#M4ExpTask

False Memory

I was home for spring break and so I asked my brother, Micah, to help me with my task. I brought him to the table in our dining room. He didn't want to be recorded so I respected his request and didn't record him. 

I printed out a paper that had the words. I told him I was going to show them for 5 seconds and you need to tell me all the words. So I showed him the words. Counted to 5. and I told him to write down the words. 

He almost all of them. I asked him the words and he said he got pain and sharp and a few others. So I started to tell him why he remembered those words so well. Pain is because it is the last word. Thread because it is first. I started to ask him if other words was on the like sting or needle. He thought about it for a second and was like yes I am pretty sure it's there in the list. And I was like are you sure? He thought about it again and was like yes I am sure. I showed him the list and he was like what? it's not there. 

This is an example making a False Memory. He was amazed that he made something up. I explained to him that all of these words that I gave him were all about one topic and that is probably why you thought of that word that is not there. This is understandable because of how our minds work. 

We started on the second list of words and I gave him a little bit more time for this round. Time was up so I asked him to write the words that he remembered. He wrote down a few and then he stopped. So I asked him a few questions again. He got a lot of them correct. I then asked him if sleep or doctor was on the list. He said yes to sleep but no to doctor. I showed him the list and once again he was shocked that it happened again. He learned that our minds have an imagination that can make things up. 

Thank you Micah for helping me.