About this Research Topic
In recent decades, research has revealed that human memory is prone to error due to its reconstructive nature. This finding has challenged the corpus of knowledge within psychology, and has important implications in theoretical, legal, practical, and clinical settings. Since the very beginning of the ‘memory wars’ in the 1990s, different paradigms have emerged as tools to explore false memory phenomena (e.g., misinformation, DRM, lost-in-the mall, false feedback, crashing memory, among others), both with individuals and groups. False memory research has also benefited greatly from the accelerated advance of neuroscience techniques.
The study of memory distortions is now a fruitful line of research, but despite its great progress it still has many open questions, such as:
• How can we differentiate true from false memories?
• What personal or contextual factors make us susceptible to committing false memories?
• Are we able to avoid –or at least reduce– committing false memories? If so, under what circumstances?
• To what extent do laboratory findings apply to real-world settings?
• To what extent are the results obtained with one procedure generalizable to other paradigms?
• How can we integrate the corpus of cognitive neuroscience findings from false memories?
• What do developmental studies tell us about false memory?
• How does false memory work in all sorts of special populations?
• Are false memories also a collective phenomenon?
• To what extent, if at all, is scientifically appropriate to relate false memory findings to reconsolidation processes?
In addition to these compelling questions, it seems increasingly necessary to create links between false memory research and studies that traditionally would fall in distant fields of knowledge. Specifically, the malleability of memory appears to be fundamental to research about identity, narratives, and historical memory.
The goal of this Research Topic is therefore to invite a wide range of manuscripts focused on empirical approaches to studying false memories, specifically welcoming Original Research and Systematic Review articles. We aim to provide a clear sense of what false memory studies are addressing today, especially regarding the aforementioned questions. Ultimately, the purpose of this Research Topic is to integrate different perspectives on false memory research. We expect that this effort will contribute to creating an enriching dialogue between different types of research on false memory.
Image by Denis Azarenko from Pixabay
Keywords: false memory, DRM paradigm, misinformation paradigm, memory distortion, cognitive neuroscience of false memory
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
