Cryptomnesia, Source amnesia, Memory distrust syndrome, Melancholy Elephants,

Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original. It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a song, or a joke,^[1] not deliberately engaging in plagiarism but rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.

Early use[edit]

The word was first used by the psychiatrist Théodore Flournoy,^[2] in reference to the case of medium Hélène Smith (Catherine-Élise Müller) to suggest the high incidence in psychism of "latent memories on the part of the medium that come out, sometimes greatly disfigured by a subliminal work of imagination or reasoning, as so often happens in our ordinary dreams."

Carl Gustav Jung treated the subject in his thesis On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena (1902) ^[3] and in an article, Cryptomnesia (1905),^[4] suggested the phenomenon inNietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. The idea was studied or mentioned by Géza Dukes, Sándor Ferenczi and Wilhelm Stekel as well as by Sigmund Freud in speaking of the originality of his inventions.^[5]

Experimental research[edit]

In the first empirical study of cryptomnesia, people in a group took turns generating category examples (e.g., kinds of birds: parrot, canary, etc.). They were later asked to create new exemplars in the same categories that were not previously produced, and also to recall which words they had personally generated. People inadvertently plagiarized about 3–9% of the time either by regenerating another person's thought or falsely recalling someone's thought as their own.^[6] Similar effects have been replicated using other tasks such as word search puzzles^[7]^[8] and in brainstorming sessions.^[9]

Research has distinguished between two kinds of cryptomnesia, though they are often studied together. The distinction between these two types of plagiarism is in the underlying memory bias responsible—specifically, is it the thought that is forgotten, or the thinker? The first type of bias is one of familiarity. The plagiarizer regenerates an idea that was presented earlier, but believes the idea to be an original creation. The idea that is reproduced could be another's idea, or one's own from a previous time. B. F. Skinner describes his own experience of self-plagiarism:

"One of the most disheartening experiences of old age is discovering that a point you just made—so significant, so beautifully expressed—was made by you in something you published long ago."^[10]

The second type of cryptomnesia results from an error of authorship whereby the ideas of others are remembered as one's own. In this case, the plagiarizer correctly recognizes that the idea is from an earlier time, but falsely remembers having been the origin for the idea (or, having lost the specific memory of encountering it in print or conversation, assumes that it "came to" the plagiarizer as an original idea). Various terms have been coined to distinguish these two forms of plagiarism — occurrence forgetting vs. source forgetting and generation errors vs. recognition errors. The two types of cryptomnesia appear to be independent: no relationship has been found between error rates^[11] and the two types are precipitated by different causes.^[12]

Causes[edit]

Cryptomnesia is more likely to occur when the ability to properly monitor sources is impaired. For example, people are more likely to falsely claim ideas as their own when they were under high cognitive load at the time they first considered the idea.^[13] Plagiarism increases when people are away from the original source of the idea, and decreases when participants are specifically instructed to pay attention to the origin of their ideas. False claims are also more prevalent for ideas originally suggested by persons of the same sex, presumably because the perceptual similarity of the self to a same-sex person exacerbates source confusion. In other studies it has been found that the timing of the idea is also important: if another person produces an idea immediately before the self produces an idea, the other's idea is more likely to be claimed as one's own, ostensibly because the person is too busy preparing for their own turn to properly monitor source information.

Value[edit]

As explained by Carl Jung,^[14] in Man and His Symbols, "An author may be writing steadily to a preconceived plan, working out an argument or developing the line of a story, when he suddenly runs off at a tangent. Perhaps a fresh idea has occurred to him, or a different image, or a whole new sub-plot. If you ask him what prompted the digression, he will not be able to tell you. He may not even have noticed the change, though he has now produced material that is entirely fresh and apparently unknown to him before. Yet it can sometimes be shown convincingly that what he has written bears a striking similarity to the work of another author — a work that he believes he has never seen."

"The ability to reach a rich vein of such material [of the unconscious] and to translate it effectively into philosophy, literature, music or scientific discovery is one of the hallmarks of what is commonly called genius." — Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols.

"We can find clear proof of this fact in the history of science itself. For example, the French mathematician Poincaré and the chemist Kekulé owed important scientific discoveries (as they themselves admit) to sudden pictorial 'revelations' from the unconscious. The so-called 'mystical' experience of the French philosopher Descartes involved a similar sudden revelation in which he saw in a flash the 'order of all sciences.' The British author Robert Louis Stevenson had spent years looking for a story that would fit his 'strong sense of man's double being,' when the plot of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was suddenly revealed to him in a dream." — Carl Jung Man and His Symbols

Jorge Luis Borges's story, "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," is a meta-fictive enactment of cryptomnesia. This work is written in the form of a review or literary critical piece about (the non-existent) Pierre Menard. It begins with a brief introduction and a listing of all of Menard's work:

Borges's "review" describes this 20th-century French writer (Menard) who has made an effort to go further than mere "translation" of Don Quixote, but to immerse himself so thoroughly as to be able to actually "re-create" it, line for line, in the original 16th century Spanish. Thus, Pierre Menard is often used to raise questions and discussion about the nature of accurate translation. Or, in this case, the hermeneuticsof cryptomnesia.

Cases[edit]

Nietzsche[edit]

Jung gives the following example in Man and His Symbols.^[15] Friedrich Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra includes an almost word for word account of an incident also included in a book published about 1835, half a century before Nietzsche wrote. This is considered to be neither purposeful plagiarism nor pure coincidence: Nietzsche's sister confirmed that he had indeed read the original account when he was 11 years old; and Nietzsche's youthful intellectual prowess, his later cognitive degeneration due to neurosyphilis, and his accompanying psychological deterioration (specifically, his increasinggrandiosity as manifested in his later behavior and writings) together strengthen the likelihood that he happened to commit the passage to memory upon initially reading it and later, after having lost his memory of encountering it, assumed that his own mind had created it.^[16]

Byron[edit]

In some cases, the line between cryptomnesia and zeitgeist may be somewhat hazy. Readers of Lord Byron's closet drama Manfred noted a strong resemblance to Goethe's Faust. In a review published in 1820, Goethe wrote, "Byron's tragedy, Manfred, was to me a wonderful phenomenon, and one that closely touched me. This singular intellectual poet has taken my Faustus to himself, and extracted from it the strangest nourishment for his hypochondriac humour. He has made use of the impelling principles in his own way, for his own purposes, so that no one of them remains the same; and it is particularly on this account that I cannot enough admire his genius."^[17] Byron was apparently thankful for the compliment; however, he claimed that he had never read Faustus.

Keller[edit]

Helen Keller compromised her and her teacher's credibility with an incident of cryptomnesia which was misapprehended as plagiarism. The Frost King, which Keller wrote out of buried memories of a fairytale read to her four years previously, left Keller a nervous wreck, and unable to write fiction for the rest of her life.^[18]

Stevenson[edit]

Robert Louis Stevenson refers to an incident of cryptomnesia that took place during the writing of Treasure Island, and that he discovered to his embarrassment several years afterward:

...I am now upon a painful chapter. No doubt the parrot once belonged to Robinson Crusoe. No doubt the skeleton is conveyed from Poe. I think little of these, they are trifles and details; and no man can hope to have a monopoly of skeletons or make a corner in talking birds. The stockade, I am told, is from Masterman Ready. It may be, I care not a jot. These useful writers had fulfilled the poet's saying: departing, they had left behind them Footprints on the sands of time, Footprints which perhaps another — and I was the other! It is my debt to Washington Irving that exercises my conscience, and justly so, for I believe plagiarism was rarely carried farther. I chanced to pick up the Tales of a Traveller some years ago with a view to an anthology of prose narrative, and the book flew up and struck me: Billy Bones, his chest, the company in the parlour, the whole inner spirit, and a good deal of the material detail of my first chapters — all were there, all were the property of Washington Irving. But I had no guess of it then as I sat writing by the fireside, in what seemed the spring-tides of a somewhat pedestrian inspiration; nor yet day by day, after lunch, as I read aloud my morning's work to the family. It seemed to me original as sin; it seemed to belong to me like my right eye...^[19]

Harrison[edit]

The precedent in United States copyright law, since 1976, has been to treat alleged cryptomnesia no differently from deliberate plagiarism. The seminal case is Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music,^[20]where the publisher of "He's So Fine," written and composed by Ronald Mack, demonstrated to the court that George Harrison borrowed substantial portions of his song "My Sweet Lord" from "He's So Fine." The Court imposed damages despite a claim that the copying was subconscious. The ruling was upheld by the Second Circuit in ABKCO Music v. Harrisongs Music,^[21] and the case Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton,^[22] upheld by the Ninth Circuit, affirmed the principle. (Losing his case embittered Harrison enough to write, compose, and perform "This Song," whose lyrics include the harsh line, "(It) don't infringe on anyone's copyright.")^{[citation needed]}

Eco[edit]

In Interpretation and Overinterpretation, Umberto Eco describes the rediscovery of an antique book among his large collection, which was eerily similar to the pivotal object in his novel The Name of the Rose.

I had bought that book in my youth, skimmed through it, realized that it was exceptionally soiled, and put it somewhere and forgot it. But by a sort of internal camera I had photographed those pages, and for decades the image of those poisonous leaves lay in the most remote part of my soul, as in a grave, until the moment it emerged again (I do not know for what reason) and I believed I had invented it.^[23]

Causes[edit]

Source amnesia is not a rare phenomenon – everybody experiences it on a near daily basis as, for much of our knowledge, it is important to remember the knowledge itself, rather than its source.^[4] However, there are extreme examples of source amnesia caused by a variety of factors.

Phineas Gage exemplifies an individual who suffered frontal lobe damage. A large iron rod was driven through his frontal left lobe effecting changes on his personality.^[5]

Frontal lobe damage[edit]

Individuals with frontal lobe damage have deficits in temporal context memory;^[6] source memory can also exhibit deficits in those with frontal lobe damage.^[7] It appears that those with frontal lobe damage have difficulties with recency and other temporal judgements (e.g.: placing events in the order they occurred),^[8] and as such they are unable to properly attribute their knowledge to appropriate sources – i.e.: source amnesia. Those individuals with frontal lobe damage have normal recall of facts, but they make significantly more errors in source memory than control subjects, with these effects becoming apparent as shortly as 5 minutes after the learning experience. Individuals with frontal lobe damage often mistakenly attribute the knowledge they have to some other source (e.g.: they read it somewhere, saw it on TV, etc.) but rarely attribute it to having learned it over the course of the experiment. It appears that frontal lobe damage causes a disconnection between semantic and episodic memory – in that the individuals cannot associate the context in which they acquired the knowledge to the knowledge itself.^[7]

Age related[edit]

Elderly individuals have been shown to exhibit source amnesia. Compared to younger individuals, in experiments where the individuals are presented with obscure or even made up trivia facts, older people remember less information overall in both recall and recognition tasks and they often misattribute the source of their knowledge, at time periods of both long and short delays.^[1]^[9]

This effect is potentially due to the neuronal loss associated with aging occurring mainly in the frontal lobes.^[10]^[11] It has been previously noticed that frontal lobe damage can cause source amnesia, so the loss of neurons in this area of the brain associated with aging may very well be the cause of the age-related source amnesia seen.^[7]

Alzheimer's disease[edit]

Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is known to be associated with frontal lobe dysfunction,^[12] is implicated as a cause of source amnesia.^[13] In laboratory conditions, one study found source monitoring to be so poor that the AD participants were correctly performing source memory attributions at approximately chance.^[13] This lack of ability to attribute the source of memories is likely related to AD patients' deficits in reality monitoring. Reality monitoring, the process of distinguishing whether information originated from an external or an internal source,^[14] relies on judgement processes to examine the qualitative characteristics of the information in order to determine if the information was real or imagined.^[14] It appears that it is this process that is experiencing the dysfunction, which causes mild confabulation in some AD patients, as well as being related to the source amnesia experienced in some individuals with AD.

Schizophrenia[edit]

Schizophrenia is associated with episodic memory deficits often characterized by a confusion of internal stimuli and real events.^[15] It appears that individuals with schizophrenia often display failures in monitoring/remembering the source of information,^[16] especially for self-generated items^[15] – that is, they display source amnesia. This is a stable trait in this disease – one experiment found that over a two-year period, an individual's rate of source attributing errors was maintained, despite fluctuations in medication status and the individual's symptoms.^[15] This effect is possibly due to the malformation of associations among aspects of an episode needed for remembering its source;^[3] one neuroimaging study found that individuals with schizophrenia had lower activation of areas associated with source memory.^[3]

Individuals with schizophrenia who display source memory deficits often do so due to reality-monitoring dysfunction, which is a contributing factor towards the hallucinations that characterize the disorder. One study found that schizophrenia patients were not only slower, but also less accurate, at tasks involving reality-monitoring.^[17] The hallucinations that characterize schizophrenia are a result of deficit in reality monitoring – they exhibit an inability to differentiate between internally and externally derived information.^[18] Overall, there is evidence of a relationship between source monitoring errors and the disorganized thinking that characterizes those who have schizophrenia^[16] in that there is a strong tendency for those people with hallucinations to attribute their internally generated events (i.e.: hallucinations and delusions) to an external source (e.g.: the experimenter).^[15] That is, schizophrenia is characterized by failing to encode themselves as the source of the idea, compounded by attributing these ideas/beliefs to an external source,^[15] all of which leads to those individuals with schizophrenia exhibiting behaviours typical of those with source amnesia; they misattribute the source of their knowledge/ideas/beliefs.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder[edit]

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by intrusive, vivid recollections of the traumatic event and impoverished episodic memory for all other events.^[19] Those individuals with PTSD experience memory distortions caused by source amnesia, as well as false memory construction and unintentional integration of information that was not present for the original memory.^[20] Not only do individuals with this condition experience less vivid and decontextualized episodic memory for all events outside of the traumatic experience,^[21] but also, individuals with PTSD have difficulties with identifying the source of both emotional^[22] and neutral^[23] information overall. Those with PTSD may have poorer recall for the source of their knowledge due to deficits in the encoding process which creates weaker relationships between the item and its context.^[3]

Depression[edit]

Depression is associated with overly generalized memories and individuals with depression perform more poorly on source memory attribution tasks as compared to non-depressed individuals.^[24] These individuals show a memory bias for remembering negative information, possibly due to enhanced amygdala activity during the encoding of emotional (particularly negative) information.^[25] Overall, there is a relationship between the emotional arousal of an episode and its source memory – there is some evidence that the enhanced processing of negative memories results in poorer source memory,^[26] and thus individuals who are depressed would have increased amounts of source amnesia.

Hypnosis[edit]

Hypnosis as a cause of source amnesia involves carrying out hypnosis and having the subjects remember post-hypnotically, experiences they had during hypnosis as tested by asking the individuals about esoteric knowledge that they learned during hypnosis. These individuals typically have no recall of the hypnotic experience whatsoever however, when tested on these obscure pieces of knowledge they are able to supply the correct answer; thus demonstrating they have source amnesia – they are able to recall the knowledge but they lack the capacity to indicate the context in which they learned this knowledge. In fact, the subjects often attribute their knowledge of the obscure facts to learning experiences other than during hypnosis (e.g.: "I read it somewhere," "Somebody must have told me," etc.).^[27]

Diagnostic Tests[edit]

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)[edit]

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is widely used in clinical settings to test for cognitive impairments, such as frontal lobe disorder which has been associated with source amnesia.^[28]

Procedure: The visuo-spatial component of this test is devised of two sets of 12 identical cards. The figures on the cards differ with respect to color, quantity, and shape. The participants are then given a pile of additional cards and are asked to match each one to one of the previous cards.

Results: Patients suffering from frontal lobe dysfunction and ultimately source amnesia, will have much greater difficulty finishing this task successfully through method of strategy.^[28]

Verbal Fluency Test[edit]

The Verbal fluency test is a widely and commonly used test to assess for frontal lobe dysfunction in patients.^[8]

Procedure: Participants are asked to generate words beginning with letters that had previously been introduced to them (e.g.: generate a word beginning with 'A' or 'R').^[8] They are given three 1-min trials (one trial per letter). The goal is to say as many different words possible that begin with the given letter.^[28]

Results: The Verbal fluency test can assess for damage in the prefrontal lobes, which has been associated with patients suffering from source amnesia. Patients with frontal lobe disorder have trouble putting verbal items into a proper sequential order, monitor personal behaviors as well as a deficient judgment in recency. All of these behaviors are required for the proper recall of the source of a memory.^[29]

Stroop Color-Naming Task[edit]

Research has shown that the Stroop effect has numerous findings related to age and its effect on memory. The test measures speed and accuracy skills of naming colors and colored words, to determine the effects of aging on the brain which is thought to be a cause of source amnesia.^[30]

Procedure: The participant is asked to read a series of related word-reading and color-naming trials. In the first component of the task, known as the word-reading condition of the task, the participant is asked to read as quickly as possible a series of color names printed either in white or other various colors. The participant is then asked to name the color of a series of colored blocks.^[30]

In the second component of the task or the color word-naming condition, the participant is instructed to name the color of a sequence of words presented in another color (e.g.: the word is "red" but the color of the word is printed in green, the participant must name the color of the ink, not the actual word).^[30]

Results: In healthy patients, the condition of naming the color, is slower than the first task of just reading the word. Patients with prefrontal damage (source amnesia) will name the color and ignore the word, even as the rules change and they are told to name just the word, the color continues to be named on following trials.

Relating back to age, the findings of this study concluded that aging begins to affect one's ability to successfully finish the Stroop test in the 6th and 7th decade of life. This branch of cognitive aging has been found to mainly affect the prefrontal lobes. The Stroop Color-Naming Task measures the degree to which one is suffering from source amnesia. The severity of the damage to the prefrontal lobes directly correlates to the speed of which an individual can complete the Stroop Color-Naming Task. The more damage one has endured to this part of the brain, the slower they will complete the task.^[30]

Old-New Recognition Test[edit]

Decisions made in the context of this test will be based more on familiarity than deep inspection of the contents of memories.

People with source amnesia during this test feel 'phantom' feelings of familiarity towards words that are semantically related (e.g.: candy, sugar, sweet) and will more often claim to have seen a word that was not presented during the experiment.^[31]

Procedure: Showing the participant a list of words and assessing at different time intervals to see if the participant remembers which words were presented and which were not. For example, a list of 15 words could be given to a participant to study from. The experimenter will then test the participant's knowledge of the list 20 minutes later by presenting the list of studied words mixed in randomly with several 'lure' words (words that are semantically similar to the previously studied words but not the same) and new words.

If the participant is successful in this task, they have distinguished between the previously learned words and the lure words.

This experiment can be tested multiple times with the same participant over different time periods (e.g.: 3 months later then tested again 6 months later).^[32]

Results: Participants are more likely to show source amnesia with the 'lure' words but not with the newly presented words. This means that they confuse the familiarity of the semantically similar words with words that they studied in the original list.^[31]

Prevention[edit]

Research suggests that source amnesia results from poor memory encoding of a particular context opposed to poor retrieval of a context specific memory, except within the case of amnesiacs.^[33] This is because content must be encoded along with context in order for the two to be integrated into memory.^[33] Since poor encoding may be responsible for source amnesia, it is not likely that a person will be able to retrieve a specific source memory in the future if it was not properly encoded. This makes it difficult to create treatments for source amnesia because the information may not be integrated properly within the brain. Certain prevention strategies have been studied in order to target at-risk populations and teach them how to prevent the loss of contextual memory as well as how to improve source memory in the general population.

General Population[edit]

While source amnesia appears to be the most prevalent in populations with specific brain impairments, it is possible for individuals without deficits in memory to experience source amnesia. This may happen if a person only encodes content and does not integrate the context-specific information into memory.^[33] Research suggests that context-specific information is better recalled in situations that involve emotional stimuli or words.^[34] This suggests that source memory may benefit from thinking about emotions related to the content in order to better encode source related information. This is related to theories onflashbulb memory.

Children[edit]

Children are more likely to correctly identify source information if they have been taught to think about the relation between the speaker and the information being shared.^[35] This holds true whether the children think about perceptual or emotional ties to the speaker but the effect appears larger when emotional context is considered. The increase in accurate source encoding is not without a cost as it was demonstrated that children who improved their source encoding typically remembered less than controls when it came to recalling semantic or non-source information.^[35] This suggests that there may be a trade-off when it comes to different types of memory in children because they are only able to attend to a certain amount of information at one time.

Older Adults[edit]

Older adults may suffer memory impairments as a result of the natural aging process. These memory impairments may be due to degeneration of the frontal lobe and other age related changes.^[28] It is very common for older adults to experience increased source amnesia for memories compared to younger adults. Prevention of source amnesia in older adults may include memory training programs in an attempt to increase cortical thickness in the brain. Research suggests that even the brains of older adults may be capable of continuing plasticity.^[36] In one particular study, older adults were exposed to 8-week long memory training programs. These memory-training programs involved serial memory recall practice using mental imagery as a mnemonic device. Adults involved in the memory-training program showed significant improvement in their source memory specifically. In addition to the memory benefits, increased cortical thickness was shown using MRI scans.^[36] While this research has not been tested in a longitudinal study, it suggests that older adults and perhaps other at-risk groups for source amnesia could benefit from explicit memory training exercises.

Another way in which older adults can avoid source amnesia is to think about the relationship between the content and context of an experience or memory.^[33] This preventative measure must be taken when information is being encoded in order to direct attention to the source and to be aware of how it relates to the content. Participants experiencing source amnesia performed at the same level of groups not at risk of source amnesia when these strategies were implicated suggesting that those who do not experience this memory deficit may integrate content and context implicitly.^[33]

Implications in Eyewitness Testimony[edit]

Eyewitness testimonies are an integral aspect in the criminal court system as judges and juries depend on them as evidence to determine a verdict. However, studies have shown that source amnesia can interfere with a witness's memory because any incorrect post-event information encountered, results in distorted memories and source confusion.^[37] Post-event information can come from leading questions, statements made by the media or co-witnesses.^[37] Since improper encoding causes source amnesia, witnesses who are stressed or distracted during the event and fail to pay attention are susceptible to encoding wrong details into their memory, claiming to have seen things they only imagined.^[38]^[39] This causes grave legal implications given that it can result in wrongful convictions therefore, it is important that interrogation practices are carefully carried out.^[37]

Related Phenomena[edit]

Post-hypnotic amnesia[edit]

Post-hypnotic source amnesia is the phenomenon where an individual is taught obscure information while under hypnosis and then asked to recall this information during their conscious state, however, they do not remember how or when that knowledge was taught to them.^[27]^[40] Studies have shown that subjects are unable to remember anything that occurred during hypnosis and when asked how they acquired the knowledge to answer the questions, they tended to rationalize their incapability to indicate how they learned it. This phenomenon is similar to flashbulb memories or tip-of-the-tongue^[27]

Misattributed familiarity[edit]

Misattributed familiarity is the failure to recall the correct source of where the information came from and instead, the individual attributes the knowledge to an incorrect source. This results from an error in the decision-making process that confuses the origin of the information.^[39]

Cryptomnesia[edit]

Cryptomnesia occurs when an individual is certain that a certain word, idea, song, etc. is their own original thought when in actuality, someone else has already thought of it, resulting in accidental plagiarism. In order to prevent this, it would require mental scanning to avoid replicating the thought as one's own. However, this slows down the quick retrieval of memory needed in daily life, such as in conversation. This has seen to occur in the music industry and has the implication of copyright infringement over songs, as well as in the formation of scientific research ideas.^[41]

Memory Distrust Syndrome[edit]

Memory distrust syndrome is the doubt of one's own memory surrounding the content and context of events, occurring because of problems in encoding and the consolidation of memories.^[37]^[40] These individuals depend on external sources for information; however, this has shown to lead to implications in eyewitness testimonies since these individuals are highly vulnerable to suggestibility. The syndrome has been connected to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, where it was found that repeated checking rituals results in a distrust in one's confidence of their memory.^[40]

Symptoms[edit]

The main symptom of memory distrust syndrome is the lack of belief in one's own memory, however this comes with the side effect of using outside sources for information. The individual may have their own memory, but will readily change it depending on chosen outside sources. The memories that they have may be correct, but due to their distrust they will still alter their belief of what is true if contrary information is suggested.

For example, a person has a memory of a house and let's say that the person recalls it to be white. Then a trusted family member begins talking with them and suggest that is was red instead. The afflicted individual will then believe the house was red despite their recollection of it being white. It is unknown if the person's memory of the house is permanently altered, however they will say that the house was red regardless of the memory's condition.

Also, this does not necessarily allow for confabulatory memory fabrication. Currently it is not believed that an afflicted individual will readily believe an outside source on a memory of which the person is not involved, such as a randomly shared story. This further suggests that memory distrust syndrome solely alters the individual's currently retrievable memories, and not randomized information.

Causes[edit]

It is normal to have some level of memory distrust, or the lack of trusting in one's own memory. This may occur when speaking with your parents about your childhood, for example. However it seems that everyone has their own level of memory distrust, and memory distrust syndrome seems to be a severe case.

The direct cause is unknown, however it is possibly a defense or coping mechanism to a preexisting condition that would alter one's memory. This could involve frontal lobe lesions, Alzheimer's disease, amnesia, dementia, or other conditions. Any condition that would alter either existing memories or the formation of new memories could cause a coping scheme such as memory distrust syndrome. Alternatively, an individual may have learned over time to not trust their own memory from conditioning, and as such the individual would develop a defense mechanism to remove themselves from potential embarrassment.

Mechanisms[edit]

Not to be confused with false memory syndrome which involves the creation of memory which are factually incorrect, but strongly believed by the individual. Memory Distrust Syndrome (MDS) is the doubt of one's own memory surrounding the content and context of events. Because of this, individuals rely on external sources of information as opposed to assuming their recollection is correct. It would seem as though some individuals have a tendency toward memory distrust to some degree naturally,^[1] however MDS is a heightened form of this to the point that the individual will reject their own memory completely if provided with conflicting information. It has been connected to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in that repeated checking of information would result in a distrust of the individual's confidence of their memory.^[2]

The suggestibility of memory alteration provides the potential for radical mood alterations and feelings of inadequacy or futility. Typically, however, the individual will be aware of their condition and will be prepared for situations that may be difficult. A tendency to avoid memory recollection is possible due to the desire to avoid embarrassment or ridicule.

Types of false memory[edit]

Spontaneous confabulation[edit]

These occur typically in cases of amnesia and frontal lobe disorders. In "spontaneous" confabulations, there is a persistent, unprovoked outpouring of false memories in which intrusion errors or distortions are seen in response to a challenge to memory. They occur most commonly during autobiographical recall, however can occur other times as well. These errors occur in one of two ways: either there is an "editing error" or there is a "source" error.

There are several ideas as to why this editing error may occur.

an issue with the rules of plausibility and association during memory retrieval, leaving the retrieved memory to be "uninhibited" or "suppressed".
a failure in the evaluation process of accessed memories. This is similar to Moscovitch's idea, however his focuses on your capability of judgment while this one focuses on the judgment itself.
spontaneous confabulation occurred due to "the completely incoherent and context-free retrieval of memories and associations.”
a deficit in three processes (description, editing, and mediator) which all contributed to confabulations in different ways.

Source errors are focused around the creation of the original memory or the memory storage process rather than the processes discussed above. These are less studied due to the fact that they involve several variables including how an individual learns and perceives their environment, the environment itself, distractions, the individual's weighing of important information, etc.

Delusional memories and delusions[edit]

These occur in psychiatric patients or individuals with psychiatric conditions. Delusional memories consist of either a true memory that gives rise to a deluded interpretation or a false memory arising in the context of psychosis. These can closely resemble spontaneous confabulations resulting from frontal lobe disease. They are also an absolute conviction and not up for debate. The individual believes the memory is completely true and accurate, and has a tendency toward being bizarre.

Similarly, delusions are a held conviction that the individual holds, however it may not be due to a recollection of any specific event. Instead the conviction is rooted in beliefs based on related delusional memories or misconceptions. For example, an individual who has a conspiracy theory based on junk or mislabeled mail could have a delusion involving the mail and the government, however there wouldn't necessarily be any delusional memories to support it. It is simply a belief that has been created due to unhindered perception of events.

Diagnostic tests[edit]

Since the cause of memory distrust syndrome is unknown there is no ultimate test to determine diagnosis, however the following tests all involve memory accuracy, memory trust, and suggestibility.

Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire[edit]

The Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire if a self-report scale consisting of 18 items tapping subjective evaluations of one's own memory. Items are scored on a 9-point scale (-4=disastrous; 4=perfect). Sample items are ‘My ability to remember things that have happened more than a year ago is...’ and ‘My ability to recall things when I really try is...’ Scores are summed to obtain a total SSMQ score varying from -72 to 72, with negative scores corresponding with pessimistic judgments about one's own memory and positive scores reflecting optimistic memory evaluations.

Cognitive Failures Questionnaire[edit]

The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire is a self-report scale that taps failures in everyday actions, perception and attention, and memory over the last month. It consists of 25 items that are scored on a 5-point scale (0=never; 4=very often). Illustrative items are ‘Do you fail to notice signposts on the road?’ and ‘Do you forget where you put something like a newspaper or a book?’ Scores are summed to obtain a total CFQ score varying from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more self-reported cognitive failures.

Gudjonsson Compliance Scale[edit]

The Gudjonsson Compliance Scale is a self-report instrument that measures peoples' levels of compliance. It focuses on two types of behavior, namely eagerness to please others, and avoidance of conflicts. The scale consists of 20 items using a true/false format. Examples are ‘I give in easily to people when I am pressured’ and ‘I try hard to do what is expected of me’. After recoding items 17 to 19, a total GCS score varying from 0 to 20 can be obtained by summing the number of true responses, with higher scores indexing more compliant behavior.

Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale[edit]

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale is used to measure interrogative suggestibility. The GSS consists of a story that is read out loud by a test administer. Participants then have to answer 20 questions of which 15 are misleading and 5 are neutral and address factual details of the story. After participants have answered the questions, they receive negative feedback about their performance. They are asked to answer the questions one more time and to be more accurate this time. Thus, all questions are answered twice and in this way several GSS parameters can be calculated. First, yield 1 refers to the number of misleading questions that the participant accepts during the first round (range 0–15). Second, yield 2 refers to the number of misleading questions accepted during the second round (range 0–15). Third, shift refers to the number of changes that participants make in their answers after having received negative feedback (range 0–20). Finally, the total GSS score is the sum of yield 1 and shift, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of interrogative suggestibility (range 0–35).

Management[edit]

People diagnosed with memory distrust syndrome are not necessarily functionally impaired in any way, though it is often associated with other detrimental memory conditions. They can perform basic every day tasks and take care of themselves. However, they may have difficulty remembering details from their memory. New memories are created and stored just as easily as anyone else, assuming no prior existing condition exists that would prevent that.

Society and culture[edit]

Memory distrust disorder has been shown to cause false confessions in court cases. This occurs when the suggestible individual is asked a question which leads them to believe that their recollection is incorrect. Due to their suggestibility and lack of trust in their own memory, they will either alter their own memory or be unsure of specific details.

A similar situation can occur while being interrogated by the authorities. The court system assumes that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, however many times individuals are arrested for suspicion, which would simply require a motive and the lack of an alibi. The goal of an interrogator is to increase and use a subject's suggestibility. This would cause the capability of several inaccuracies to occur during the interrogation.

Studies have been performed on undiagnosed individuals and they have shown that minor detail alterations can and do easily go unnoticed. In a specific study, individuals were asked to watch a tape of a robbery and then recall details about it. A week later they were brought back in and read over a supposed copy of their written statement. However, this statement included minor alterations such as the number of people in the store at the time or what type of headgear the thief was wearing. Sometimes this individuals would notice the alterations, but other details went unnoticed, suggesting that undiagnosed individuals have a level of memory distrust. Details had been altered that were accepted as truth, regardless of what actual memory the individual could recall.

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