The Accuracy of Recovered Memories
Are “recovered memories” reliable?
The authors who have challenged the accuracy of “recovered memories” have recently been persuaded by the accumulated research to be “open to the possibility that some recovered memories are genuine” (Lynn et al., 2014, p. 23).
Evidence Supporting Recovered Memories
Many studies have led researchers to admit that recovered memories can be genuine, including:
Equal Accuracy in Abuse Cases:
A blind review of evidence for trauma (including confessions by perpetrators) among individuals with recovered and continuous memory found equal accuracy in recovered and continuous memories of child sexual abuse in adults (Dalenberg, 1996).
In this study, 17 women recovered memories of abuse they were completely unaware had occurred, and most of this abuse was corroborated, including via confessions by seven fathers.
Similarly, Williams (1995) found equal accuracy in continuous and recovered memories of abuse among women who had experienced documented childhood trauma that occurred 17 years earlier.
Individuals who recover memories outside of psychotherapy are equally able to corroborate their traumas as those with continuous memories of abuse (Geraerts et al., 2007).
Lower Suggestibility:
In a study of suggestibility among patients with reported delayed recall of trauma memories, Leavitt (1997) found that “recovered memory” patients scored lower on suggestibility than did a psychiatric control group.
Thus, current research shows that patients with delayed recall of trauma are less suggestible than are other psychiatric patients.
Overall Findings:
Overall, research with abused, nonabused, clinical, nonclinical, and experimental participants finds that recovered memories and continuous memories are equally accurate and are more likely to be true than false (see Dalenberg, 2006 for a review).
Challenges to the “False Memory” Theories
Researchers who challenge the reliability of recovered memories have not offered a single study in which all or most of the recovered memories were false, nor has any study in which evidence of trauma was systematically sought found an absence of corroboration in most recovered memory clients (Dalenberg et al., 2014).
Dalenberg et al. (2014) further challenged the premises of the "False Memory" (FM) theories:
Continuous Memory is Also Fallible:
They contend that the FM theories of continuous memory are not the sole or most widely accepted theories of memory.
For example, some recent neurobiological research shows that memory is altered and therefore potentially distorted by retrieval, since it is laid down anew each time it is accessed (e.g., Bridge & Paller, 2012). Thus, memories perceived as “continuous” may also be false, as gradual changes occur that relate to the context of remembering.
Neural Mechanisms for Dissociation:
Neural mechanisms underlying dissociative responses to trauma involving prefrontal hyperactivity and limbic suppression are similar to those observed in experimental memory suppression paradigms (Anderson et al., 2004; Lanius et al., 2010; Lanius, Brand, Vermetten, Frewen, & Spiegel, 2012).
Recovered memory may differ only in that the time since access has become prolonged and there is a relative inhibition of memory access.
Such findings provided a portion of the basis for the inclusion of a dissociative subtype of PTSD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for the Mental Disorders (DSM-5; Lanius et al., 2012).
Context on Alleged “False Memory” Cases
Many of the cases argued by some to be exemplars of “false memory” involved substantial evidence of child sexual abuse, including medical evidence and even confessions by some of the perpetrators. This means that many of the cases alleged to be part of a national overly aggressive “witch hunt” (Nathan & Snedeker, 2001) for child sexual abuse are not entirely fabricated accusations of abuse.
Some of these cases did not result in guilty convictions because it was not clear who had abused the children, although judges recognized that abuse had occurred, and a few of the investigations had included leading interviews of some of the children (Cheit, 2014a).
Critically, the number of cases that involve exaggerated or false claims of childhood sexual abuse appear to be far less prevalent than proponents of false memories acknowledge (Cheit, 2014a).
Controversies Regarding “False Memory” Research
Elizabeth Loftus is a well-known memory researcher who studies “false memories.” However, relatively few people in the mental health field or among the public are aware of Loftus’s recurrent errors in reporting her research (Olafson, 2014).
Peer-reviewed literature documents that Loftus has used questionable tactics:
She hired a private investigator to determine the identity of a young woman in a case study who had been videotaped while recovering a memory of child sexual abuse.
Loftus subsequently published private information without this woman’s permission, which ultimately caused the woman significant emotional distress, led to her declaring bankruptcy, and forced her to resign from her military career (Cheit, 2014b; Putnam, 2014).