False Remembering and Aging

 

False Remembering and Aging: Seniors can be Affected by Confabulation

 

“I really enjoyed watching The Wheel of Fortune with you two days ago,” an elderly mother tells her daughter. “But mother, we watched a movie together, not Wheel of Fortune” responds her daughter. “No, no, no. I distinctly remember it being Wheel of Fortune…” Have you had a similar conversation with a senior loved one; in which the senior has created a false memory? If so, know that it’s common among the elderly, quite often not just a mishap or error, but also not necessarily a sign of Alzheimer’s disease. As we age, our minds can often create false memories, also called confabulation.

In psychology, confabulation is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive. Confabulation is distinguished from lying as there is no intent to deceive and the person is unaware the information is false. Although individuals can present blatantly false information, confabulation can also seem to be coherent, internally consistent, and relatively normal.

Individuals who confabulate present incorrect memories ranging from subtle alterations to bizarre fabrications, and are generally very confident about their recollections, despite contradictory evidence. Most known cases of confabulation are symptomatic of brain damage or dementias, such as aneurysm, Alzheimer’s disease, or Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome (a common manifestation of thiamine deficiency caused by alcoholism). But it’s also just a sign of the brain aging.

 

Characteristics

Confabulation is associated with several characteristics:

1. They’re typically verbal statements, but can also be non-verbal gestures or actions.
2. Can include autobiographical and non-personal information, such as historical facts, fairytales, or other aspects of semantic memory.
3. The account can be fantastic or coherent.
4. Both the premise and the details of the account can be false.
5. The account is usually drawn from the patient’s memory of actual experiences, including past and current thoughts.
6. The patient is unaware of the accounts’ distortions or inappropriateness, and is not concerned when errors are pointed out.
7. There is no hidden motivation behind the account.
8. The patient’s personality structure may play a role in their readiness to confabulate.

 

False memories also factor into a common observation about the memory performance of older adults: their unknowing tendency to repeat stories. Repetition of stories strengthens the familiarity with the story, making it more likely to be repeated. But people usually avoid unwanted repetition of information by recalling that we have told the story before. However, older adults tend to face difficulties in connecting a repeated item with a specific memory, making them more vulnerable to false memories of whether they’ve told the story before or not.

 

Potential Dangers

According to warnings on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website, there’s a host of fraudulent schemes directed at older adults that rely on memory deficits that sometimes accompany old age. False memories can result because misleading information is so potent that older adults skip any further attempt to retrieve information and mistakenly accept misinformation as truth. That is, older adults may be so ‘‘captured’’ by misleading information that they forgo engaging in recollection.

Such deficits might make older adults more vulnerable to ‘‘I told you . . .’’ scams. For example, a scam in which a con man attempts to overcharge an older adult for a repair with the claim that ‘‘I told you that the repair cost X, and you agreed to pay.’’ If the older adult is captured by this misinformation and falsely remembers specific details of the fraudulent oral contract, he or she will be victimized.

Older adults’ eyewitness memory may also be susceptible to striking inaccuracies. A senior’s testimony in a court case might be questioned simply due to the phenomenon of confabulation in aging.

All in all, however, false memories are mostly harmless; especially if a caregiver of a senior loved one is aware that the misinformation is not an attempt to lie or be mean, but simply a condition of a naturally aging mind.

 

If you’re presently seeking a senior apartment, independent-living, assisted-living, or other continuing-care community for yourself or a senior loved one, don’t forget to visit alternativesforseniors.com to assist your search. Alternatives for Seniors is a print and online directory that specifically caters to the housing and personal care concerns of senior citizens and their families. You can also call our Senior Specialists at (888) WE-ASSIST (888-932-7747).

 

BLOG Date: Thursday, February 12, 2015
Writer: Ryan Allen