1. 1. Unlearning a phobia by retrieval + drug 2. Recovered memories
Psychology 355: Cognitive Psychology Instructor: John Miyamoto 05/12/2016: Lecture 07-4
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2. Outline
Video from the 2016 PBS program, Nova Episode: "Memory Hackers".
Video has excellent examples of:
Use of Nader's fear deconditioning method to treat spider phobia.
Implanting a false memory in an unsuspecting person.
Nader/Brunet Method for Deconditioning a Chronic Fear Response
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr ‘16

3. Nader/Brunet Method for Deconditioning a Chronic Fear Response
Patient encounters a memory cue for a memory M that produces a problematic fear response.
E.g., listening to a taped description of the patient's traumatic experience.
After retrieving the fear response, the patient receives propranolol, a drug that blocks the fear response.
Later the fear response is no longer associated with the memory M to which it was previously linked.
Proposed Explanation: The propranolol prevents the patient from reconsolidating the association between the memory M and the fear response. Therefore this association is lost; future retrievals of the memory will not trigger the emotional response.
URL for the Nova Video, the "Memory Hackers"
Psych 355,, Miyamoto, Spr '16

4. PBS NOVA- MEMORY HACKERS, 2016
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Deconditioning spider phobia: 30:00 to 36:40.
Retrieval and Reconsolidation
Psych 355,, Miyamoto, Spr '16

5. Retrieval and Reconsolidation
Memories are malleable at time of retrieval. Abbreviated MMTR
Retrievals an be cued by an external stimulus, e.g., a spider, but also by internal thoughts, e.g., worrying over a personal problem or trying to understand a science problem.
MMTR can be manipulated to the benefit of a patient.
E.g., deconditioning a phobia.
Malleability of memories affects our memories of personal events if we continue to think about them.
Malleability of memories affects our understanding of scientific domains if we build that understanding by following chains of inference that depend on many retrievals.
What Are Recovered Memories?
Psych 355,, Miyamoto, Spr '16

6. What Are Recovered Memories?
Definition: A recovered memory is a memory that has two characteristics:
The experiences that are remembered are shocking or traumatic.
There was an extended period in the individual's life when he or she did not remember the experiences that are eventually "recovered."
recovered memory
abuse
no memory
Now
Time
Theory of Recovered Memory Has Important Consequences
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

7. Theory of Recovered Memory Has Important Consequences
Claims of recovered memories have huge consequences for:
... the person who experiences the recovered memory; and
... persons accused of abuse based on recovered memories.
Consequences are social, psychological, and legal.
If certain kinds of psychological therapy can produce false recovered memories, then, as psychologists, we are obligated to learn about this and prevent it.
Example of a False Recovered Memory of Sexual Abuse
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

8. Sometimes Recovered Memories Are Not True Memories
B. R. (Missouri, 1992) remembered under therapy that her father, a clergyman, had repeatedly raped her between ages of 7 – 14 (with her mother's help). She remembered being pregnant twice, each pregnancy ending in an abortion.
Father had to resign his post as clergyman.
Later, medical examination showed that she has never been pregnant and was in fact still a virgin at age 22.
The therapist who guided the "recovery" of these memories was sued by B. R. and settled for $1 million in 1996.
Conclusion: It is not true that recovered memories are always true memories.
* This information comes from: Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American, 277(3),
Example of Verified Forgetting of Early Trauma
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

9. Some Traumas Can Be Forgotten
Williams (1994) interviewed women who had been treated 17 years earlier at a sexual abuse clinic.
38% had no memory of the incident for which they had been admitted.
12% had no memory of any sexual abuse at any time. (12%  15 women)
Conclusion: It is probably not true that recovered memories are always false memories.
% with No Recall of Incident that Brought Them to Clinic
Williams, L. M. (1994). Recall of childhood trauma: A prospective study of women's mem­ories of child sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62,
These women had all participated in a NIMH study of sexual abuse at the time that they were first admitted to the clinic ( ). At the time of their abuse, these girls were 10 months to 12 years of age.
These women were contacted again 17 years later ( ). Out of 153 women who could be located, 10 refused to be re-interviewed, 7 agreed to be re-interviewed but didn't show up, and 4 were dropped because their abuse did not involve sexual contact, and 3 more were dropped because they claimed that the initial claim of sexual abuse had been fabricated.
Loftus & Pickrell (1995): Imagining Can Produce False Memories
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

10. Imagining Can Produce False Memories
Loftus, E.F. & Pickrell, J.E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25,
Subjects recruited in pairs: UW student + parent or sibling.
Working with parent or sibling, the experimenters prepare a booklet containing 3 true events and 1 plausible fabricated event.
E.g., fabricated event = subject got lost in a shopping mall, crying, aid and comfort by an elderly woman and, finally, reunion with the family.
Procedure:
Subject reads the description of each event.
Subject asked to remember the event.
Subject writes "I do not remember this" if they do not recall the event.
Subjects are repeatedly encouraged to "remember" the fabricated event.
Results of Loftus & Pickrell
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

11. Result for Loftus & Pickrell (1995)
About 25% of subjects “remember” the fabricated event after 2 sessions of trying to recall the event.
Conclusion: It is possible to convince people that fabricated childhood events did occur.
Notice analogy to therapist attempting to "recover" memories of childhood abuse.
Note that the anti-recovered memory advocates do not claim that everyone can be made to believe in false memories. They only want to show that this can sometimes occur.
PBS Nova, the "Memory Hackers" - Inducing a False Memory
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

12. PBS NOVA- MEMORY HACKERS, 2016
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38: :30: Demonstration that false memory can be implanted.
Young woman is gradually convinced that at age 14 she got into a dispute with someone in a public place, and she was arrested by the police [not true].
Method is based on suggestion and retrievals of related memories (building up the parts of the memory)
Psych 355,, Miyamoto, Spr '16

13. What Is the Recipe for Creating a False Autobiographical Memory?
Repeatedly retrieve a specific memory M.
If the subject does not remember anything like M, then start by remembering common details that will be part of the memory of M.
At each retrieval, encourage the subject to modify the memory in some way, i.e., ask leading questions or suggest abusive possibilities may have occurred.
Encourage the subject to imagine the context of the abuse and the occurrence of abuse.
Provide positive feedback whenever the subject makes a statement that suggests that abuse has occurred.
Are There Verifiable Examples of Recovered Memories?
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

14. Conclusions Regarding Recovered Memories
There is reason to believe that recovery of true traumatic memories has sometimes occurred.
There is evidence that false memories can be created.
There is evidence that some therapists have unintentionally “helped” patients create false memories of traumatic events.
The method for creating a false memory M involves repeatedly imagining aspects or components of M; retrieving previous imaginings of M; gradually modifying beliefs that are linked to M.
APA Recommendations re Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse - END
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16

15. APA Panel Recommendations APA = American Psychological Association
The controversy over adult recollections should not obscure the fact that child sexual abuse is a complex and pervasive problem.
Most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them.
It is possible for memories of abuse that have been forgotten for a long time to be remembered.
It is possible to construct convincing pseudomemories (false memories) for events that never occurred.
END
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '16