Misinformation effect

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_effect 

The misinformation effect occurs when a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information. The misinformation effect has been studied since the mid-1970s. Elizabeth Loftus is one of the most influential researchers in the field. One theory is that original information and the misleading information that was presented after the fact become blended together. Another theory is that the misleading information overwrites the original information. Scientists suggest that because the misleading information is the most recent, it is more easily retrieved.

Visual display of retroactive memory interference

The misinformation effect is an example of retroactive interference which occurs when information presented later interferes with the ability to retain previously encoded information. Individuals have also been shown to be susceptible to incorporating misleading information into their memory when it is presented within a question. Essentially, the new information that a person receives works backward in time to distort memory of the original event. One mechanism through which the misinformation effect occurs is source misattribution, in which the false information given after the event becomes incorporated into people's memory of the actual event. The misinformation effect also appears to stem from memory impairment, meaning that post-event misinformation makes it harder for people to remember the event. The misinformation reflects two of the cardinal sins of memory: suggestibility, the influence of others' expectations on our memory; and misattribution, information attributed to an incorrect source.

Research on the misinformation effect has uncovered concerns about the permanence and reliability of memory. Understanding the misinformation effect is also important given its implications for the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, as there are many chances for misinformation to be incorporated into witnesses' memories through conversations with other witnesses, police questioning, and court appearances.

Methods

Loftus and colleagues conducts early misinformation effect studies in 1974 and 1978. Both studies involved automobile accidents. In the latter study, participants were shown a series of slides, one of which featured a car stopping in front of a stop sign. After viewing the slides, participants read a description of what they saw. Some of the participants were given descriptions that contained misinformation, which stated that the car stopped at a yield sign. Following the slides and the reading of the description, participants were tested on what they saw. The results revealed that participants who were exposed to such misinformation were more likely to report seeing a yield sign than participants who were not misinformed.

Similar methods continue to be used in misinformation effect studies. Standard methods involve showing subjects an event, usually in the form of a slideshow or video. The event is followed by a time delay and introduction of post-event information. Finally, participants are retested on their memory of the original event. The original study paved the way for multiple replications of the effect in order to test things such as the specific processes initially causing the effect to occur and how individual differences influence susceptibility to the effect.

Neurological causes

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 2010 pointed to certain brain areas which were especially active when false memories were retrieved. Participants studied photos during an fMRI. Later, they viewed sentences describing the photographs, some of which contained information conflicting with the photographs. One day later, participants returned for a surprise item memory recognition test on the content of the photographs. Results showed that some participants created false memories, reporting the verbal misinformation conflicting with the photographs. During the original event phase, increased activity in left the fusiform gyrus and the right temporal/occipital cortex was found which may have reflected the attention to visual detail, associated with later accurate memory for the critical item(s) and thus resulted in resistance to the effects of later misinformation. Retrieval of true memories was associated with greater reactivation of sensory-specific cortices, for example, the occipital cortex for vision. Electroencephalography research on this issue also suggests that the retrieval of false memories is associated with reduced attention and recollection related processing relative to true memories.

Susceptibility

It is important to note that not everyone is equally susceptible to the misinformation effect. Individual traits and qualities can either increase or decrease one's susceptibility to recalling misinformation. Such traits and qualities include age, working memory capacity, personality traits and imagery abilities.

Age

Several studies have focused on the influence of the misinformation effect on various age groups. Young children—especially pre-school-aged children—are more susceptible than older children and adults to the misinformation effect. Young children are particularly susceptible to this effect as it relates to peripheral memories and information, as some evidence suggests that the misinformation effect is stronger on an ancillary, existent memory than on a new, purely fabricated memory. This effect is redoubled if its source is in the form of a narrative rather than a question. However, children are also more likely to accept misinformation when it is presented in specific questions rather than in open-ended questions.

Additionally, there are different perspectives regarding the vulnerability of elderly adults to the misinformation effect. Some evidence suggests that elderly adults are more susceptible to the misinformation effect than younger adults. Contrary to this perspective, however, other studies hold that older adults may make fewer mistakes when it comes to the misinformation effect than younger ones, depending on the type of question being asked and the skillsets required in the recall. This contrasting perspective holds that the defining factor when it comes to age, at least in adults, depends largely on cognitive capacity, and the cognitive deterioration that commonly accompanies age to be the typical cause of the typically observed decline. Additionally, there is some research to suggest that older adults and younger adults are equally susceptible to misinformation effects.

Working memory capacity

Individuals with greater working memory capacity are better able to establish a more coherent image of an original event. Participants performed a dual task: simultaneously remembering a word list and judging the accuracy of arithmetic statements. Participants who were more accurate on the dual task were less susceptible to the misinformation effect, which allowed them to reject the misinformation.

Personality traits

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is one type of test used to assess participant personalities. Individuals were presented with the same misinformation procedure as that used in the original Loftus et al. study in 1978 (see above). The results were evaluated in regards to their personality type. Introvert-intuitive participants were more likely to accept both accurate and inaccurate post-event information than extrovert-sensate participants. Researchers suggested that this likely occurred because introverts are more likely to have lower confidence in their memory and are more likely to accept misinformation. Individual personality characteristics, including empathy, absorption and self-monitoring, have also been linked to greater susceptibility. Furthermore, research indicates that people are more susceptible to misinformation when they are more cooperative, dependent on rewards, and self-directed and have lower levels of fear of negative evaluation.

Imagery abilities

The misinformation effect has been examined in individuals with varying imagery abilities. Participants viewed a filmed event followed by descriptive statements of the events in a traditional three-stage misinformation paradigm. Participants with higher imagery abilities were more susceptible to the misinformation effect than those with lower abilities. The psychologists argued that participants with higher imagery abilities were more likely to form vivid images of the misleading information at encoding or at retrieval, therefore increasing susceptibility.

Paired participants

Some evidence suggests that participants, if paired together for discussion, tend to have a homogenizing effect on the memory of one another. In the laboratory, paired participants that discussed a topic containing misinformation tended to display some degree of memory blend, suggesting that the misinformation had diffused among them.

Influential factors

Time

Individuals may not be actively rehearsing the details of a given event after encoding, as psychologists have found that the likelihood of incorporating misinformation increases as the delay between the original event and post-event information increases. Furthermore, studying the original event for longer periods of time leads to lower susceptibility to the misinformation effect, due to increased rehearsal time. Elizabeth Loftus' discrepancy detection principle argue that people's recollections are more likely to change if they do not immediately detect discrepancies between misinformation and the original event. At times people recognize a discrepancy between their memory and what they are being told. People might recollect, "I thought I saw a stop sign, but the new information mentions a yield sign, I guess I must be wrong, it was a yield sign." Although the individual recognizes the information as conflicting with their own memories, they still adopt it as true. If these discrepancies are not immediately detected they are more likely to be incorporated into memory.

Source reliability

The more reliable the source of the post-event information, the more likely it is that participants will adopt the information into their memory. For example, Dodd and Bradshaw (1980) used slides of a car accident for their original event. They then had misinformation delivered to half of the participants by an unreliable source: a lawyer representing the driver. The remaining participants were presented with misinformation, but given no indication of the source. The misinformation was rejected by those who received information from the unreliable source and adopted by the other group of subjects.

Discussion and rehearsal

Psychologists have also evaluated whether discussion impacts the misinformation effect. One study examined the effects of discussion in groups on recognition. The experimenters used three different conditions: discussion in groups with a confederate providing misinformation, discussion in groups with no confederate, and a no-discussion condition. They found that participants in the confederate condition adopted the misinformation provided by the confederate. However, there was no difference between the no-confederate and no-discussion conditions, providing evidence that discussion (without misinformation) is neither harmful nor beneficial to memory accuracy. Additionally, research has found that collaborative pairs showed a smaller misinformation effect than individuals, as collaborative recall allowed witnesses to dismiss misinformation generated by an inaccurate narrative. Furthermore, there is some evidence suggesting that witnesses who talk with each other after watching two different videos of a burglary will claim to remember details shown in the video seen by the other witness.

State of mind

Various inhibited states of mind such as drunkenness and hypnosis can increase misinformation effects. Assefi and Garry (2002) found that participants who believed they had consumed alcohol showed results of the misinformation effect on recall tasks. The same was true of participants under the influence of hypnosis.

Arousal and stress after learning

Arousal induced after learning reduces source confusion, allowing participants to better retrieve accurate details and reject misinformation. In a study of how to reduce the misinformation effect, participants viewed four short film clips, each followed by a retention test, which for some participants included misinformation. Afterward, participants viewed another film clip that was either arousing or neutral. One week later, the arousal group recognized significantly more details and endorsed significantly fewer misinformation items than the neutral group. Similarly, research also suggests that inducing social stress after presenting misinformation makes individuals less likely to accept misinformation.

Anticipation

Educating participants about the misinformation effect can enable them to resist its influence. However, if warnings are given after the presentation of misinformation, they do not aid participants in discriminating between original and post-event information.

Psychotropic placebos

Research published in 2008 showed that placebos enhanced memory performance. Participants were given a placebo "cognitive enhancing drug" called R273. When they participated in a misinformation effect experiment, people who took R273 were more resistant to the effects of misleading post-event information. As a result of taking R273, people used stricter source monitoring and attributed their behavior to the placebo and not to themselves.

Sleep

Controversial perspectives exist regarding the effects of sleep on the misinformation effect. One school of thought supports the idea that sleep can increase individuals' vulnerability to the misinformation effect. In a study examining this, some evidence was found that misinformation susceptibility increases after a sleeping cycle. In this study, the participants that displayed the least degree of misinformation susceptibility were the ones who had not slept since exposure to the original information, indicating that a cycle of sleep increased susceptibility. Researchers have also found that individuals display a stronger misinformation effect when they have a 12-hour sleep interval in between witnessing an event and learning misinformation than when they have a 12-hour wakefulness interval in between the event and the introduction of misinformation.

In contrast, a different school of thought holds that sleep deprivation leads to greater vulnerability to the misinformation effect. This view holds that sleep deprivation increases individual suggestibility. This theory posits that this increased susceptibility would result in a related increase in the development of false memories.

Other

Most obviously, leading questions and narrative accounts can change episodic memories and thereby affect witness' responses to questions about the original event. Additionally, witnesses are more likely to be swayed by misinformation when they are suffering from alcohol withdrawal or sleep deprivation, when interviewers are firm as opposed to friendly, and when participants experience repeated questioning about the event.

Struggles with addressing the misinformation effect

The misinformation effect can have dire consequences on decision making that can have harmful personal and public outcomes in a variety of circumstances. For this reason, various researchers have participated in the pursuit of a means to counter its effects, and many models have been proposed. As with Source Misattribution, attempts to unroot misinformation can have lingering unaddressed effects that do not display in short term examination. Although various perspectives have been proposed, all suffer from a similar lack of meta-analytic examination.

False confirmation

One of the problems with countering the misinformation effect, linked with the complexity of human memory, is the influence of information, whether legitimate or falsified, that appears to support the false information. The presence of these confirmatory messages can serve to validate the Misinformation as presented, making it more difficult to unroot the problem. This is particularly present in situations where the person has a desire for the information to be legitimate.

Directly oppositional messages

A common method of unrooting false concepts is presenting a contrasting, "factual" message. While this would intuitively be a good means of portraying the information to be inaccurate, this type of direct opposition has been linked to an increase in misinformation belief. Some researchers hypothesize that the counter message must have at least as much support, if not more, than the initial message to present a fully developed counter-model for consideration. Otherwise, the recipient may not remember what was wrong about the information and fall back on their prior belief model due to lack of support for the new model.

Exposure to the original source

Some studies suggest that the misinformation effect can occur despite exposure to accurate information. This effect has been demonstrated when the participants have the ability to access an original, accurate video source at whim, and has even been demonstrated when the video is cued to the precise point in time where video evidence that refutes the misinformation is present. Written and photographic contradictory evidence have also been shown to be similarly ineffective. Ultimately, this demonstrates that exposure to the original source is still not guaranteed to overcome the misinformation effect.

Strategies to reduce the misinformation effect

There are a few existing evidence-based models for addressing the misinformation effect. Each of these, however, have their own limitations that impact their effectiveness.

Increased self regard

Some evidence has been shown to suggest that those suffering from the misinformation effect can often tell they are reporting inaccurate information but are insufficiently confident in their own recollections to act on this impression. As such, some research suggests that increased self-confidence, such as in the form of self-affirmative messages and positive feedback, can weaken the misinformation effect. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of introducing increased self-regard in the moment, these treatment methods are held to not be particularly realistic for use in a given moment.

Pretesting as a means of preventing the misinformation Effect

Another direction of study in preventing the misinformation effect is the idea of using a pretest to prevent the misinformation effect. This theory posits that a test, applied prior to the introduction of misleading information, can help maintain the accuracy of the memories developed after that point. This model, however, has two primary limitations: its effects only seem to hold for one item at a time, and data supports the idea that it increases the impact of the information on the subsequent point of data. Pretesting also, paradoxically, has been linked with a decrease in accurate attributions from the original sample.

The use of questions

Another model with some support is that of the use of questions. This model holds that the use of questions rather than declaratory statements prevents the misinformation effect from developing, even when the same information is presented in both scenarios. In fact, the use of questions in presenting information after the fact was linked with increased correct recall, and further with an increase in perfect recall among participants. The advocates of this view hold that this occurs because the mind incorporates definitive statements into itself, whereas it does not integrate questions as easily.

Post-misinformation corrections and warnings

Correcting misinformation after it has been presented has been shown to be effective at significantly reducing the misinformation effect. Similarly, researchers have also examined whether warning people that they might have been exposed to misinformation after the fact impacts the misinformation effect. A meta-analysis of studies researching the effect of warnings after the introduction of misinformation found that warning participants about misinformation was an effective way to reduce—though not eliminate—the misinformation effect. However, the efficacy of post-warnings appears to be significantly lower when using a recall test. Warnings also appear to be less effective when people have been exposed to misinformation more frequently.

Implications

Current research on the misinformation effect presents numerous implications for our understanding of human memory overall.

Variability

Some reject the notion that misinformation always causes impairment of original memories. Modified tests can be used to examine the issue of long-term memory impairment. In one example of such a test,(1985) participants were shown a burglar with a hammer. Standard post-event information claimed the weapon was a screwdriver and participants were likely to choose the screwdriver rather than the hammer as correct. In the modified test condition, post-event information was not limited to one item, instead participants had the option of the hammer and another tool (a wrench, for example). In this condition, participants generally chose the hammer, showing that there was no memory impairment.

Rich false memories

Rich false memories are researchers' attempts to plant entire memories of events which never happened in participants' memories. Examples of such memories include fabricated stories about participants getting lost in the supermarket or shopping mall as children. Researchers often rely on suggestive interviews and the power of suggestion from family members, known as "familial informant false narrative procedure." Around 30% of subjects have gone on to produce either partial or complete false memories in these studies. There is a concern that real memories and experiences may be surfacing as a result of prodding and interviews. To deal with this concern, many researchers switched to implausible memory scenarios. Researchers have also found that they were able to induce rich false memories of committing a crime in early adolescence using a false narrative paradigm.

Daily applications: eyewitness testimony

The misinformation effect can be observed in many situations. In particular, research on the misinformation effect has frequently applied to eyewitness testimony and has been used to evaluate the trustworthiness of eyewitnesses' memory. After witnessing a crime or accident there may be opportunities for witnesses to interact and share information. Late-arriving bystanders or members of the media may ask witnesses to recall the event before law enforcement or legal representatives have the opportunity to interview them. Collaborative recall may lead to a more accurate account of what happened, as opposed to individual responses that may contain more untruths after the fact. However, there have also been instances where multiple eyewitnesses have all remembered information incorrectly. Remembering even small details can be extremely important for eyewitnesses: A jury's perception of a defendant's guilt or innocence could depend on such a detail. If a witness remembers a mustache or a weapon when there was none, the wrong person may be wrongly convicted.

Confabulation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation

In psychology, confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery) or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing (timing, sequence or duration) of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.

Confabulation occurs when individuals mistakenly recall false information, without intending to deceive. Brain damage, dementia, and anticholinergic toxidrome can cause this distortion. Two types of confabulation exist: provoked and spontaneous, with two distinctions: verbal and behavioral. Verbal statements, false information, and the patient's unawareness of the distortion are all associated with this phenomenon. Personality structure also plays a role in confabulation.

Numerous theories have been developed to explain confabulation. Neuropsychological ones suggest that cognitive dysfunction causes the distortion. Self-identity theories posit that people confabulate to preserve themselves. The temporality theory believes that confabulation occurs when an individual cannot place events properly in time. The monitoring and strategic retrieval account theories argue that confabulation arises when individuals cannot recall memories correctly or monitor them after retrieval. The executive control and fuzzy-trace theories also attempt to explain why confabulation happens.

Confabulation can occur with nervous system injuries or illnesses, including Korsakoff's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury. It is believed that the right frontal lobe of the brain is damaged, causing false memories. Children are especially susceptible to forced confabulation as they are highly impressionable. Feedback can increase confidence in false memories. In rare cases, confabulation occurs in ordinary individuals.

Different memory tests, including recognition tasks and free recall tasks, can be used to study confabulation. Treatment depends on the underlying cause of the distortion. Ongoing research aims to develop a standard test battery to discern between different types of confabulations, distinguish delusions from confabulations, understand the role of unconscious processes, and identify pathological and nonpathological confabulations.

Description

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.

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 alcohol use disorder). Additionally confabulation often occurs in people with anticholinergic toxidrome when interrogated about bizarre or irrational behaviour.

Confabulated memories of all types most often occur in autobiographical memory and are indicative of a complicated and intricate process that can be led astray at any point during encoding, storage, or recall of a memory. This type of confabulation is commonly seen in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Distinctions

Two types of confabulation are often distinguished:

• Provoked (momentary, or secondary) confabulations represent a normal response to a faulty memory, are common in both amnesia and dementia, and can become apparent during memory tests.
• Spontaneous (or primary) confabulations do not occur in response to a cue and seem to be involuntary. They are relatively rare, more common in cases of dementia, and may result from the interaction between frontal lobe pathology and organic amnesia.

Another distinction is that between:

• Verbal confabulations- spoken false memories, most common type
• Behavioral confabulations- occur when an individual acts on their false memories

Signs and symptoms

Confabulation is associated with several characteristics:

1. Typically verbal statements but can also be non-verbal gestures or actions.
2. Can include autobiographical and non-personal information, such as historical facts, fairy-tales, 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.

Theories

Theories of confabulation range in emphasis. Some theories propose that confabulations represent a way for memory disabled people to maintain their self-identity. Other theories use neurocognitive links to explain the process of confabulation. Still other theories frame confabulation around the more familiar concept of delusion. Other researchers frame confabulation within the fuzzy-trace theory. Finally, some researchers call for theories that rely less on neurocognitive explanations and more on epistemic accounts.

Neuropsychological theories

The most popular theories of confabulation come from the field of neuropsychology or cognitive neuroscience. Research suggests that confabulation is associated with dysfunction of cognitive processes that control the retrieval from long-term memory. Frontal lobe damage often disrupts this process, preventing the retrieval of information and the evaluation of its output. Furthermore, researchers argue that confabulation is a disorder resulting from failed "reality monitoring/source monitoring" (i.e. deciding whether a memory is based on an actual event or whether it is imagined). Some neuropsychologists suggest that errors in retrieval of information from long-term memory that are made by normal subjects involve different components of control processes than errors made by confabulators. Kraepelin distinguished two subtypes of confabulation, one of which he called simple confabulation, caused partly by errors in the temporal ordering of real events. The other variety he called fantastic confabulation, which was bizarre and patently impossible statements not rooted in true memory. Simple confabulation may result from damage to memory systems in the medial temporal lobe. Fantastic confabulations reveal a dysfunction of the Supervisory System, which is believed to be a function of the frontal cortex.

Self-identity theory

Some argue confabulations have a self-serving, emotional component in those with memory deficits that aids to maintain a coherent self-concept. In other words, people who confabulate are motivated to do so, because they have gaps in their memory that they want to fill in and cover up. People with personality disorders and narcissistic traits confabulate in order to preserve their false self-image and distorted world view.

Temporality theory

Support for the temporality account suggests that confabulations occur when an individual is unable to place events properly in time. Thus, an individual might correctly state an action they performed, but say they did it yesterday, when they did it weeks ago. In the Memory, Consciousness, and Temporality Theory, confabulation occurs because of a deficit in temporal consciousness or awareness.

Monitoring theory

Along a similar notion are the theories of reality and source monitoring theories. In these theories, confabulation occurs when individuals incorrectly attribute memories as reality, or incorrectly attribute memories to a certain source. Thus, an individual might claim an imagined event happened in reality, or that a friend told him/her about an event he/she actually heard about on television.

Strategic retrieval account theory

Supporters of the strategic retrieval account suggest that confabulations occur when an individual cannot actively monitor a memory for truthfulness after its retrieval. An individual recalls a memory, but there is some deficit after recall that interferes with the person establishing its falseness.

Executive control theory

Still others propose that all types of false memories, including confabulation, fit into a general memory and executive function model. In 2007, a framework for confabulation was proposed that stated confabulation is the result of two things: Problems with executive control and problems with evaluation. In the executive control deficit, the incorrect memory is retrieved from the brain. In the evaluative deficit, the memory will be accepted as a truth due to an inability to distinguish a belief from an actual memory.

In the context of delusion theories

Recent models of confabulation have attempted to build upon the link between delusion and confabulation. More recently, a monitoring account for delusion, applied to confabulation, proposed both the inclusion of conscious and unconscious processing. The claim was that by encompassing the notion of both processes, spontaneous versus provoked confabulations could be better explained. In other words, there are two ways to confabulate. One is the unconscious, spontaneous way in which a memory goes through no logical, explanatory processing. The other is the conscious, provoked way in which a memory is recalled intentionally by the individual to explain something confusing or unusual.

Fuzzy-trace theory

Fuzzy-trace theory, or FTT, is a concept more commonly applied to the explanation of judgement decisions. According to this theory, memories are encoded generally (gist), as well as specifically (verbatim). Thus, a confabulation could result from recalling the incorrect verbatim memory or from being able to recall the gist portion, but not the verbatim portion, of a memory.

FTT uses a set of five principles to explain false-memory phenomena. Principle 1 suggests that subjects store verbatim information and gist information parallel to one another. Both forms of storage involve the surface content of an experience. Principle 2 shares factors of retrieval of gist and verbatim traces. Principle 3 is based on dual-opponent processes in false memory. Generally, gist retrieval supports false memory, while verbatim retrieval suppresses it. Developmental variability is the topic of Principle 4. As a child develops into an adult, there is obvious improvement in the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of both verbatim and gist memory. However, during late adulthood, there will be a decline in these abilities. Finally, Principle 5 explains that verbatim and gist processing cause vivid remembering. Fuzzy-trace Theory, governed by these 5 principles, has proved useful in explaining false memory and generating new predictions about it.

Epistemic theory

However, not all accounts are so embedded in the neurocognitive aspects of confabulation. Some attribute confabulation to epistemic accounts. In 2009, theories underlying the causation and mechanisms for confabulation were criticized for their focus on neural processes, which are somewhat unclear, as well as their emphasis on the negativity of false remembering. Researchers proposed that an epistemic account of confabulation would be more encompassing of both the advantages and disadvantages of the process.

Presentation

Associated neurological and psychological conditions

Confabulations are often symptoms of various syndromes and psychopathologies in the adult population, including Korsakoff's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury.

Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is a neurological disorder typically characterized by years of alcohol use disorder characterized by excessive alcohol consumption and a nutritional thiamine deficiency. Confabulation is one salient symptom of this syndrome. A study on confabulation in Korsakoff's patients found that they are subject to provoked confabulation when prompted with questions pertaining to episodic memory, not semantic memory, and when prompted with questions where the appropriate response would be "I don't know." This suggests that confabulation in these patients is "domain-specific." Korsakoff's patients who confabulate are more likely than healthy adults to falsely recognize distractor words, suggesting that false recognition is a "confabulatory behavior."

Alzheimer's disease is a condition with both neurological and psychological components. It is a form of dementia associated with severe frontal lobe dysfunction. Confabulation in individuals with Alzheimer's is often more spontaneous than it is in other conditions, especially in the advanced stages of the disease. Alzheimer's patients demonstrate comparable abilities to encode information as healthy elderly adults, suggesting that impairments in encoding are not associated with confabulation. However, as seen in Korsakoff's patients, confabulation in Alzheimer's patients is higher when prompted with questions investigating episodic memory. Researchers suggest this is due to damage in the posterior cortical regions of the brain, which is a symptom characteristic of Alzheimer's disease.

Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder in which confabulation is sometimes observed. Although confabulation is usually coherent in its presentation, confabulations of schizophrenic patients are often delusional. Researchers have noted that these patients tend to make up delusions on the spot which are often fantastic and become increasingly elaborate with questioning. Unlike patients with Korsakoff's and Alzheimer's, patients with schizophrenia are more likely to confabulate when prompted with questions regarding their semantic memories, as opposed to episodic memory prompting. In addition, confabulation does not appear to be related to any memory deficit in schizophrenic patients. This is contrary to most forms of confabulation. Also, confabulations made by schizophrenic patients often do not involve the creation of new information, but instead involve an attempt by the patient to reconstruct actual details of a past event.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can also result in confabulation. Research has shown that patients with damage to the inferior medial frontal lobe confabulate significantly more than patients with damage to the posterior area and healthy controls. This suggests that this region is key in producing confabulatory responses, and that memory deficit is important but not necessary in confabulation. Additionally, research suggests that confabulation can be seen in patients with frontal lobe syndrome, which involves an insult to the frontal lobe as a result of disease or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Finally, rupture of the anterior or posterior communicating artery, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and encephalitis are also possible causes of confabulation.

Location of brain lesions

Confabulation is believed to be a result of damage to the right frontal lobe of the brain. In particular, damage can be localized to the ventromedial frontal lobes and other structures fed by the anterior communicating artery (ACoA), including the basal forebrain, septum, fornix, cingulate gyrus, cingulum, anterior hypothalamus, and head of the caudate nucleus.

Developmental differences

While some recent literature has suggested that older adults may be more susceptible than their younger counterparts to have false memories, the majority of research on forced confabulation centers around children. Children are particularly susceptible to forced confabulations based on their high suggestibility. When forced to recall confabulated events, children are less likely to remember that they had previously confabulated these situations, and they are more likely than their adult counterparts to come to remember these confabulations as real events that transpired. Research suggests that this inability to distinguish between past confabulatory and real events is centered on developmental differences in source monitoring. Due to underdeveloped encoding and critical reasoning skills, children's ability to distinguish real memories from false memories may be impaired. It may also be that younger children lack the meta-memory processes required to remember confabulated versus non-confabulated events. Children's meta-memory processes may also be influenced by expectancies or biases, in that they believe that highly plausible false scenarios are not confabulated. However, when knowingly being tested for accuracy, children are more likely to respond, "I don't know" at a rate comparable to adults for unanswerable questions than they are to confabulate. Ultimately, misinformation effects can be minimized by tailoring individual interviews to the specific developmental stage, often based on age, of the participant.

Provoked versus spontaneous confabulations

There is evidence to support different cognitive mechanisms for provoked and spontaneous confabulation. One study suggested that spontaneous confabulation may be a result of an amnesic patient's inability to distinguish the chronological order of events in their memory. In contrast, provoked confabulation may be a compensatory mechanism, in which the patient tries to make up for their memory deficiency by attempting to demonstrate competency in recollection.

Confidence in false memories

Confabulation of events or situations may lead to an eventual acceptance of the confabulated information as true. For instance, people who knowingly lie about a situation may eventually come to believe that their lies are truthful with time. In an interview setting, people are more likely to confabulate in situations in which they are presented false information by another person, as opposed to when they self-generate these falsehoods. Further, people are more likely to accept false information as true when they are interviewed at a later time (after the event in question) than those who are interviewed immediately or soon after the event. Affirmative feedback for confabulated responses is also shown to increase the confabulator's confidence in their response. For instance, in culprit identification, if a witness falsely identifies a member of a line-up, he will be more confident in his identification if the interviewer provides affirmative feedback. This effect of confirmatory feedback appears to last over time, as witnesses will even remember the confabulated information months later.

Among normal subjects

On rare occasions, confabulation can also be seen in normal subjects. It is currently unclear how completely healthy individuals produce confabulations. It is possible that these individuals are in the process of developing some type of organic condition that is causing their confabulation symptoms. It is not uncommon, however, for the general population to display some very mild symptoms of provoked confabulations. Subtle distortions and intrusions in memory are commonly produced by normal subjects when they remember something poorly.

Diagnosis and treatment

Spontaneous confabulations, due to their involuntary nature, cannot be manipulated in a laboratory setting. However, provoked confabulations can be researched in various theoretical contexts. The mechanisms found to underlie provoked confabulations can be applied to spontaneous confabulation mechanisms. The basic premise of researching confabulation comprises finding errors and distortions in memory tests of an individual.

Deese–Roediger–McDermott lists

Confabulations can be detected in the context of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm by using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott lists. Participants listen to audio recordings of several lists of words centered around a theme, known as the critical word. The participants are later asked to recall the words on their list. If the participant recalls the critical word, which was never explicitly stated in the list, it is considered a confabulation. Participants often have a false memory for the critical word.

Recognition tasks

Confabulations can also be researched by using continuous recognition tasks. These tasks are often used in conjunction with confidence ratings. Generally, in a recognition task, participants are rapidly presented with pictures. Some of these pictures are shown once; others are shown multiple times. Participants press a key if they have seen the picture previously. Following a period of time, participants repeat the task. More errors on the second task, versus the first, are indicative of confusion, representing false memories.

Free recall tasks

Confabulations can also be detected using a free recall task, such as a self-narrative task. Participants are asked to recall stories (semantic or autobiographical) that are highly familiar to them. The stories recalled are encoded for errors that could be classified as distortions in memory. Distortions could include falsifying true story elements or including details from a completely different story. Errors such as these would be indicative of confabulations.

Treatment

Treatment for confabulation is somewhat dependent on the cause or source, if identifiable. For example, treatment of Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome involves large doses of vitamin B in order to reverse the thiamine deficiency. If there is no known physiological cause, more general cognitive techniques may be used to treat confabulation. A case study published in 2000 showed that Self-Monitoring Training (SMT) reduced delusional confabulations. Furthermore, improvements were maintained at a three-month follow-up and were found to generalize to everyday settings. Although this treatment seems promising, more rigorous research is necessary to determine the efficacy of SMT in the general confabulation population.

Research

Although significant gains have been made in the understanding of confabulation in recent years, there is still much to be learned. One group of researchers in particular has laid out several important questions for future study. They suggest more information is needed regarding the neural systems that support the different cognitive processes necessary for normal source monitoring. They also proposed the idea of developing a standard neuro-psychological test battery able to discriminate between the different types of confabulations. And there is a considerable amount of debate regarding the best approach to organizing and combining neuro-imaging, pharmacological, and cognitive/behavioral approaches to understand confabulation.

In a recent review article, another group of researchers contemplate issues concerning the distinctions between delusions and confabulation. They question whether delusions and confabulation should be considered distinct or overlapping disorders and, if overlapping, to what degree? They also discuss the role of unconscious processes in confabulation. Some researchers suggest that unconscious emotional and motivational processes are potentially just as important as cognitive and memory problems. Finally, they raise the question of where to draw the line between the pathological and the nonpathological. Delusion-like beliefs and confabulation-like fabrications are commonly seen in healthy individuals. What are the important differences between patients with similar etiology who do and do not confabulate? Since the line between pathological and nonpathological is likely blurry, should we take a more dimensional approach to confabulation? Research suggests that confabulation occurs along a continuum of implausibility, bizarreness, content, conviction, preoccupation, and distress, and impact on daily life.

Narrative of the abduction phenomenon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_abduction_phenomenon

 

The narrative of the abduction phenomenon is an alleged core of similarity in contents and chronology underlying various claims of forced temporary abduction of humans by apparently otherworldly beings. Proponents of the abduction phenomenon contend that this similarity is evidence of the veracity of the phenomenon as an objective reality, although this belief is disregarded by most scientists, who regard alien abduction as a purely psychological and cultural phenomenon.

Skeptics of the abduction phenomenon contend that similarities between reports arise from commonalities rooted in human psychology and neurology or cast doubt on the presence of similarities between reports at all. They note the evolving contents of abduction claims and the apparent effect of culture on the details of the narratives as evidence that the phenomenon is a purely subjective experience. Skeptics also point out the likelihood of large numbers of hoaxes being present in the abduction literature.

Believers assert that it is unlikely for hundreds of people to independently generate such similar narratives while apparently having no knowledge of each other's claims. Some abduction investigators attempt to confirm the reality of events reported in abduction claims through observation or experimentation, although such efforts are generally dismissed as pseudoscientific by mainstream academics.

Overview

Although different cases vary in detail (sometimes significantly), some UFO researchers, such as folklorist Thomas E. Bullard argue that there is a broad, fairly consistent sequence and description of events which make up the typical "close encounter of the fourth kind" (a popular but unofficial designation building on Dr. J. Allen Hynek's classifying terminology). Though the features outlined below are often reported, there is some disagreement as to exactly how often they actually occur. Some researchers (especially Budd Hopkins and David M. Jacobs) have been accused of excluding, minimising or suppressing testimony or data which do not fit a certain paradigm for the phenomenon.

Bullard argues most abduction accounts feature the following events. They generally follow the sequence noted below, though not all abductions feature all the events:

1. Capture. The abductee is forcibly taken from terrestrial surroundings to an apparent alien space craft.
2. Examination. Invasive medical or scientific procedures are performed on the abductee.
3. Conference. The abductors speak to the abductee.
4. Tour. The abductees are given a tour of their captors' vessel.
5. Loss of Time. Abductees rapidly forget the majority of their experience.
6. Return. The abductees are returned to earth. Occasionally in a different location from where they were allegedly taken or with new injuries or disheveled clothing.
7. Theophany. The abductee has a profound mystical experience, accompanied by a feeling of oneness with God or the universe.
8. Aftermath. The abductee must cope with the psychological, physical, and social effects of the experience.

Nyman's alternate outline

Abduction researcher Joe Nyman has composed a similar but alternative model for abduction narratives.

1. Anxious Anticipation of Something Unknown. The abductee feels that something "familiar yet unknown" will soon occur.
2. Transition of Consciousness and Immediate Aftermath. An altered state of consciousness overtakes the abductee rendering them docile and incapable of resistance.
3. Psycho-physical Imposition and Interaction. Apparently alien beings forcibly perform medical and scientific procedures on the abductee.
4. Reassurance, Positive Feelings, and a Sense of Purpose Given. The captors suddenly act more benevolently and the experience takes a turn to the positive.
5. Transition of Consciousness to Normal Waking. The altered state of consciousness induced in the second step ends.
6. Rapid Forgetfulness of Most or All Memory of Experience. Most memories of the experience fade.
7. Marker Stage. Missing time noted, bizarre but seemingly non-sensical memories of being abducted by aliens are present. Sometimes there are recurring nightmares.
8. Cycle Interval. Normal life resumes until the next experience.

When describing the "abduction scenario", David M. Jacobs says:

The entire abduction event is precisely orchestrated. All the procedures are predetermined. There is no standing around and deciding what to do next. The beings are task-oriented and there is no indication whatsoever that we have been able to find of any aspect of their lives outside of performing the abduction procedures.

Alleged alien abductions are often closely connected to UFO reports, and are sometimes supposedly conducted by so-called Greys: Short, grey-skinned humanoids with large, pear-shaped heads and enormous dark eyes, although many different types of abducting entities have been reported, and the reported abductors seem to vary by the culture and place of origin of the experience.

Capture

Abduction claimants report unusual feelings preceding the onset of an abduction experience. These feelings manifest as a compulsive desire to be at a certain place at a certain time or as expectations that something "familiar yet unknown" will soon occur. Abductees also report feeling severe, undirected anxiety at this point even though nothing unusual has actually occurred yet. This period of foreboding can last for up to several days before the abduction actually takes place or be completely absent.

Eventually, the experiencer will undergo an apparent "shift" into an altered state of consciousness. British abduction researchers have called this change in consciousness "the Oz Factor". External sounds cease to have any significance to the experiencer and fall out of perception. They report feeling introspective and unusually calm. This stage marks a transition from normal activity to a state of "limited self-willed mobility". As consciousness shifts one or more lights are alleged to appear, occasionally accompanied by a strange mist. The source and nature of the lights differ by report, sometimes the light emanates from a source outside the house (presumably the abductors' UFO), sometimes the lights are in the bedroom with the experiencer and transform into alien figures.

As the alleged abduction proceeds, claimants say they will walk or be levitated into an alien craft, often through solid objects like walls or a window. Alternatively, they may experience rising through a tunnel with or without the abductors accompanying them into the awaiting craft.

Most abductees report being taken from their bedroom prior to falling asleep. Typically, at the onset of the abduction experience, the abductee will report paralysis, sighting a bright light, and the appearance of humanoid figures.

In many abduction reports, the individual(s) concerned are traveling by automobile at the time of the incident, usually at night or in the early morning hours, and usually in a rural or sparsely populated area. A UFO will be seen ahead (sometimes on the road), and the driver will either deliberately stop to investigate, or the car will stop due to apparent mechanical failure. Other forms of mechanical failure and interference are also common, such as a car radio producing static or behaving abnormally. In the occasions when they have been present, animals such as dogs usually also display a heightened fear response.

Some reports indicate the alleged aliens, often the Greys, using a pencil-sized, black device with a light on the end of it to make the abductee compliant.

Upon getting out of the vehicle, the driver and passenger(s) often will experience a blank period and amnesia (see Missing Time), after which they will find themselves again standing in front of, or driving their car. While they frequently will not consciously remember the experience, either subsequent nightmares or hypnosis will reveal events interpreted as having occurred during the period lacking explicit memory.

Examination

The examination phase of the so-called "abduction narrative" is characterized by the performance of medical procedures and examinations by apparently alien beings against or irrespective of the will of the experiencer. Such procedures often focus on sex and reproductive biology. However, the literature holds reports of a wide variety of procedures allegedly performed by the beings. The entity that appears to be in charge of the operation is often taller than the others involved.

Physician and abduction researcher Dr. John G. Miller explains that among abduction reports what stands out is the contrast between procedures performed by the alleged entities and those performed by doctors practicing typical human medicine. He points out that we're not "hearing about 'our kind of medicine'". Miller believes these differences add credibility to claims of alien abductions, because if they were hoaxes or confabulations, the reports should more closely resemble the human medicine familiar to the claimants.

Miller notes different areas of emphasis between human medicine and what is allegedly being practiced by the abductors. The abductors' areas of interest appear to be the cranium (see below), nervous system, skin, reproductive system, and to a lesser degree, the joints. Systems given less attention than a human doctor would – or omitted entirely – include the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system below the pharynx and the lymphatic system. The abductors also appear to ignore the upper region of the abdomen in favor of the lower one.

There are also differences in procedure as well as emphasis between human medicine and that claimed to be practiced by the entities. The abductors do not appear to wear gloves during the "examination". Other constants of terrestrial medicine like pills and tablets are missing from abduction narratives, although sometimes abductees are asked to drink liquids. Injections also seem to be rare and IVs are almost completely absent. Dr. Miller says he has never heard an abductee claim to have a tongue depressor used on them.

Cranial procedures

Yvonne Smith, a certified hypnotherapist and abduction researcher, notes that "startling similarities" between procedures performed on the head reported by abductees arise when comparing reports of hypnotically retrieved abduction memories. She states that the most commonly reported sensations and procedures performed to the head are feelings of pressure in or on the head and the insertion of needles into the scalp. During cranial procedures, the abductee's head is often restrained by a strap or metal bar drawn across the forehead. The abductors will sometimes touch the forehead of the experiencer, which strangely seems to ease their anxiety and whatever physical pain they may be experiencing.

Reports of the entities drilling into the skull have also been given by several of Smith's clients. In one instance, the claimed site of the drilling corresponded with an actual red mark on the back of experiencer's head. An attempt to document this mark photographically was made, but turned out unsuccessful. The same client reported smelling something burning upon the termination of the procedure. Smith has wondered if this could represent the being cauterizing the wound left by the drilling procedure by the abducting entities.

Other common cranial procedures involve the ears. Reports of pressure or intense heat being experienced within one or both ears are the most common given during the hypnotic retrieval of memories. Experiencers have compared these sensations to the insertions of long needles and to having a high-powered laser aimed into the ear.

The insertion of long needle-like objects into the nasal passages is also common in reported abductions, and always allegedly performed without the aid of a speculum. This is quite unlike typical human medicine, where a speculum would be used to allow doctors to see what they are doing. John G. Miller asserts "We [terrestrial medical practitioners] certainly do not 'blindly' insert long objects into our patients' noses." He speculates that this probing may represent a biopsy of the olfactory mucous membrane. However, sometimes it is reported that these long probes are used to insert spherical metallic "implants" into the nasal cavity.bductees reporting these implants often claim to experience nosebleeds after the alleged abduction.

One of Smith's clients reported the removal of his skull cap and some sort of procedure being performed to his exposed brain with a needle-like instrument. The procedure reminded him of welding. One of his abductors tried to reassure him verbally while the apparent neurological procedure was being performed.

Reproductive, gynecological and urological procedures

Many female abductees report a "gynecological" aspect to the abduction experience, although staples of terrestrial gynecology such as the bimanual pelvic exam are missing from the alleged abduction experiences. Sometimes reports are made where the abductees are made to have sex with apparent human–alien hybrids or other abductees. David M. Jacobs says that sex with full-blooded aliens "is not a feature of the abduction scenario." Males report that sperm is either taken or they have sex with the aliens, or both.

One procedure reported occurring during the alleged exam phase of the experience is the insertion of a long needle-like contraption into a woman's navel. Although most well known to have occurred in the Betty and Barney Hill abduction as a "pregnancy test", this feature has even been reported by little girls.

Other procedures

Skin scrapings are a staple of abduction reports from as far back as the Hill encounter. According to Richard Hall, most skin scrapings are reportedly taken from the arms and collar bone region. Physician and abduction researcher John Altshuler notes that the main reasons a human doctor would collect skin scrapings would be to check for bacterial or fungal infections. Altshuler dismisses speculation from other abduction researchers that the aliens are collecting the skin samples to analyze the DNA contained therein because the samples would not constitute "a rich source of DNA".

Reported devices and instruments

When the Grey aliens encounter an abductee who will resist capture, is even combative, the aliens use a device that is black, cylindrical, the size of a US No. 2 pencil, which has a bluish light on one end. The alien fires this at the abductee to render the abductee compliant. It is like the "phaser" seen in the Star Trek franchise when being fired, only that it fires a bluish-white beam. It causes no pain, but numbs the human will.

Although the chest is not an area of emphasis to the alleged abductors, it is sometimes reported that a device of some sort is placed on the chest. Physician and abduction researcher Dr. John G. Miller says that he cannot distinguish whether this device is an EKG, chest X-ray or echocardiogram. Experiencers also sometimes report being targeted by "diffused colored lights" during the examination. John G. Miller notes that phototherapy is rare in human medicine.

When the abductors appear to use devices analogous to those used in human medicine, they are often quite different; for example, alleged alien syringes are often reported as being "three-pronged".

Subsequent abduction procedures

After the so-called medical exam, the alleged abductees often report other procedures being performed with the entities. Common among these post-examination procedures are what abduction researchers refer to as imaging, envisioning, staging, and testing.

• "Imaging" procedures consist of an abductee being made to view screens displaying images and scenes that appear to be specially chosen with the intent to provoke certain emotional responses in the abductee. Commonly the images will show frightening scenes with themes of nuclear war, environmental disasters or similar calamities. Sometimes, though, the screens will display pleasant or mundane scenes.
• "Envisioning" is a similar procedure, with the primary difference being that the images being viewed, rather than being on a screen, actually seem to be projected into the experiencer's mind. While this occurs, a small Grey stares deeply into the abductee's eyes.
• "Staging" procedures have the abductee playing a more active role, according to reports containing this element. It shares vivid hallucination-like mental visualization with the envisioning procedures, but during staging the abductee interacts with the illusionary scenario like a role-player or an actor. The abductors are alleged to be monitoring experiencers' emotions during this procedure.
• "Testing" marks something of a departure from the above procedures in that it lacks the emotional analysis feature. During testing, the experiencer is placed in front of a complicated electronic device and is instructed to operate it. The experiencer is often confused, saying that they do not know how to operate it. However, when they actually set about performing the task, the abductee will find that they do, in fact, know how to operate the machine.

Child presentation

Abductees of all ages (even small children) and genders sometimes report being subjected to a "child presentation". As its name implies, the child presentation involves the abduction claimant being shown a "child". Often the children appear to be neither human, nor the same species as the abductors. Instead, the child will almost always share characteristics of both species. These children are labeled by experiencers as hybrids between humans and their abductors, usually Greys. It has been speculated that these children are the products of the reproductive procedures performed during the medical phase of the abduction.

Unlike Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, folklorist Thomas Bullard could not identify a child presentation phase in the abduction narrative, even after undertaking a study of 300 abduction reports. Bullard says that the child presentation "seems to be an innovation in the story", and that "no clear antecedents" to descriptions of the child presentation phase exist prior to its popularization by Hopkins and JacobsThe hybrid children appearing in reported presentations vary in age and are often encountered over the course of several abductions. It is reported that they seem to age normally over the course of repeated alleged abductions. In reported abductions, after reaching adolescence, the hybrids begin assisting the strange entities in administering the abduction procedure. Furthermore, when they reach adulthood, the hybrids become completely involved in the operation and will not be the subject of "presentation" to the abductee. Some abductees have reported being made to have sex with hybrids.

The hybrid children are sometimes described as being kept in nurseries. There are usually 10–50 hybrids present, but some claimants have reported greater numbers. Some alleged abductees have reported "incubatoria", where the walls are lined with fluid-filled containers where developing hybrid fetuses are kept.

When the child is presented to the abductee, the abductors appear to have specific expectations of what the abductee is to do with the child. Sometimes the abductee will be required to show affection towards the children by hugging them, or if presented with younger hybrids, to cradle them close to the body. Sometimes the hybrid will engage in a "mind-scan" of the abductee. Female abductees have reported being ordered to breastfeed hybrid infants. The alleged experiencers' reaction to this command varies; sometimes they comply, but some women are horrified by the thought.

Less common elements

Folklorist Dr. Thomas E. Bullard conducted a study of 300 reports of alien abduction in an attempt to observe the less prominent aspects of the claims. He notes the emergence of four general categories of events which recur regularly, although not as frequently as stereotypical happenings like the medical examination. These four types of events are:

1. The conference
2. The tour
3. The journey
4. Theophany

Chronologically within abduction reports, these rarer episodes tend to happen in the order listed, between the medical examination and the return.

Conference

After allegedly displaying cold callous disregard towards the abduction experiencers, sometimes the entities will change drastically in behavior once the initial medical exam is completed. They become more relaxed and hospitable towards their captive and lead him or her away from the site of the examination. The entities then hold a conference with the experiencer, wherein they discuss things relevant to the abduction phenomenon. In Dr. Bullard's study, 79 out of 300 studied abduction claims included a conference narrative. Not all conferences are reported to occur in the same manner. Bullard notes five general categories of discussion that occur during the conference "phase" of reported abduction narratives:

1. Interrogation session
2. Explanatory segment
3. Task assignment
4. Warnings
5. Prophecies

During an interrogation session, one party involved in the abduction will question the other. This can mean that the witness is permitted to ask questions of his captors or that the entities will ask questions of the experiencer. The entities usually ask about aspects of human life that appear to puzzle them. Dr. Bullard notes: "Time, life-spans, emotions and the individuality of humans seem to be recurrent topics." The aliens also sometimes question the abductees about life on earth, or on their reproductive practices. In some cases, the aliens make inquiries about advanced scientific concepts, such as theoretical physics or neutron bomb technologies, apparently under the assumption that all humans are familiar with these concepts.

The explanatory segment is a phase where the abductors will explain their motives to their captive, why the abductee was chosen as opposed to another human, or other things relating to the abduction phenomenon. Sometimes the entities will apologize for the cruel treatment they gave the abductee when they subjected them to being kidnapped and the medical examination. The entities often appear reluctant to disclose certain pieces of information, especially regarding their origins. Sometimes it seems like the entities are being dishonest towards the alleged experiencer. No two abduction claimants in the three hundred studied by Dr. Bullard gave identical places of origin for the aliens that allegedly abducted them.

The task assignment phase, if present, involves a request or command from the abductors to the experiencer to be performed on their behalf. Usually the assigned task is some form of reconnaissance or information gathering, often related to human emotion or everyday life. Implicit in the assignment is the idea that the experiencer will be abducted again in the future.

Warnings are sometimes given by the entities about the possibilities of future calamity resulting from current trends in human society such as warfare and the development of weapons of mass destruction or pollution and environmental concerns. Sometimes the entities go a step farther and issue specific prophecies of future disaster. The entities often claim that they will attempt to help humanity recover in the aftermath of the prophesied calamity. At times, abduction claimants have reported that specific dates were given to them for a disaster to occur, yet none of these specific prophecies has ever come to pass.

Tour

Tours of the abductors' craft are a rare but recurring feature of the abduction narrative. Thomas Bullard reports that in a study of 300 reported abduction events, only 16 contained some sort of tour. The tour seems to be given by the alleged abductors as a courtesy in response to the harshness and physical rigors of the forced medical examination.

Abduction claimants often feel that the "engine room" is the most memorable aspect, although control rooms and in very rare cases living or recreation areas have been visited in some reports. The "engine" of the craft is sometimes described as being composed of "crystals and rotor-like devices".

Journey

Although being transported from familiar terrestrial surroundings is an inherent part of the abduction phenomenon, some reports make claims of further transport when taken into the abductors' vessel. Sometimes the abductee reports that this journey is constrained to Earth or in orbit around it. However, there are reports of journeys to what appear to be other planets.

When an otherworldly journey starts in these reports, the abductors often put the abductee in some sort of protective environment, usually described as a chamber filled with liquid. In some bizarre cases, the travel isn't accomplished by means of the abductors' vessel at all, but rather through some sort of out-of-body state.

Once in motion, the vessel (often described as a UFO) will enter a "mother ship" or end up traveling underwater or underground to a strange, otherworldly location. This "otherworld" is often described as being a desert wasteland with a futuristic city. Occasionally the landscape is quite different from this, almost jungle-like, although the futuristic city is also present. Abductees have reported encountering other humans on these foreign worlds, or visiting zoos and museums.

Theophany

While some abductees find that the experience is terrifying, particularly if the aliens are of a more fearsome species, or if the abductee was subjected to extensive probing and medical testing, other abductees experience "theophany" – a sense of oneness with the universe or with God, described by Dr. Kenneth Ring as a "greater awareness of the interconnectedness and sacredness of all life". According to some researchers, theophanies are a rare feature of abduction reports. Only 6 of 300 reports in a study by Thomas Bullard volunteered information pertaining to this feature. Other researchers suggest that investigators have overlooked this feature; psychologist Susan A. Clancy, a skeptic at Harvard Medical School who studied abductees' psychology, noted that "all of the subjects, without exception, said they felt 'changed' because of their experiences. ...Abductees have said, it 'enlarged my world view,' 'gave me wisdom to share,' 'caused me to care about the spiritual path of mankind,' 'expanded my reality'." "Being abducted by aliens", she concludes, "is a transformative event. ...It's clear that people get from their abduction beliefs the same things that millions of people the world over derive from their religions: meaning, reassurance, mystical revelation, spirituality, transformation." Some abduction-induced theophanies have included visions or insight into alien religions. It is not known whether this is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within the abductee due to their own beliefs, or if it is imparted to the abductee by the purported alien beings.

Return

Eventually the abductors will return the abductees to terra firma, usually to exactly the same location and circumstances they were in prior to being taken. Usually, explicit memories of the abduction experience will not be present, and the abductee will realize they have experienced "missing time" upon checking a timepiece.

Sometimes the alleged abductors appear to make mistakes when returning their captives. UFO researcher Budd Hopkins has joked about "the cosmic application of Murphy's Law" in response to this observation. Hopkins has estimated that these "errors" accompany 4–5% of abduction reports. One type of common apparent mistake made by the abductors is failing to return the experiencer to the same spot that they were taken from initially. This can be as simple as a different room in the same house, or abductees can even find themselves outside and all the doors of the house locked from the inside.

David M. Jacobs recounts a report of a more severe "wrong location" mistake. An abductee claims that she was driving and the next thing she knew, about 5 hours had passed. She was standing in the middle of a cornfield with her car nearby. There was no evidence that she had driven there as the stalks of corn were all intact and upright. Suddenly she loses consciousness briefly and then finds herself on the road driving again. It was as if the abductors had accidentally returned her to the wrong place, realized what they had done, and then corrected their mistake.

Some abduction claimants have reported being returned to the correct location, but in a different circumstance. Common reports will have the abductee clothed when they went to bed, but nude when they awaken. Sometimes their clothes will be folded by their bedside, missing, or in rare cases, someone else's clothes will be there and their own clothing lost. Reports have been made of people awakening to find that their clothes are being worn improperly in bizarre ways (e.g. a long-sleeve shirt apparently forced up over the legs like a pair of pants). The body or other objects may be covered with a fine dust.

Some have speculated that these apparently bizarre, pointless behaviors were not mistakes at all.

Missing time

Dr. Don C. Donderi writes: "In many of these abduction accounts, there is independent confirmation of missing time – emotionally stable people arriving hours late after long or short automobile journeys. There is independent confirmation of abduction events reported under hypnosis, sometimes by non hypnotized observers and sometimes by other hypnotized witnesses" (Donderi, 66).

Realization event

Physician and abduction researcher John G. Miller sees significance in the reason a person would come to see themselves as being a victim of the abduction phenomenon. He terms the insight or development leading to this shift in identity from non-abductee to abductee the "realization event". The realization event is often a single, memorable experience, but Miller reports that not all abductees experience it as a distinct episode. Either way, the realization event can be thought of as the "clinical horizon" of the abduction experience. Dr. Miller has compiled an incomplete list of common triggers for the realization event in a paper presented at the 1992 alien abduction conference held at MIT:

1. Tangible evidence, such as unexplained wounds or bodily changes or modification to the abductee's environment.
2. Conversations with other abductees or exposure to abduction claims.
3. Exposure to depictions of the abduction phenomenon in popular culture or the media.
4. Hypnotic retrieval of abduction memories.

Sometimes the advent of the realization that one is an abductee can cause a "flood" of previously hidden memories of one's perceived encounters with "the entities". Although the realization event is sometimes triggered by an attempt to hypnotically retrieve memories, it is frequently remembered consciously without any such assistance. Consequently, Miller sees it as a good "starting point" for a researcher investigating an individual subject.

Skeptical response

Role of hypnosis and investigators in shaping the narrative

Skeptics Robert Sheaffer and Phillip J. Klass agree that individual abduction researchers appear to exert influence on the characteristics of narratives retrieved during hypnotic recall. This influence tends to shape recovered abduction narratives in a way that reinforces the preconceived biases of the individual researcher. Klass jokingly recommends those considering hypnotic regression to uncover abduction memories to visit R. Leo Sprinkle, whose regression sessions more frequently "uncover" reports of benevolent aliens. Sheaffer also cites research done into hypnosis as a method for enhancing memory that concludes that false memories, subjectively real to the patient, can be created merely through suggestions while they are in a hypnotic trance.

Effect of geography and culture on abduction reports

Although proponents have argued that there is a core narrative consistent across abduction claims, there is little doubt that variation occurs in the details of reports across cultures and geographic boundaries. Skeptics like Robert Sheaffer assert that this variation supports a psycho-social hypothesis as an explanation for the origin of the abduction phenomenon. The quantity and not just quality of reports appears to be affected by culture, as abduction reports are made less frequently in non-English speaking countries.

Furthermore, the contents and structure of the "abduction narrative" as outlined by researchers like Nyman and Bullard were already established in fictional form by 1930 in a Buck Rogers strip.

The strip depicts an alien craft piloted by Martian "Tiger Men", who capture a female character and subject her to similar treatment as those in real-world abduction claims. The story is structurally more similar to the archetypal narrative outline devised by Bullard than the vast majority of those in Bullard's own catalogue of cases.

However, Bullard does not see evidence for influence on abduction claimants from science-fiction sources. In an essay, Bullard writes that "The small showing for monstrous types and the fact that they concentrate in less reliable cases should disappoint skeptics who look for the origin of abductions in the influence of Hollywood. Nothing like the profusion of imaginative screen aliens appears in the abduction literature."

There are, however, cultural differences in perception of these reported incidents. The frightening "terror abduction" experience is reported mainly in the USA, while in the rest of the world, the ET encounters are said to be largely benevolent – this apparent incongruity perhaps raising a question as to the phenomenon's origins.

Although in North America, "aliens" of extraterrestrial origin are the most commonly blamed in these incidents, in Europe and other parts of the world, the beings involved are as often perceived to be demonic or spiritual in origin. Common elements in the descriptions of abductions and visitations vary by region and local culture, with only a very few elements being the same worldwide, such as an otherworldly sensation, reports of mind control, repressed memories being rediscovered, and sexual experiences. These elements, and many aspects of what witnesses describe, are very common in old stories of encounters with faeries, demons, and other magical creatures.

• Skeptics argue that the raw details of abduction accounts have been featured in science fiction since at least the 1930s, and that these details have had widespread currency, thereby influencing and shaping expectations of what an encounter with extraterrestrials might entail. For example, a 1935 issue of Amazing Stories featured on its cover an illustration of a being with large eyes and a large head who was restraining a human from entering a room where another human was reclined on a table with another large-eyed creature examining her. See Rogerson's four-part article, and Martin Kottmeyer's "Entirely Unpredisposed" in the "External links" section.
  • Others have argued against this idea; folklorist Thomas E. Bullard asks: "If Hollywood is responsible for these images, where are the monsters? Where are the robots?" (Bryan, 50).