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Source amnesia

Source amnesia occurs when someone is incapable to recall the source of a certain information. A person will in this case remember a certain information but not where, when and from whom they learned about it. A person’s explicit memory is affected, whereas the implicit memory usually is not, because we forget factual knowledge and not unconscious memories. Furthermore, a theory for the occurrence of source amnesia is that a dissociation of the episodic and semantic memory leads to the lack of context, in which the information was learned. The cause for this type of amnesia is believed to be insufficient memory encoding, which sounds very dangerous, but in fact is experienced by everyone sometimes. If a person does not recall a certain information for a long period of time it is possible to simply forget the source of it, but if this happens regularly it could be a symptom of a serious problem, such as a head trauma or schizophrenia. A head trauma could interfere with the functionality of the frontal lobe, which plays an important role in organizing, storing and linking memories to knowledge a person already attained. Patients who suffer from schizophrenia are very likely to suffer from restrictions in their episodic memory, which is responsible for recalling situations you actually encountered in the past, so also very important in recalling the source of a certain information you have. In contrast, semantic memory is not as affected as episodic memory, which explains why patients are able to recover certain information and facts without actually knowing where they learned those. The consequences of source amnesia can be observed regularly and can be dangerous as misinformation has the potential to spread. Critical thinking and questioning the reliability of a source became more important than ever as information can propagate quickly and unchecked through social media. Additionally, oneself can be the target of source amnesia as it is possible that while writing a paper or an assignment a certain sentence from a textbook or an article pops up in your mind, which feels as if you just came up with it by yourself. If you include those sentences in your paper this is a form of plagiarism, even though you thought you initially came up with a certain phrase. Certainly, these can also be consequences of a source monitoring error, but the major difference here is the misattribution of a source, so where you encountered the information first, and not a complete lack of the source as it is the case in source amnesia. Nevertheless, it is also possible that source amnesia makes a person sensitive to the misattribution of a source, which in turn transforms it into a source monitoring error.

Memory distrust syndrome

The concept of the memory distrust syndrome (MDS) was first introduced by Gudjonsson and MacKeith and since its’ introduction has been integrated into many scientific articles and books. The duo investigated this concept in the context of false confessions during police interrogation. The MDS was defined as “A condition where people develop profound distrust of their memory recollections, as a result of which they are particularly susceptible to relying on external cues and suggestions”. It can be triggered or intensified by different external factors, such as social isolation, persuasive interrogation and high emotional intensity. These cues are most likely fulfilled during police interrogation and have already led to false confessions in the past. The main difference between source amnesia and the MDS is that in source amnesia you cannot recall the source of your information at all and in the case of a MDS you can recall your knowledge, but you certainly do not believe it is true.