Lost in the mall technique
Donna Andrade & Emily Middleton
Why?
We picked to research the topic "lost in the mall technique" . We were interested in learning how and why the brain implants false memories. It could aid others when they're trying to understand their memories and recall things that happened to them.
Elizabeth Loftus was a psychologist who was interested in why memories failed. She created an experiment to find out how memories were distorted and involved deliberate attempts to change the subject's memories. In the experiment, she would ask the subject's families for 4 events: 1 fake and 3 real. One of the first successful implantations was with a 14 year old boy named Chris. His brain originally created very high memories of the event, he even said the man who saved him in the mall was cool. During his second interview, he described the real memory as very clear and was able to go into extreme details of what happened. When asked to identify which one was false, he chose on of the real stories.
The development of being lost, may originate from a mere suggestion of being lost leaving a memory trace on the brain. Even if it is just a suggestion, it can become linked to previous experiences. As time passes, the memory of being lost will fade away. When later asked about being "lost in a mall" the brain will mix memories of being at the mall with suggested memories. Now, you will "remember" being lost in a mall.