyone in the class. One survey was designed to plant the false memory into the subjects minds. I attempted to do this by placing false information into one of the questions, IE, Mr. Spandikow was wearing a green hat, what song was he singing? An unaltered survey was given to the other half of the classes. Twenty four hours later a second survey was administered, this survey asked, what color hat was Mr. Spandikow wearing. This data was analyzed; it did not support my hypothesis either way, so I decided to collect more data in a separate test. A new video and new surveys were made, alterations to these surveys were made. I administered the surveys the same way as I did before, but with a larger sample size. Results In the final test 47.15% of the subjects in the test group were susceptible to the false memory. (55.68% answered incorrectly in test group, 8.53% in control). Only 44% of the subjects in the test group answered correctly compared to the large majority of 91% that were in the unaltered control group. This shows that a dramatic amount of people can be affected by suggestive questioning and be victims of false memory. Conclusions/Discussion False memory has gained attention in the judicial system. In the recent years there have been many cases involving psychiatrists patients suing their psychiatrists for tampering with them mentally. Many have been accused of planting false memories, and creating them, not drawing out repressed memories. There have also been cases dealing with murder and using false memory and outside induced schizophrenia as legal excuses for murder. With all of this risen concern I believe that the data I have collected can be used to combat against the unjust actions that are occurring to the victims of false memory. The data that I have collected suggests that it is indeed possible to plant false memories into the minds of the unsuspected.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Behavioral Sciences · Entry J0306

Resources

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