WHAT ARE CONFABULATORS’ MEMORIES MADE OF? A STUDY OF SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MEASURES OF RECOLLECTION IN CONFABULATION
Joanne Shih
Elisa Ciaramelli, Simona Ghetti
What is confabulation?
A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened
What is confabulation?
A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened
Known causes: Brain damage Psychological or psychiatric disorders
(e.g. Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease)
What is confabulation?
A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened
Known causes: Brain damage Psychological or psychiatric disorders
(e.g. Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease) Confabulators: re-live their confabulatory
reports as if they are true memories
Research Objective
To what extent are confabulators’ subjective experiences of memories based on what they recall objectively?
Background
Subjective experience of memories are the same as the details they recall
Healthy Individuals
Background
Subjective experience of memories are the same as the details they recall
Have the ability to remember, but their subjective memories are based on faulty recollection
Healthy Individuals Confabulators
Hypotheses
The subjective experience of remembering and the objective ability to recollect qualitative features are distinct in confabulating patients unlike in normal subjects
This is due to their excessive processing of context-irrelevant information upon recollection
Participants
12 patients with brain damage 5 confabulators (4
males, 1 female) 7 non-
confabulators (4 males, 3 females)
12 healthy individuals
Exp. 1: Summary
Confabulating patients: impaired recollection of information but exhibited subjective experience of memories
Non-confabulating patients: impaired recollection of information and impaired subjective experience of memories
Exp. 2: Method
40 words in two sets (4-8 letters long) Set 1: Study Set 2: Distracters
R/K Recognition Task: R-“remember” K- “know”
‘R’ responses= subjective measure of recollection
Raters: Categorized
patients’ responses Intra-list Extra-list Self-referent
Exp. 2: Method
octopus
Study
octopus
Recognition
Old? Remember? Know?New?
One word presented every
3s
Exp. 2: Results
Confabulators’ R responses (their subjective recollection) were not triggered by specific details from the context
…They were mainly triggered by self-referent (autobiographical) information Aka, context-irrelevant info
Discussion
Excessive processing of context-irrelevant info seems to be responsible for: The dissociation between subjective and
objective measures of recollection in confabulators
Their vivid recollection of false memories
Why the failure to inhibit irrelevant info? Confabulators have problems adapting
to reality
Discussion Cont’d.
Having large amounts of retrievable info for recollection influences feeling of knowing
Confabulating patients’ memory decisions are cluttered by large amount of info Influences their sense of knowing Promotes confidence in their false
memories
Future Directions
Study factors involved in failure to inhibit irrelevant information
Investigate therapeutic applications Link findings with anatomical structures
involved
Take-Home Message
Limiting patients’ access to irrelevant info will improve memory performance
Opinion of Paper
Good background experimental designs
Addressed alternative explanations for findings
Lack of figures: an example of the word task used would clarify procedure
Uneven distribution of confabulating patients and gender
Strengths Weaknesses
Questions?
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