PROPOSAL

Every Day Memory Failure

[Name of the Institute]

Background of the Study

False memory is an enduring characteristic of normal rather than pathological remembering (Reyna & Brainerd, 1995). False memory refers to circumstances in which we feel that we have positive definite memories of an event that did not actually occur. False memory is an error of commission and should not be confused with memory fallibility (referring to the erosion of memory through normal forgetting; without aid of external memory stores) which is an error in omission. Because false memory is a normal occurrence, it is important to understand why it occurs and the process by which one generates false memories.

One of the earliest known theories of false memory is constructivism which is associated with studies conducted by Bradford, Barclay, & Franks in 1972. The constructivism theory posits that rather than remembering their exact experience, people actually remember what they perceive to be the meaning of their experience. This theory erroneously assumes that after events are experienced, they are then interpreted and integrated into semantic structures, and the surface form (actual content of memory) of the memory then disappears. Constructivism assumes that surface form can only remain in memory for a few minutes and this has been proven to be incorrect. Constructivism has been disconfirmed by studies that have proven that the surface form of experience can be retained in your memory for much longer than a few minutes, and that it may contribute to later memory performance (Hintzman, Block, & Inskeep, 1973; Kolers, 1976). After constructivism was proven incorrect another theory evolved from it that was called the schema theory.

Although the schema theory is a lot more detailed than constructivism, it contains many of the same ideals. The theory can be explained by four key features: selection, abstraction, interpretation and integration. The theory is based on the notion that only some of the people, objects, and events that are part of an experience will be encoded into memory and later remembered. It assumes that the items that are most likely to be remembered are those that are most central to the schema, and depend on the availability of a relevant schema. Once items are selected to be encoded, abstraction reduces the level of detail. Details of an experience are preserved depending on the degree to which an item is prototypical of an activated schema. Interpretation does the opposite of abstraction and ...