ERIC Number: EJ730513
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Aug
Pages: 5
Abstractor: Author
Reference Count: 0
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-2626
A Positive Emotional Bias in Confabulatory False Beliefs about Place
Turnbull, Oliver H.; Berry, Helen; Evans, Cathryn E.Y.
Brain and Cognition, v55 n3 p490-494 Aug 2004
Some neurological patients with medial frontal lesions exhibit striking confabulations. Most accounts of the cause of confabulations are cognitive, though the literature has produced anecdotal suggestions that confabulations may not be emotionally neutral, having a ("wish-fulfillment") bias that shapes the patient's perception of reality in a more affectively positive direction. The present study reviewed every case (N=16) of false beliefs about place reported in the neuroscientific literature from 1980 to 2000, with blind raters evaluating the "pleasantness" of the patient's actual and confabulated locations. In each case the confabulated location was evaluated as more pleasant. This striking finding supports the claim that there may be a systematic affective bias in the false beliefs held by neurological patients with confabulation.
Descriptors: Beliefs, Patients, Literature Reviews, Bias, Neurological Impairments, Perception, Cognitive Psychology, Case Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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