Source amnesia

Source amnesia is a common memory phenomenon. It describes the property of our memory that we store facts regardless of their origin. For example, a person can have a certain knowledge (e.g. that Caesar was murdered by Brutus ) without remembering where and when he learned the facts (e.g. in a TV documentary).

Phenomena of source amnesia

In connection with source amnesias there is the possibility that wrong sources can be found in the memory. Along with this misinformation effect , source amnesia is the source of many false memories. It can also be B. It happens to writers to believe a thought came from them without knowing that the corresponding information originally came from outside. Another phenomenon of source amnesia can be seen in the memory of dreams: people sometimes do not know whether a certain event actually took place or whether the memory came from a dream.

Memory structure

The source is one of the most sensitive parts of a memory. It lies in the autobiographical memory , which stores only a few significant contents. The central processing point for this in the brain are the innermost areas of the hippocampus . There is comparatively little space available there.

Factual knowledge, on the other hand, is part of the semantic memory . The hippocampus processes this content further outside, with more space available for this. Hence, facts are better stored than the sources.

literature

• David G. Myers : Psychology. 1st edition, Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 978-3-540-21358-1 .
• Gerhard Roth : From the point of view of the brain. 2nd edition, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-29515-1 .
• Gerhard Roth: Personality, Decision and Behavior. 1st edition, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-94490-7 .