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Joanne Shih

Elisa Ciaramelli , Simona Ghetti. What are confabulators’ memories made of? A study of subjective and objective measures of recollection in confabulation. Joanne Shih. What is confabulation?. A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened. What is confabulation?.

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Joanne Shih

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  1. Elisa Ciaramelli, SimonaGhetti What are confabulators’ memories made of? A study of subjective and objective measures of recollection in confabulation Joanne Shih

  2. What is confabulation? • A memory of an event or experience that has not actually happened

  3. 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)

  4. 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

  5. Research Objective • To what extent are confabulators’ subjective experiences of memories based on what they recall objectively?

  6. Background Healthy Individuals • Subjective experience of memories are the same as the details they recall

  7. Background Healthy Individuals Confabulators • 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

  8. 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

  9. Participants • 12 patients with brain damage • 5 confabulators (4 males, 1 female) • 7 non-confabulators (4 males, 3 females) • 12 healthy individuals

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Exp. 2: Method Study Recognition octopus octopus Old? Remember? Know? New? One word presented every 3s

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. Future Directions • Study factors involved in failure to inhibit irrelevant information • Investigate therapeutic applications • Link findings with anatomical structures involved

  17. Take-Home Message • Limiting patients’ access to irrelevant info will improve memory performance

  18. Opinion of Paper Strengths Weaknesses • 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

  19. Questions?

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