Memory misattributions

 

Memory misattribution can occur when features of different events are bound together in one memory. Also, imagined events or events that were just considered may be remembered as if they actually occurred.

Researchers have demonstrated that when people imagine seeing something or imagine carrying out an action, some report that they actually saw the object or performed the action.

Some older adults had difficulties with details of a similar shape. In one study they confused details of two round shapes-lollipop and magnifying glass.

Misattributions and memory conjunction or binding errors can be the result of problems of retrieval. This has been seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

In cryptomnesia, people misattribute thoughts or ideas as new when they are really memories. This can produce inadvertent plagiarism--including plagiarizing their own previously published ideas.

Déjà vu also appears to be a problem of misattribution when features of a new experience seem familiar as if we have been to a new place or had the new experience before.

See Schacter, 2021

Resource

Schachter, D. L. (2021). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Updated Edition. New York: Mariner. Link to Book

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