Senior Seminar: False Memories

Catalog description

Can people repress memories for childhood trauma? How accurate are eyewitnesses at reporting what they saw? Although most of the time, our memories serve us quite well, many of the strategies and mechanisms that help us remember accurately can also lead to errors. This course examines various types of memory distortions and what they can tell us about the mechanisms of memory. Through readings and class discussions, students will explore research addressing confusions between real and imagined memories, the reliability of eyewitness recollections, children's suggestibility, as well as clinical issues such as repression and dissociation from a cognitive perspective. Open to senior psychology majors. Permission of instructor is required for junior psychology majors.