False Memory

Resumo: Este ensaio tem o objetivo de contornar e apresentar de modo mais detalhado a fenomenologia da fantasia de Edmund Husserl. Inicialmente, abrindo o ensaio tratamos da teoria do fantasma (phantom) em Bühler (1967) e Husserl (2005). Em um segundo momento, tratamos do conceito de "representação" e "fantasia". Em um terceiro momento, tratamos da "imagem do objeto". E, por último, em um quarto momento, apresentamos a perspectiva de Husserl (2005) sobre "a aura do objeto fantasiado". Em suma, concluímos dizendo que a teoria da fantasia husserliana é um dentre vários modos de colocar o estudo da fantasia como um dos fundamentos mais importantes das ciências em geral.

In two experiments testing age differences in the subjective experience of listening, which we call metaaudition, young and older adults were first trained to learn pairs of semantic associates. Following training, both groups were tested on identification of words presented in noise, with the critical manipulation being whether the target item was congruent, incongruent, or neutral with respect to prior training. Results of both experiments revealed that older adults compared to young adults were more prone to "false hearing," defined as mistaken high confidence in the accuracy of perception when a spoken word had been misperceived. These results were obtained even when performance was equated across age groups on control items by reducing the noise level for older adults. Such false hearing is shown to reflect older adults' heavier reliance on context. Findings suggest that older adults' greater ability to benefit from semantic context reflects their bias to respond consistently with the context, rather than their greater skill in using context. Procedures employed are unique in measuring the subjective experience of hearing as well as its accuracy. Both theoretical and applied implications of the findings are discussed. Convergence of results with those showing higher false memory, and false seeing are interpreted as showing that older adults are less able to constrain their processing in ways that are optimal for performance of a current task. That lessened constraint may be associated with decline in frontal-lobe functioning.

One possible reason for age differences in false memory susceptibility is that older adults may not encode contextual information that allows them to distinguish between presented and non-presented but internally activated items. The present research examines whether older adults can reduce false memories when given external contextual support. In the first two experiments, semantically related lists were presented in the context of sentences that either elicited or did not elicit meanings of items that converged on a non-presented theme word. Semantically related lists were presented as the second word of cue-target pairs in Experiment 3. Results demonstrated that when gist-based processing of list items was made less accessible, older and younger adults showed similar reductions in false recall and recognition. Finally, although both groups showed reductions, measures of response latencies indicated that non-presented critical theme words were internally activated. These results have implications for encoding deficit and strategy selection as they relate to accounts of age-related deficits in memory.

Il presente studio indaga la saga di Indiana Jones come parabola della crisi del razionalismo moderno. Attraverso una prospettiva multidisciplinare che integra la fenomenologia del sacro di Rudolf Otto, l'esistenzialismo kierkegaardiano e la psicanalisi junghiana, si analizza la transizione del protagonista dallo scetticismo metodologico all'accettazione del trascendente. Il lavoro esplora la funzione della reliquia come varco ontologico e il "salto della fede" come strumento di riconciliazione con l'archetipo paterno, definendo l'archeologia non come mera disciplina scientifica, ma come etica della tutela contro il nichilismo della tecnica.

The use of list-learning paradigms to explore false memory has revealed several critical findings about the contributions of similarity and relatedness in memory phenomena more broadly. Characterizing the nature of “similarity and relatedness” can inform researchers about factors contributing to memory distortions and about the underlying associative and semantic networks that support veridical memory. Similarity can be defined in terms of semantic properties (e.g., shared conceptual and taxonomic features), lexical/associative properties (e.g., shared connections in associative networks), or structural properties (e.g., shared orthographic or phonological features). By manipulating the type of list and its relationship to a non-studied critical item, we review the effects of these types of similarity on veridical and false memory. All forms of similarity reviewed here result in reliable error rates and the effects on veridical memory are variable. The results across a variety of pa...

There are many parallels between human and nonhuman animal cognitive abilities, suggesting an evolutionary basis for many forms of cognition, including memory. For instance, past research found that two chimpanzees exhibited an isolation effect, or improved memory for semantically distinctive items on a list (Beran, 2011). These results support the notion that chimpanzees are capable of semantic, relational processing in memory, and introduce the possibility that other effects observed in humans, such as distinctiveness effects or false memories, may be present in nonhuman species. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is a commonly used task to explore these phenomena, and it was adapted for use with chimpanzees. We tested four chimpanzees for isolation effects during encoding, distinctiveness effects during recognition, and potential “false memories” generated by the DRM paradigm by presenting a serial recognition memory task. The isolation effect previously reported (Beran,...

Il paper sostiene che la memoria non è un archivio che conserva rappresentazioni di eventi passati, ma un sistema inferenziale generativo che mantiene un modello compresso del passato e ricostruisce — campionando dalla distribuzione implicita nel modello — ogni volta che viene interrogato. La finzione è la varianza di questo processo generativo. Vengono formalizzati il riconsolidamento come aggiornamento bayesiano, il codec narrativo come fonte di distorsioni sistematiche (teleologica, di consistenza, di omissione), la confabulazione come dominanza della prior in assenza di traccia, e la memoria collettiva come rete di modelli distribuiti soggetta a dinamiche istituzionali.

This paper presents the formal theoretical framework of the Cloud Doctrine, founded and architected by Levent Bulut. The doctrine constitutes a deterministic break from traditional literary theory, which treats narrative as a subjective stack of metaphors dependent on cultural interpretation. The central claim is that a narrative text functions as a closed physical system governed by the laws of thermodynamics, optics, acoustics, and fluid mechanics — a designed matrix of perceptual stimuli that interfaces directly with the Universal Biological Interface (UBI) of the human autonomic nervous system.

The doctrine's operational methodology, Objective Projection, enforces the Adjective Embargo — the absolute prohibition of abstract emotional descriptors — and replaces them with measurable physical variables: lumen values, thermal gradients, acoustic impedance coefficients, and kinetic momentum calculations. This paper formalizes three quantitative metrics derived from the framework: (1) Narrative Entropy (Sₙ), a structural disorder measure adapted from Shannon's Information Theory; (2) Narrative Gravity (Ng), the counterforce preventing systemic heat death; and (3) Biophysical Output (Bo), the predicted autonomic nervous response. Sixteen laboratory analyses of canonical literary and cinematic works are summarized as empirical demonstrations. Six categories of anticipated academic critique are systematically addressed. The paper concludes with the Objective Projection Calibration Test (OPCT v1.0) as a reproducibility protocol.

An effective factor by which false memories can arise is relatedness which includes not only semantic associations but also perceptual resemblance. This issue raises questions about how patterns of perceptual features are represented in memory and how they relate to semantic representations. In five experiments, we investigated the memory processes underlying the false recognition of perceptually or semantically related pictures from the perspective of fuzzy trace theory. Multinomial processing tree model analyses for the conjoint recognition paradigm showed that the parameter representing gist trace retrieval not only contributes to false acceptances of semantically related pictures, but also underlies the false recognition of nonsemantically related abstract shapes. These results challenged the hypothesis that the false recognition of non-semantically related distractors is solely due to interference with the verbatim suppression process. These experiments also showed that adding a surface feature (colour) to the category exemplars increases false recognition of related distractors by enhancing the contribution of the familiarity process, but only for pictures of real objects. Comparisons between experiments showed that different variants of the conjoint recognition model, used to analyse the effects of the same experimental manipulation, can lead to partially different conclusions.

Computerized assessment of executive functions (EF) has the potential to increase access to more costeffective diagnostics, considering the relevance of these skills for quality of life and adaptive functioning. Objective: This study conducted a scoping review to identify computerized fixed batteries for assessing EF in adults. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the United States National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library (Reviews), PsychNet, and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Results: A total of 15,704 records were identified, of which 62 studies met the eligibility criteria. In these, 42 batteries were mapped, which together encompassed 174 tasks associated with executive domains. No battery exclusively assesses EF, and most were developed for computerized application in a supervised face-to-face format. It was also observed that there was no explicit theoretical basis in the construction of the instruments, evidencing important conceptual gaps. Conclusion: There are fixed computerized batteries applicable to the assessment of EF in adults, although not specific, reflecting the advance of digitalization in neuropsychological practice. The findings highlight the need for cross-cultural adaptations and psychometric validation studies that strengthen the theoretical basis and diagnostic accuracy of these instruments.

This Preprint is the definitive unified manifesto of the Cloud Doctrine, establishing the architectural framework for Narrative Engineering. It formalizes the author's previous research registered under various Zenodo DOIs (18652451, 18648498, 18646179, 18523699, 18504090, 18481356, 18478758, 18478353, etc.) into a single, cohesive discipline. Grounded in the Physics of Literature, this work operationalizes Objective Projection and Narrative Entropy as deterministic tools for narrative construction. Official Cross-Reference (Zenodo DOI): 10.5281/zenodo.18689179

The current study assessed memory performance for perceptually similar environmental sounds and speech-based material after short and long delays. In two studies, we demonstrated a similar pattern of memory performance for sounds and words in short-term memory, yet in long-term memory, the performance patterns differed. Experiment 1 examined the effects of two different types of sounds: meaningful (MFUL) and meaningless (MLESS), whereas Experiment 2 assessed memory performance for words and nonwords. We utilized a modified version of the classical Deese-Roediger-McDermott procedure and adjusted it to test the effects of acoustic similarities between auditorily presented stimuli. Our findings revealed no difference in memory performance between MFUL and MLESS sounds, and between words and nonwords after short delays. However, following long delays, greater reliance on meaning was noticed for MFUL sounds than MLESS sounds, while performance for linguistic material did not differ between words and nonwords. Importantly, participants' memory performance for words and nonwords was accompanied by a more lenient response strategy. The results are discussed in terms of perceptual and semantic similarities between MLESS and MFUL sounds, as well as between words and nonwords.

Il corpo del mondo di Chiara Iacovetti La capacità di adattamento è alla base della teoria evoluzionistica. Senza questa prerogativa milioni di esseri viventi non sarebbero sopravvissuti alla selezione naturale e forse non sarebbe stato possibile arrivare alla razza umana come la conosciamo oggi. Tuttavia, dopo millenni di vita, questo processo è stato invertito proprio da noi "sapiens" che, piegando l'ambiente ai nostri bisogni, abbiamo creato un mondo antropocentrico. Con il passare dei secoli però tale forzatura ha portato a una graduale disconnessione tra noi e le altre specie, determinandone così in alcuni casi l'estinzione e in altri la proliferazione incontrollata. A fronte di ciò esiste dunque la forte necessità di ripensare il ruolo dell'uomo all'interno del mondo, andando a indagare nuove modalità di convivenza, pacifiche e sostenibili, che ristabiliscano l'equilibrio iniziale esistente tra noi stessi e gli altri, umani e no.

We extended the false memories paradigm to the study of impressions formation. traits most commonly used in describing person-targets were employed to identify the four clusters underlying the implicit theory of personality semantic structure (intellectual positive and negative; social positive and negative). Finally, we developed lists including semantic neighbors of the traits closest to the clusters' centroid and athematic (non-trait) words. participants were presented with these lists and instructed to either form an impression of a person described by those words or simply to memorize them. Impression formation relative to memory participants produced higher levels of false memories of lures corresponding to the same cluster of the list traits and the reverse pattern was found for a-thematic words. parallel results from a gist test suggest that forming impressions implies the activation of a specialized associative memory structure underlying the referred bi-dimensional implicit theory of personality (rosenberg, nelson, & vivekananthan, 1968).

Previous research using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm has shown that lists of associates in which the critical words were easily identified as the themes of the lists produce lower levels of false memories in adults. In an attempt to analyze whether this effect is due to the application of a specific memory-editing process (the identify-to-reject strategy), two experiments manipulated variables that are likely to disrupt this strategy either at encoding or at retrieval. In Experiment 1, lists were presented at a very fast presentation rate to reduce the possibility of identifying the missing critical word as the theme of the list, and in Experiment 2, participants were pressed to give yes/no recognition answers within a very short time. The results showed that both of these manipulations disrupted the identifiability effect, indicating that the identifyto-reject strategy and theme identifiability play a major role in the rejection of false memories in the DRM paradigm.

This paper reports a new experimental manipulation that increased false memories 1 month after the manipulation. Mirroring the standard three-stage misinformation paradigm (original event, misinformation, and test), subjects in the experimental group were first given a colour-slide presentation of two stories (events), then given an accurate account (instead of misinformation) of the events in narrations, and finally tested for their memory of the original events. One month later, they underwent the standard misinformation paradigm with two new events. The comparison group was given the standard misinformation tasks at both time points. Results showed that the experimental group produced more false memories in the subsequent misinformation paradigm than did the comparison group. We focus on trust and credibility as possible mechanisms underlying this effect.

The 1990s have brought to public attention thousands of cases that began when a grown-up daughter or son walked into a therapist's office seeking help for depression, low self-esteem, or any of a number of life's problems. Many of these cases grew to involve memories of childhood sexual abuse recovered while in therapy--memories that did not exist, or at least were not remembered, before therapy began. Many of these cases also involved families torn violently apart. What should we make of these new-found memories? Are they true memories that were successfully revived in therapy? Are they false memories that were unwittingly planted? Are they symbolic expressions--historically false but representing some deep underlying truth? Insights from cognitive psychology may shed some light. Much of the litigation that has resulted from the emergence of "repressed memories" has been hazardous to the patients, and their families, as well as to the therapists who treat them.

Marketers use autobiographical advertising as a means to create nostalgia for their products. This research explores whether such referencing can cause people to believe that they had experiences as children that are mentioned in the ads. In Experiment 1, participants viewed an ad for Disney that suggested that they shook hands with Mickey Mouse as a child. Relative to controls, the ad increased their confidence that they personally had shaken hands with Mickey as a child at a Disney resort. The increased confidence could be due to a revival of a true memory or the creation of a new, false one. In Experiment 2, participants viewed an ad for Disney that suggested that they shook hands with an impossible character (e.g., Bugs Bunny). Again, relative to controls, the ad increased confidence that they personally had shaken hands with the impossible character as a child at a Disney resort. The increased confidence is consistent with the notion that autobiographical referencing can lead t...