Comments on: The impersistence of memory http://bioblog.biotunes.org/bioblog/2007/04/17/the-impersistence-of-memory/ Biology News Biology Blog Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:11:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Anonymous http://bioblog.biotunes.org/bioblog/2007/04/17/the-impersistence-of-memory/#comment-116 Anonymous Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:19:00 +0000 http://bioblog.biotunes.org/bioblog/?p=42#comment-116 I wonder whether that guy was telling the truth. He might've just disliked his life and run away to start a new one; and when he was finally caught, he invented amnesia as an excuse. It seems awfully convenient if his entire memory returned the instant he saw his sister.<br/><br/>I remember reading a scholarly paper about exactly this topic. They were trying to tell whether people had true amnesia, or were fakers, or some combination of the two (e.g. initially faking, but then immersed themselves so much into their new life that they truly suppressed their old memories). Apparently this is a big issue, because many cases of this kind of amnesia occur in situations where it is 'convenient', like people who have huge debts or bad family lives. <br/><br/>Unfortunately, I forget what techniques they used to try to catch the fakers. And now I can't find that reference...<br/><br/>- thinking I wonder whether that guy was telling the truth. He might’ve just disliked his life and run away to start a new one; and when he was finally caught, he invented amnesia as an excuse. It seems awfully convenient if his entire memory returned the instant he saw his sister.

I remember reading a scholarly paper about exactly this topic. They were trying to tell whether people had true amnesia, or were fakers, or some combination of the two (e.g. initially faking, but then immersed themselves so much into their new life that they truly suppressed their old memories). Apparently this is a big issue, because many cases of this kind of amnesia occur in situations where it is ‘convenient’, like people who have huge debts or bad family lives.

Unfortunately, I forget what techniques they used to try to catch the fakers. And now I can’t find that reference…

- thinking

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