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Critical Thinking: Horoscope Real or Fake?

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Critical Thinking: Horoscope Real or Fake?

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Unexplained is when someone does not know how to explain something so they confirm their belief with the fact that there could be no other explanation.

An example of this would be when you see someone do a magic trick and you don't know how they did the trick so you would believe it would have to be magic.

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Reason for Belief 2: Perception and Observation

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Reason for Belief 2: Perception and Observation

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Perception and observation is when someone believes something based on their own memory even though we can not always trust our memory.

An example of this would be if someone thought they saw a crime take place a certain way so they would have a false eyewitness testimony in court.

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You may take it for granted that the person whose memory you can trust the most is your own.

In this article, we will look at how false memories are created, the impact of questioning, language and other factors on our recall and the real life consequences of false memories.

False memories and False Memory Syndrome

Many of us experience false memories without even realising:

Imagine that you are walking past a person in the street and see them clearly for only a split second. Once they are out of view, you might note that they were carrying a satchel. But what color was it?

"Green," you might think, "Yes, it was green."

But then self-doubt sets in:

"Or was it the person's coat that was green - wasn't the bag blue? Yes, it was an eggshell blue. I remember now," you may ruminate.

Once you have suggested to yourself this alternative, a false memory may develop and your recollection of events can become skewed.

False memories are a normal occurrence and they will generally have little impact on our lives. In rare cases, however, a false memory can bother a person.

A person may come to believe the traumatic details of a false memory and it can then affect them in their ability to function as normal in everyday life. In such severe cases, the experience has been labelled as false memory syndrome, although there is some doubt as to its existence as a condition.

You can, however, experience and believe false memories without suffering from false memory syndrome. You might recall a previous holiday and idealize it - look at it through 'rose-tinted glasses', and remember spending all of your time on a sunny beach. You overlook the stress of the flight, finding your hotel and the days that it rained. Your memories in this case do not entirely reflect reality, but you do not suffer as a result of them.

Framing questions

Although they are referred to as 'false memories', often our memories are distorted only when we attempt to recall them. Perhaps the best known examples of this are two experiments using leading questions, conducted by U.S. psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer in 1974.

In the first experiment, Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed different videos of a car collision to different participants. Some saw a video of the car crashing at 20mph, others a video of a collision at 30mph and the rest a video of a crash at 40mph.

The participants were then asked the speed of the collision in a survey question. The question was identical for each participant except for the verb mentioned when describing the crash. Some verbs suggested that the crash was a minor collision, others a full-blown crash.

The experiment results showed that the verb used to describe the crash had more effect on the speed estimated than the actual speed of the car that the participants witnessed in the video.

In a second experiment, participants were shown similar videos of a car and later questioned about what they had witnessed. The question asked the subject whether or not they had seen any broken glass following the collision, and again, the verb describing the collision was altered to suggest varying degrees of severity.

The researchers found that the more serious the accident seemed in the question wording, the more likely participants were to recall having seen broken glass around the car.

Both studies suggest that the framing of questions following an event can affect our recollection of it, even after it has been remembered. Even seemingly slight changes, such as verb alterations in Loftus and Palmer's experiments, can create false memories of events. In fact, Loftus found in a later experiment that even the switching of 'a' and 'the' in a question can influence respondents' recollection of an object.

All of these experiments support Loftus' misinformation effect on our memories - the manipulation of past event recollection by misguidance following it; a case of what the German psychologist Georg Müller (1850-1934) may have identified as retroactive interference of information on our memories ( Lechner, Squire and Byrne, 1999).

Inventing an entire event

We have learnt from these experiments that our memory cannot necessarily be relied on for the recollection of specific details of an event. But we would know if we had been lead to believe that an entire event had been suggested to us - or would we? This question was answered by one of Elizabeth Loftus' psychology students in an experiment to gain extra credits at university:

Each family member was asked to read through the booklets and familiarise themselves with their contents, after which they were asked to recall the stories. Coan's brother recalled the story with additional details invented by himself, and was unable to identify his as being the falsified story.

This lost in the mall technique of implanting false memories was further tested in a formal experiment with Loftus and Jacqueline Pickrell ( Loftus and Pickrell, 1995), and shows how we can even adopt rich false memories that are entirely invented.

Creating false memories

Researchers conducting experiments involving human memory often need to implant invented information and use the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to create false memories. This involves reading a list of related words to a person (e.g. 'sun, hot, relax, beach, tan, after-sun') and asking them to recall them. It has been found that people will often recall false memories of words which are semantically linked, such as 'holiday' or 'sunbathing', rather than the actual words that had been given to them ( Roediger and McDermott, 1995).

One use for the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm was when researchers at the University of Virginia sought and answer to the question: can your mood affect how receptive you are to false memories?

Eyewitness testimony: memories in court

Members of the first group, who did not witness a weapon, were more likely to be able to correctly identify the man than the group who saw a weapon.

One argument arising from this would be that where a witness gave testimony regarding a defendant who they said had a weapon, the accuracy their recall may be questioned with reference to the effect of weapon focus.

It has also been suggested that in cases such as those involving sexual abuse, in which historic events must be recalled, the techniques used to help a person to recall events may in some circumstances generate false memories.

The debate and research regarding false memories and memory recall continue today, demonstrating the fluidity of our memories, reminding us many factors can affect our ability to recall events even after they have occurred. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who lead some of the first research into false memories, has since testified in hundreds of court cases with regards to eyewitness testimonies and an increased focus on the issue has lead to an improved understanding of the techniques used to recover memories.

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How False Memories Can Affect Our Ability To Recall Events

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You may take it for granted that the person whose memory you can trust the most is your own. In this article, we will look at how false memories are created, the impact of questioning, language and other factors on our recall and the real life consequences of false memories.

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Patternicity is when people find meaningful patterns in things that they see due to the fact that people naturally look for patterns.

People do this when looking at objects and making a spiritual connection based on the fact that it may look like a face etc.

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Red herring is a distraction from the real question to prove a fact.

This can be seen when someone trying to prove something doesn't answer the question they were asked but instead answer differently to avoid that issue that may point out faults in their claims.

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The art of the political dodge - Don Lemon

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Dodge, duck, dip, dive, then bring it home by dodging again. Works in the game of dodgeball, as well as politics. For more CNN videos, check out our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/CNN?feature=watch! Or visit our site at CNN.com

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Proof by verbosity is using big words to prove that something is true and to make the listener believe because they think you know what you are talking about.

People do this when  they are explaining something and make it sound so complex that the other person can not understand it.

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Appeal to authority is using authority figures to endorse products. This can be a celebrity or someone in a white lab coat.

This can be seen when celebrities go on social media and promote medicines that could possibly be harmful in reality but people will use the promoted drug because the celebrity said it was good.

Here is a website article that explains a situation with Kim Kardashian promoting a harmful medication.

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Earlier this month, Kim Kardashian posted an unexpected drug endorsement to her Instagram account that initiated a title wave of reaction among federal regulators and health practitioners:

"OMG. Have you heard about this?" Kardashian posted, speaking about the morning sickness drug Diclegis. "[I]t's been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby. I'm so excited and happy with my results...."

The post was shared with her 42.4 million Instagram followers and "liked" more than 450,000 times. While the drug's manufacturer, Duchesnay Inc., considered this a big win, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly issued a warning letter citing direct violation of at least one well-defined regulation: Promoting a drug without mentioning the risks is strictly forbidden. The regulation has been defined to apply to TV, print ads and social media.

Kardashian isn't the first celebrity to wield her celebrity haphazardly in support of prescription drugs. Larry the Cable Guy, Sally Fields, Barry Manilow, Phil Mickelson, Bob Dole, Mira Sorvino and even Caitlyn Jenner stand in a long line of celebs who have put their name behind a prescription drug. In 2012, Paula Deen came under fire for her endorsement of Type 2 diabetes drug Victoza. After years of chowing down on beefy burgers and slathering butter on every dish, a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes became her call for reformation- and in Deen's case, so-called reform required little more than a daily pill and a paycheck from the drug company.

Kardashian and Deen are two distinct examples of the dangers of celebrity drug endorsements. Kardashian's post, as the FDA wasted no time pointing out, pointedly tells women that taking Diclegis is not only a good idea, but that it is safe- without ever citing the potential risks or side effects. TV ad or Instagram post, celeb endorsements like these are problematic for physicians, as patients march into the office ticking off symptoms and demanding the drug touted by their favorite celebrity, "If Kim K. takes it, it must be the best solution for me too." This attitude leaves physicians fighting an uphill battle, trying to explain to patients why a particular drug may not be the best choice for them considering medical history, symptoms and the risk of side effects.

Or, in the case of Paula Deen, the unsuspecting public is further solicited to believe that a pill is a glamourous solution for any health crisis. Eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, sit on the couch and watch TV for eight hours a day if you want and when you think your lifestyle might kill you, well, never fear, there's a pill for that. Celebrities taking and endorsing prescription drugs sweeps the hard truth under the rug- no one hears what Deen could have done or should have done for her health. Deen's lifestyle warranted regular monitoring and routine checkups- a simple blood test could have told her early on that she was at risk for diabetes. With proper care, weight loss, a balanced diet and routine physical activity, Deen could have reduced or even eliminated her risk of diabetes.

Protect your health

Before you take Kim's, Paula's, Barry's, Phil's or any other celebrity's word for it, have an open-minded conversation with your doctor. Ask questions about the drugs, and talk about your symptoms and your health concerns. Your doctor will be able to take into account not only these factors but also your medical history, your family medical history and your lifestyle to determine if a drug is the right fit for you. The objective is always to help you achieve optimal health, and that is a goal that is rarely reached with a medicine cabinet full of pills. Prescription drugs should be a last resort, or merely a stepping stone in a comprehensive treatment plan designed to address the root cause of an illness or disorder, eliminating symptoms, reversing disease risk and improving overall health and quality of life.

Dr. Jennifer Landa is Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD, the nation's largest franchise of physicians specializing in bioidentical hormone therapy. Dr. Jen spent 10 years as a traditional OB-GYN, and then became board-certified in regenerative medicine, with an emphasis on bio-identical hormones, preventative medicine and nutrition. She is the author of "The Sex Drive Solution for Women." Learn more about her programs at www.jenlandamd.com.

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How celebrity drug endorsements can harm public health

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Earlier this month, Kim Kardashian posted an unexpected drug endorsement to her Instagram account that initiated a title wave of reaction among federal regulators and health practitioners: "OMG. Have you heard about this?" Kardashian posted, speaking about the morning sickness drug Diclegis. "[I]t's been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby.

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Ancient Wisdom is when people believe in products, teaching and medicines from ancient civilization even though they knew less than we know now.

Ancient wisdom can be seen when people use alternative medicines to help them when they are sick instead of going to a doctor.

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Confirmation bias is when people only pay attention to the things that confirm their beliefs and ignore what does not.

Confirmation bias can be seen when people read about their horoscope and only remember what facts apply to them which leads them to believe their horoscope is accurate to them.

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Made by: Kelley Scales