Question

Jean has an intense fear of alligators, including large stuffed alligators and often discusses the topic. She thinks that an alligator attacked her during a family picnic when she was young. Her mother recently found a video of her daughter’s fourth birthday picnic in the park in which her uncle held his gift, a large stuffed alligator, in front of his face and growled ferociously. This indicates that Jean’s memory of the alligator attack is likely ____.

Answer 1

Answer:

Confabulation

Explanation:

Confabulation is an error in memory that produces an altered memory in a person. This happens without the conscious knowledge of the person.

Here, even though Jean has never been attacked by an alligator she believes that she was. However, her uncle did scare her by putting an alligator in front of his face. This memory was somehow altered which makes her think that she was attacked by an alligator. Some of the causes of confabulation are Wernicke-Korsakoff's syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Traumatic brain injury, Schizophrenia etc.