Are the "Memory Wars" Over? A Scientist-Practitioner Gap in Beliefs About Repressed Memory

The "memory wars" of the 1990s refers to the controversy between some clinicians and memory scientists about the reliability of repressed memories. To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups' beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2014-02, Vol.25 (2), p.519-530
Main Authors: Patihis, Lawrence, Ho, Lavina Y., Tingen, Ian W., Lilienfeld, Scott O., Loftus, Elizabeth F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Belief & doubt
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical Research - standards
Clinical psychology
Email
False memory
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Human
Humans
Hypnosis
Learning. Memory
Male
Medical sciences
Memory
Memory recall
Mental health
Psychological factors
Psychological trauma
Psychologists
Psychology, Clinical - standards
Psychology, Clinical - trends
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychotherapists
Psychotherapy - standards
Recovered memory
Relaxation. Biofeedback. Hypnosis. Selfregulation. Meditation
Repression
Repression, Psychology
Treatments
Young Adult
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Summary:The "memory wars" of the 1990s refers to the controversy between some clinicians and memory scientists about the reliability of repressed memories. To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups' beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs with beliefs expressed in past studies. In Study 1, we found high rates of belief in repressed memory among undergraduates. We also found that greater critical-thinking ability was associated with more skepticism about repressed memories. In Study 2, we found less belief in repressed memory among mainstream clinicians today compared with the 1990s. Groups that contained research-oriented psychologists and memory experts expressed more skepticism about the validity of repressed memories relative to other groups. Thus, a substantial gap between the memory beliefs of clinical-psychology researchers and those of practitioners persists today. These results hold implications for the potential resolution of the science-practice gap and for the dissemination of memory research in the training of mental-health professionals.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797613510718