Belief in Reincarnation Accompanies Memory Errors

[Loss Leader]

Here's a new article that reports a link between belief in reincarnation and the inability to determine where a memory originated. Why do people believe strange things? Maybe their brains are predisposed to exactly that type of thinking.

Subjects were asked to read aloud a list of 40 non-famous names, and then, after a two-hour wait, told that they were going to see a list consisting of three types of names: non-famous names they had already seen (from the earlier list), famous names, and names of non-famous people that they had not previously seen. Their task was to identify which names were famous.

The researchers found that, compared to control subjects who dismissed the idea of reincarnation, past-life believers were almost twice as likely to misidentify names. In particular, their tendency was to wrongly identify as famous the non-famous names they had seen in the first task. This kind of error, called a source-monitoring error, indicates that a person has difficulty recognizing where a memory came from.


Here's the link to the article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070406/sc_livescience/beliefinreincarnationtiedtomemoryerrors).

[Causality]

Here's a new article that reports a link between belief in reincarnation and the inability to determine where a memory originated. Why do people believe strange things? Maybe their brains are predisposed to exactly that type of thinking.




Here's the link to the article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070406/sc_livescience/beliefinreincarnationtiedtomemoryerrors).

Very interesting article, thanks! This reminds me of the book by Jeff Hawkins called "On Intelligence" http://www.onintelligence.org/

It's been a year since I read it, but I recall his proposition was that each of the six layers of neocortex corresponded to a higher level of novelty, or new experience. According to Hawkins, our memories are hierarchical, things we have seen before stay in the lower layers, while new things bubble up to the upper levels of the hierarchy, depending on the level of novelty. This is all based on the neural connections between the layers of the neocortex.

So if he's right on that, it would make sense that small defects in that system could result in the findings in the article you posted.

[JoeTheJuggler]

You don't think maybe that believing in reincarnation might just correlate with overall reduced cognitive abilities? I'd like to see the two groups (believers and non) compared on some other cognitive tasks--maybe a test of the ability to do simple arithmetic in your head or something, or even a standard IQ test of one sort or another.

The memory idea is attractive, but I'd bet on believers being less intelligent overall.

[Ersby]

This is an interesting paper in which the differences in believers and non-believers in certain cognitive tests are examined.

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/BJP%201985.htm

[pspaddict]

Notice the rating at the bottom of the article Lost Leader linked to. The idea that reincarnation is a mistake of the mind isn't proving to be very popular with the general public, getting only two and a half stars out of five with more than 300 votes.

[Miss Anthrope]

I just had this article emailed to me. Not surprising in the least. Note it also mentions UFO "abductees".

It is unfortunate so many belief with such conviction that their interpretations and recollections equal proof of an experience.

[Loss Leader]

It is unfortunate so many belief with such conviction that their interpretations and recollections equal proof of an experience.


On the other hand, it would be a pretty strange world if people regularly doubted their own memories.

"Why are you looking for your keys in the refrigerator?"
- "Because I remember putting them in my jacket."

[Beth]

This is an interesting paper in which the differences in believers and non-believers in certain cognitive tests are examined.

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/BJP%201985.htm

Thank you Ersby. That article was a fascinating read. Do you know if any further research was done on the perception of random chance bias in believers?

[fredcarr]

Re. link in op - Seems like the only thing really established here is that after undergoing hypnosis one's memory worsens.

Fred