A University College Cork (UCC) research project has received European Union funding of €1.5 million to investigate false memories and challenge widespread theories about the flaws of memory.
The research will examine if the human tendency to form false memories is not just a side effect of our flexible memory systems, but may serve useful purposes depending on the situation and the person.
Researchers will explore whether the construction of false memories can in fact serve useful adaptive purposes, such as improving wellbeing or strengthening social cohesion.
The five-year research project will examine the possibility that false memories are reliable, adaptive and highly functional.
It will investigate the potential upsides of memory distortion and explore the ethics of intentional alteration of memories.
UCC researcher Dr Gillian Murphy has been awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to lead the project entitled Functional, Reliable and Adaptive Memory Errors (FRAME).
Dr Murphy is a senior lecturer in Applied Psychology at UCC and a Funded Investigator at Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software.
"Memories are prone to distortion, and this is often viewed negatively," Dr Murphy said.
"However, memory did not evolve to act as a recording device. It evolved under the same selective pressures as anything else in the natural world - survival and reproduction," she added.
