
Children's Acquisition of False Memories in Virtual Reality (2009) [pdf] - jcr
http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2009/segovia-virtually-true.pdf
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jcr
Though the induced false memories are attributable to "source monitoring
errors" (i.e. not realizing an invalid source), there is another, more
prevalent, side to the "source monitoring error" problem; poor quality
sources. For example, a poor quality "news" source (or intentionally biased
"news" source) can easily influence and manipulate both your perspective on
and memory of particular events.

As far as I know, there has never been a "perfectly accurate, factual, and
unbiased" news source, so the learned skill of "source monitoring" is vitally
important to maintaining a well-informed perspective. From the paper, children
are more susceptible to intentional influence and false suggestions, but even
as adults, we're still susceptible.

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srtjstjsj
Any volunteer to summarize and translate from Academic to Lay?

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jcr
I'm definitely not "qualified" and I'm not an "expert" (or even vaguely
informed), but after reading four of other papers from Jeremy Bailenson, I can
tell you this much; he tends to write in an easily readable and approachable
style, and gives solid support both through his own data and prior research
references.

The phase "source monitoring" is a term of the (academic) trade, and as far as
I know, it roughly means, being aware (monitoring) of how our experiences are
occurring and have occurred in the past (i.e. from various sources). For
example, did you read it in a book? Or read it in an article? Or see it happen
live? Or see it in a movie? Or hear it happen live? Or hear it told to you
second-hand? Or are you remembering it from a dream you had? Or ... The
methods by which our experiences occur has an impact on how they are
perceived, and an impact on how they are later remembered.

Though "false memories" sure seems like bad linkbait phrase to use in a title,
it's also a term of the academic trade. It means you're unable to
differentiate between memories of actual "live" experiences you've had in real
life, and memories of perceived or "make believe" experiences.

The paper cites previous work showing how children are more susceptible to
false memories in general than adults, and then goes on to show how children
are especially susceptible to false memories induced through immersive virtual
reality.

If I'm _really_ lucky, maybe someone from the Stanford Virtual Human
Interaction Lab (VHIL) will show up and correct me where I'm wrong, but the
above is the best I can give you.

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BanMeWithRage
Does this explain certain political and cultural narratives obsessed with
historical guilt and victim categorization?

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Crito
I don't know. What sort of media do you think might be inducing false memories
that are related to those subjects?

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BanMeWithRage
Pretty much anything and everything Viacom and Disney put their trademark on.

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Crito
I haven't seen much if any media from Viacom or Disney that involves depicting
the viewer doing something they didn't actually do. Can you be a bit more
specific?

