Memory
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Fake news is 'reinforced by false memories' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49435387
A study into false memories highlights the risks of "fake news" spreading via social media.
Volunteers were shown fabricated news reports in the week before Ireland's 2018 abortion law referendum. Nearly half of them subsequently claimed to have had prior memories of at least one of the made-up events detailed. And many failed to question their false recollections even after being told the articles they had read might be fake.
The 3,140 participants had been more likely to have created false memories if the reports had lied about the side they had opposed, the study added.
The peer-reviewed work supports prior research into the phenomenon. But its authors say it is the first time the problem has been tested in relation to a real-world referendum at the time it was being held. One of academics told BBC News it highlighted how difficult it could be to "undo" spurious memories once they had been created.
"Memory is a reconstructive process and we are vulnerable to suggestion distorting our recollections, without our conscious awareness," Dr Gillian Murphy, of University College Cork, said.
"The implications for any upcoming elections are that voters are vulnerable to not just believing a fake news story but falsely recalling that the [made-up] event truly happened."
A study into false memories highlights the risks of "fake news" spreading via social media.
Volunteers were shown fabricated news reports in the week before Ireland's 2018 abortion law referendum. Nearly half of them subsequently claimed to have had prior memories of at least one of the made-up events detailed. And many failed to question their false recollections even after being told the articles they had read might be fake.
The 3,140 participants had been more likely to have created false memories if the reports had lied about the side they had opposed, the study added.
The peer-reviewed work supports prior research into the phenomenon. But its authors say it is the first time the problem has been tested in relation to a real-world referendum at the time it was being held. One of academics told BBC News it highlighted how difficult it could be to "undo" spurious memories once they had been created.
"Memory is a reconstructive process and we are vulnerable to suggestion distorting our recollections, without our conscious awareness," Dr Gillian Murphy, of University College Cork, said.
"The implications for any upcoming elections are that voters are vulnerable to not just believing a fake news story but falsely recalling that the [made-up] event truly happened."
yyaldrin
in je ogen waait de wind
my memory is terrible and it is annoying me. like i hardly know anything from my childhood and my years as a teenager are pretty much faded away too. i often have friends tell me anecdotes that i have been part of and i often have to ask them, "oh i was there too?" i keep telling myself i have to buy a little book so i can write down the nice and bad things that happen every week so that i don't forget them. i feel sometimes i just came into existence.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
This is something that has stuck in my memory
I occasionally make a concerted effort to remember my distant past, and I'm surprised and somehow uplifted by all the stuff that begins to float up to the surface from the depths.
I'm worried about the damage I've done to my brain over the years with drugs, which I mainly experience in the form of an impoverished vocabulary.
I occasionally make a concerted effort to remember my distant past, and I'm surprised and somehow uplifted by all the stuff that begins to float up to the surface from the depths.
I'm worried about the damage I've done to my brain over the years with drugs, which I mainly experience in the form of an impoverished vocabulary.
Leo
Well-known member
as you get older like me and luka, you notice it's the short term memory that occasionally slips. sometimes I'll think of something I want to do, and if I don't do it immediately or write myself a note, I'll completely blank on what it was two minutes later. scary!
it's not realistic to think you'll remember most of your childhood memories, but I certainly remember a lot of things from back then. I may not feel connected to the person I was at the time, though.
interesting to think about what it is that you do remember. why do I remember where I bought some stupid record 25 years ago but not my brother's birthday? how it is that I automatically remember to put the recycling bins out every Monday night but not my wife's cell number (well, I blame that one on autodial)?
it's not realistic to think you'll remember most of your childhood memories, but I certainly remember a lot of things from back then. I may not feel connected to the person I was at the time, though.
interesting to think about what it is that you do remember. why do I remember where I bought some stupid record 25 years ago but not my brother's birthday? how it is that I automatically remember to put the recycling bins out every Monday night but not my wife's cell number (well, I blame that one on autodial)?
version
Well-known member
I'd be interested in hearing how stuff like search engines, wikipedia and smartphones have influenced the way we remember things as there's a lot you don't need to remember when you can just pull it up on your phone in a matter of seconds. McLuhan's thing of externalising yourself through technology, outsourcing cognitive functions.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
When I don't get enough sleep my short term is terrible. A real taste of what's to come no doubt.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Aye all that shit is interlinked. Less sleep, anxiety, forgetfulness, dementia. Like when someone puts you on the spot to tell them something and you blank. It's pretty much that but scarier.
version
Well-known member
Von Neumann was also noted for his eidetic memory (sometimes called photographic memory). Herman Goldstine wrote:
"One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how A Tale of Two Cities started. Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."
Von Neumann was reportedly able to memorize the pages of telephone directories. He entertained friends by asking them to randomly call out page numbers; he then recited the names, addresses and numbers therein.
Von Neumann was on his deathbed when he entertained his brother by reciting by heart and word-for-word the first few lines of each page of Goethe's Faust.
"One of his remarkable abilities was his power of absolute recall. As far as I could tell, von Neumann was able on once reading a book or article to quote it back verbatim; moreover, he could do it years later without hesitation. He could also translate it at no diminution in speed from its original language into English. On one occasion I tested his ability by asking him to tell me how A Tale of Two Cities started. Whereupon, without any pause, he immediately began to recite the first chapter and continued until asked to stop after about ten or fifteen minutes."
Von Neumann was reportedly able to memorize the pages of telephone directories. He entertained friends by asking them to randomly call out page numbers; he then recited the names, addresses and numbers therein.
Von Neumann was on his deathbed when he entertained his brother by reciting by heart and word-for-word the first few lines of each page of Goethe's Faust.