The Fuzzy-Trace Theory: Explanation of False Memory
HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
Originally, the Fuzzy-Trace theory was proposed during the 1990s as an attempt to understand the memory and reasoning domains that could not be explained by constructivism and information processing. This theory was created by conducting research, experimentation, along with rethinking the memory-reasoning relation that was in the form of a dual-process theory that linked concepts from psycholinguistic and Gestalt theory to memory and reasoning. The Fuzzy-Trace theory has also been used for cognitive psychology, human development, and social psychology to further explain false memory and its development, decision-making, judgment calls, biases, and much more.
EXPLANATION OF THEORY
– affected, who is impacted, symptoms, cures, etc
Charles Brainered and Valerie F. Reyna originally proposed the Fuzzy Trace Theory. This theory evaluates the idea of false memory, its development, along with how it affects the individual in their reasoning, comprehension, and decision-making. Charles J. Brainerd is a Fellow of several organizations such as the Division of General Psychology, the Division of Developmental Psychology, and the Division of Experimental Psychology. Brainerd is also a well-established author of over 20 books and publisher of over 300 research articles in areas such as the human memory and decision making, psychological assessment, and much more. Valerie F. Reyna is a psychologist, Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, and an expert on the topic false memory and risky decision-making. Together, these two collaborated on researching to understand why humans experience false memories and what happens in the brain that causes false memories, resulting in the establishment of the Fuzzy-Trace Theory. According to Reyna, the Fuzzy-Trace theory summarizes meaning, memory, and development by distinguishing between meaning-based gist representations and superficial verbatim representations of information (2012). The theory suggests that humans have two different types of mental representations, verbatim, and gist, about a memory (2012). While gist traces are known to be representations of a past event, not facts, verbatim traces are detailed representations of a past event. Reyna concluded in her writing that human beings are capable of processing both verbatim and gist information but, they prefer to reason with gist traces instead because the majority of the times it is easier to cope with (2012). Having a fuzzy memory can happen to anyone who is tricked into believing one thing, anyone who is sleep deprived, stressed, or just overwhelmed with various ideas or tasks at hand.
RESEARCH DISCUSSION
Susanne Diekelmann, Hans-Peter Landolt, Olaf Lahl, Jan Born, and Ullrich Wagner collaborated with one another in researching how being sleep deprived can affect the human brain and how it relates to the Fuzzy-Trace Theory. Diekelmann is affiliated with the Department of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck. Landolt is affiliated with the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and also at Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP) at the University of Zurich. Lahl is affiliated with Institute of Experimental Psychology at Heinrich-Heine-University and Born is affiliated with the Department of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck. Wagner is also affiliated with Department of Neuroscience at the University Medical School of Geneva and also the Department of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck. These researchers have concluded that various things such as sleep deprivation can, in fact, trigger a false memory. After conducting several experiments to see how the lack of sleep can influence false memories, researchers were able to conclude that individuals who have received no sleep experienced more false memories compared to the individuals who received little sleep at night. According to their data, in their first experiment, the participating subjects of the night wake group (one out of three groups that were tested) who were acutely sleep deprived at retrieval testing exhibited significantly more false memories than subjects in the two other groups (2008). These researchers conducted another experiment to compare date and they discovered that the results of Experiments I to III consistently show that sleep deprivation at retieval renders participants in the experiment vulnerable to false memories (2008). The next experiment, Experiment IV, was performed to search for a possible neurophysiological mechanism that could explain this effect. Researchers distributed caffeine and placebo to individuals who were being sleep deprived. The group that received caffeine had a significantly lower false memory and false recognition rate compared to the group that received placebo. Researchers have concluded that the difference in false memory rate and false recognition derive from the changes that happen in the brain when caffeine counteracts false memory in the sleep-deprived participants.
THEORY IN REAL WORLD
After talking with several family and friends and conducting an experiment of my own, I have concluded that everyone has experienced at least one situation where their circumstance aligned with the research that was conducted in the experimentation process of the Fuzzy-Trace theory. Unintentionally, my good friend Rebecca often experience situations where she is having a conversation and forgets what was said. For instance, there was one time where she volunteered to help out at a Fourth of July event that was soon to take place, knowing that she was already scheduled to help her mother out with errands. Later on, that week when the conversation was brought back up, Rebecca was so persistent on trying to convince the individual she agreed to help out that the remembered telling her that she “would have to think about it.†There was also a time when Rebecca thought she had scheduled her dog an appointment at the vet but because she was so overwhelmed, her scheduling an appointment only took place in her head, not in reality. The Fuzzy-Trace theory is evaluating how the brain processes information and in this case, my friend thought something really happened and she said one thing but in reality, it never happened.
Another participant in my experiment experienced the same thing as the friend previously stated. I have a friend who does not regularly get enough sleep at night and is always busy with his schoolwork, sports, band, or his job. Since Robert is so busy, he tends to forget things and often does not have the time to reply to text messages or spend time with his family and friends as much as he would like. There have been several incidents where he has forgotten to reply to messages because his mind is so overwhelmed with all of the tasks he has to complete. When someone confronts him about it, he normally tells him or her that he honestly thought that he responded but in reality, he just responded in his head. In his head, he thinks he’s doing one thing but he’s actually not. Since my friend is almost always sleep deprived and overwhelmed with various tasks, he is experiencing what majority of the participants not only my experiment but also well-known researcher’s experiments as well. When comparing my friend’s experience to the theory, I see that what he experienced was exactly what the researchers discovered, and is similar to what I had experienced myself.
There was a time when I went a little over a day without sleep. For me, that is a long time because not receiving at least 7 hours of sleep affects me tremendously. I remember staying up late with my friend and at the time pulling an all-nighter seemed like fun, but it wasn’t. When my sleepover was over and she went home, I was so exhausted and very irritated. At the time I was unable to sleep the rest of the day because I had several tasks that had to be completed, including homework and chores. I remember having one small cup of coffee but that did not do much help, I was still very tired and irritated by the littlest things. All throughout that day, I was unable to focus and I was in multiple situations where I thought I had said/did/completed something when in reality, it never happened. I would argue with the person who informed me that I never said something or never completed something. I did this because I made myself create the idea that I partook in a specific action in hopes of it actually becoming true. Because of that, I resulted in actually believing the idea. I found it interesting how the human body is very similar in various ways; for an example, when comparing my experience to the theory and the experiments that followed, I see that what I had experienced was exactly what the researchers discovered, being sleep deprived can lead to false memory.
Recently my mom’s students had an art show and I had to help set everything up. My mom gave me her keys and told me to quickly go get her flats out of her office. Because so much was going on, my mind was not focused on one thing; it was trying to process everything that was going on at once. While making my way to the office, I was stopped several times and was asked to do something or answer a question. Because of this, when I went back to my mom and she asked for her flats, I told her she never asked for them. This situation that I was in proved what Reyna and Brainerd concluded in their research; it is a natural habit for the human brain to manipulate ideas and go off of a gist rather than to use what is factual when reasoning.