L. Patihis, L. Y. Ho, and E. F. Loftus contributed to the study design. On the other side of the debate were those who questioned the existence of repressed memory. Sign in here to access free tools such as favourites and alerts, or to access personal subscriptions, If you have access to journal content via a university, library or employer, sign in here, Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. Several of the nine memory-belief questions were developed for the purposes of this study, and others were drawn from the literature (see Table S1.2 in the Supplemental Material). (1996). (See Supplemental Results for Study 2 in the Supplemental Material for a summary of the factor analysis and how other groups scored on the composite factor variable.). A Scientist-Practitioner Gap in Beliefs About Repressed Memory, Lilienfeld, Ritschel, Lynn, Cautin, & Latzman, in press, http://pss.sagepub.com/content/by/supplemental-data, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0022757, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0051876. Students who scored more highly on empathy, fantasy proneness, and absorption were less skeptical about repressed memory. Nevertheless, this issue bears important ramifications for memory research, as well as for the translation of such research into the therapy room and courtroom. To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups’ beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs with beliefs expressed in past studies. Participants who scored higher on our critical-thinking composite were less likely to agree that repressed memories can be recovered accurately in therapy and during hypnosis, that memory is photographic and permanently stored, and that memory is reliable. Fig. In O. Bikel (Executive producer), Repressed memory and other controversial origins of sexual abuse allegations: Beliefs among psychologists and clinical social workers, Betrayal-trauma: Traumatic amnesia as an adaptive response to childhood abuse, Psychologists’ beliefs and clinical characteristics: Judging the veracity of childhood sexual abuse memories, Memories/nightmare in Haiti/TKO [Television series episode], Individual differences in imagination inflation, The evidence for repression: An examination of sixty years of research, Why many clinical psychologists are resistant to evidence-based practice: Root causes and constructive remedies, What psychologists know and believe about memory: A survey of practitioners, The Creative Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ): A brief self-report measure of fantasy proneness, Assumptions of students and psychotherapists about memory, Novel unsupported and empirically supported therapies: Patterns of usage among licensed clinical social workers, What people believe about how memory works: A representative survey of the U.S. population, Common (mis)beliefs about memory: A replication and comparison of telephone and Mechanical Turk survey methods. Supplemental MaterialAdditional supporting information may be found at http://pss.sagepub.com/content/by/supplemental-data. Women were more likely than men to agree that memories are often repressed, that repressed memories can be retrieved in therapy, and that all experience is stored in memory. Undergraduates (N = 390) at the University of California, Irvine, participated in a two-session study for course credit (74.9% female, 25.1% male; mean age = 20.2 years). In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur quoted an old Army ballad in his farewell address to Congress: “Old soldiers never die. Given heightened media coverage of the potential dangers of the uncritical acceptance of repressed memory (e.g., Bikel, 1995; Hassler, 1994; Maran, 2010; Nathan, 2011), one might predict that society as a whole, including psychologists, has become more skeptical regarding the accuracy of repressed memories. For more information view the SAGE Journals Article Sharing page. We explored this question in our next study. Error bars represent standard errors. Empathy was the only personality measure to predict endorsement of the statement that traumatic memories are often repressed. Comparison of mainstream Ph.D. psychotherapists’ beliefs about hypnosis and false memories in 1992 and 2011–2012. Students were asked to rate the accuracy of repressed memories on a scale from 1 (never accurate) to 10 (always accurate), and the mean rating was 5.6. This marked split between researchers, on the one hand, and clinicians and the public, on the other, suggests that although there are indications of more skepticism today than in the 1990s, a serious divide exists between researchers and clinicians. Results From Study 1: Percentage of Undergraduates Who Agreed With Eight Statements About Memory. One potential methodological limitation of these studies is that participants were self-selected. If you have access to a journal via a society or association membership, please browse to your society journal, select an article to view, and follow the instructions in this box. Similarly, because more empathic people are more likely to adopt other people’s points of view, we predicted that empathy would be positively associated with belief in the accuracy of sincere and emotionally laden repressed-memory reports. (2006) found that, although some laypersons’ ideas about memory (e.g., memory for dramatic vs. ordinary events) were consistent with existing evidence from memory research, 45% of respondents with a college degree believed that frightening and dramatic memories can be blocked; approximately 40% of respondents with a college degree believed that people who have committed murder can repress the memory of the crime. OVER-1 (オーバー ワン, Ōbā Wan) is the main protagonist of Rockman ×over.He is a mass-produced robot created by Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack to stop Dr. Wily, Sigma, and other villains, and rescue the missing Mega Man heroes trapped by them somewhere in spacetime. In Garry, Loftus, and Brown’s (1994) survey of graduate students in education, health, and nursing courses, 88% of students stated that painful experiences can be hidden in the unconscious, and 64% indicated that the hidden memories can be emotionally damaging. About a quarter of the students (24%) indicated that therapists who encourage individuals to recall repressed memories use legitimate methods, and 73% believed that these therapists both use legitimate methods and implant false memories. L. Patihis and I. W. Tingen performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of E. F. Loftus and S. O. Lilienfeld. Our data for 2011–2012 are from board-certified psychotherapists (n = 53) who were members of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology. We also found that greater critical-thinking ability was associated with more skepticism about repressed memories. The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again. Despite this apparent attitudinal change, a large percentage of nonresearchers endorsed the validity of repressed memories, to some degree, and endorsed their therapeutic retrieval. A potentially more fruitful long-term approach may be to focus the education of students and trainees on the science of memory, including repressed memory. The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again. The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in Dispute Hardcover – October 1, 1995 by Frederick Crews (Author, Editor) 4.2 out of 5 stars 5 ratings. Some society journals require you to create a personal profile, then activate your society account, You are adding the following journals to your email alerts, Did you struggle to get access to this article? Table 2. If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. These findings suggest that the memory wars are not over. Characteristics of the Participant Groups in Study 2. Factor 2 appeared to reflect beliefs regarding the unreliability and reconstructive nature of memory in general (see Supplemental Results for Study 1 in the Supplemental Material for a summary of the factor analysis and how the factor composites correlated with individual differences). Simons and Chabris (2011; see also Simons & Chabris, 2012) found that 63% of the U.S. public agreed that memory works like a video camera, 48% agreed that memory is permanent, and 55% believed that memory can be enhanced through hypnosis. A scientist-practitioner gap in beliefs about repressed memory. As mentioned earlier, we asked participants if and when their views about repressed memory had changed (see Table 4). To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups' beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs with beliefs expressed in past studies. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups’ beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs with beliefs expressed in past studies. Here, we present the highlights of analyses of predictors of memory beliefs. The memory wars. I have read and accept the terms and conditions, View permissions information for this article. Results for additional groups are presented in Table S2.5 in the Supplemental Material. See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. In addition, we examined potential individual difference correlates of these beliefs. Gold, S. N. (2010). One could develop educational content that is appealing and understandable to people of varying levels of a characteristic that predicts memory beliefs (e.g., critical thinking, empathy). The p values are from a t test (left graph) and two-proportion z tests (right graph). In particular, both Internal Family Systems therapists, who accept the view that the mind can house multiple indwelling identities, each with its own store of episodic memories, and hypnotherapists, many of whom place credence in the causal influence of unconscious memories, may be positively disposed toward the use of techniques designed to unearth ostensibly recovered recollections. The “memory wars” of the 1990s refers to the controversy between some clinicians and memory scientists about the reliability of repressed memories. Study 2 demonstrates a need for dissemination of the findings of memory research, and Study 1 points to individual differences that might be considered when crafting dissemination efforts. He fought for the Grand Army of the Republic and for the 427th Hawkbat Battalion. We did so to ascertain whether beliefs about repressed memory have changed over the past two decades. Erratum: are the "memory wars" over? Participants responded to each question on a Likert scale: 0 = not likely at all; 5 = somewhat likely; 10 = extremely likely. Factor 1 appeared to reflect belief in repressed memory and memory permanence. Also, the 1992–1997 sample had a higher percentage of women (51%) compared with our sample (16.1%). (, Gore-Felton, C., Koopman, C., Thoresen, C., Arnow, B., Bridges, E., Spiegel, D. (, Lilienfeld, S. O., Ritschel, L. A., Lynn, S. J., Cautin, R. L., Latzman, R. D. (, Magnussen, S., Andersson, J., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., Endestad, T., Goodman, G. S., . As a result of the Memory Wars, countless families have been split apart in … To address these gaps in the literature, we investigated individual differences in memory beliefs in undergraduates, how undergraduates’ and psychologists’ current memory beliefs compare with these groups’ beliefs in the 1990s, and how key groups of psychologists and other mental-health professionals vary in their views regarding repressed memory. Contact us if you experience any difficulty logging in. Clinical-psychology practitioners (M = 57.5, SD = 19.3) scored significantly higher than clinical-psychology researchers (M = 43.9, SD = 15.5) on this composite factor variable, t(75) = 3.37, p = .001. Fig. Indeed, survey data suggest that many practitioners rate clinical experience, intuition, and consistency of clinical observations with their theoretical orientation as more important than published research in informing their treatment decisions (Pignotti & Thyer, 2012; Stewart & Chambless, 2007; von Ransom & Robinson, 2006). Clinical-psychology practitioners (M = 57.5, SD = 19.3) scored significantly higher than clinical-psychology researchers (M = 43.9, SD = 15.5) on this composite factor variable, t(75) = 3.37, p = .001. L. Patihis, S. O. Lilienfeld, L. Y. Ho, and I. W. Tingen drafted the manuscript, and all five authors provided critical revisions. Accessing resources off campus can be retrieved in therapy and that some have! The other side of the three statements or all of the Participant in... And Table S1.1 in the courtroom, beliefs about recovered memory over the past decades! 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