The only myths you want to be reading are greek myths.

Sit down and nurture your brain by debunking some myths and learning some truths.

Infographic about Myth vs. Truth

Left or Right-brained

Inability to Record

Repressed Trauma

Right-Brained Vs. Left-Brained

You're both!

In all tasks, both sides of the brain are active at once, but we do see some "lateralized patterns".
The two sides of the brain do not activate in the same way for every task.
Both sides are always involved and does not impact a persons predisposition on creative vs. logical skills.
The reality of the issue is that cognition is a bi-lateral experience, with spreading activation across both hemispheres, meaning that we use both our left and right brain to function.
This pattern of firing establishes neural networks in the brain and based on our experiences- whether they have required us to be creative or analytical- these cell assemblies reflect our individual preferences for either imagination or logic.
This myth is based on essentialist thinking: something that we all have a tendency and natural bias to believe, that there are ‘essential differences’ between us that signify belonging to different groups.

Kernel of Truth

There are more patterns of activation in the left temporal lobe than the right when someone is reading words, and more activation in the right temporal lobe than the left when someone is reading music.
This separation isn't as extreme as the myth usually states.

Poll Results

Instagram poll of 57 college-age participants, the majority of people either knew the myth was false, or believed that there could be a kernel of truth to it. On an Instagram story poll, participants were asked “Are people ‘left brained’ or ‘right brained’?”, and were able to choose from three answers, “Yes, we’re all either creative or analytical”, “There could be a kernel of truth to it…”, or “No way man”. The least amount of people believed that it was true, 9 people (16% of the responses). More people believed that it was entirely false, 16 people (28% of the responses). The largest group believed that there could be a kernel of truth to it, 34 people (56% of the responses). Of these 34 people, when asked to elaborate a lot of them admitted that they knew it couldn’t be completely true because we are always using both sides of our brain, but maybe there was some truth to it.

Extreme Emotion Enables you to "record" the experience with accuracy

You can!

The reality of the myth is that “recording” everything within a moment with our brains is not possible. Regardless of the role, that emotion plays in memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval, remembering everything “100%” is not possible.
Emotions cause them to direct their attention to what is causing the emotion, increasing the likelihood that it will be encoded in the brain more accurately
If someone is experiencing something traumatic or exciting they focus on it more
This allows someone to hone in on specific aspects of the experience
- This myth is based on the idea that the accuracy and strength of an episodic memory increases because of strong emotions felt during the event.

Poll Results

An Instagram poll of 65 participants, more people voted that the myth was false, but had mixed reasons why it was false. On a story poll, participants were asked “Do extreme emotions enable you to “record” a moment?” and could choose from four answers. The options were two yesses: “Yes, emotions make the brain more efficient”, “Yes, we feel we know it so we must be accurate”, and two nos: “No, it's impossible to remember 100% of it” and “No, emotion = cortisol = stress = more errors”. The least amount of people believed that it was true because ‘we feel like we know it’, 10 people (15% of the responses). Slightly more people believed that extreme emotion does not let you record a moment because cortisol causes more errors, 13 people (20% of the responses). 16 participants (25% of the responses) voted that extreme emotions enable you to record a moment because emotions make the brain more efficient. Most significantly, the largest percentage, 41% of respondents (26 people) voted “No, it’s impossible to remember 100% of it”. From a cognitive psychology perspective, this was the truest answer. Interestingly, the largest percentage of people did not believe the myth.

Kernel of Truth

Emotions are not directly involved in the encoding process memory of the brain.
They will remember less if having an emotional experience but that "less" is well-remembered.
Extreme emotion can heighten your perceptions and focus within your environment, however, this may cause you to direct all of your focus on certain stimuli, potentially causing your memory of other factors within the environment to become distorted.
When we experience something that causes us extreme emotional distress, we remember the event as if we are reliving it, due to the emotions we recollect. Because we get the sensation of reliving the experience, we feel as if we remember everything exactly how it happened, even if we didn’t. This may lead to false depictions or information about what happened in certain events being spread, leaving many misinformed, and the truth cast away.

Extreme Trauma is repressed to protect our psyches from stress-overload

I've got some news for you!

The truth is that there is no evidence that memories can be repressed
A frequent part of memory process is the shift from episodic to semantic memories
- - Episodic memories are about events you have experienced, they have a 'feeling of knowing'
  - Semantic memories are about the facts and features of an event.
Fading effect: As time goes on memories become more semantic and emotions of the experience fade
Motivated Forgetting: the process of not wanting to remember an event because of discomfort and emotional distress connected with it
Memory is an ongoing and malleable process
There is no evidence that supports that the brain is able to subconsciously repress memories. It is undoubtedly true that extreme emotions due to experiencing traumatic events can have negative effects on memory encoding and retrieval, but this does not result in these memories being repressed.

Kernel of Truth

A similar process can occur that includes suppression or fading of the emotions associated with the memories, not the memories themselves
By re-focusing on a memory (due to therapy or such) can bring up illusions of memories being repressed and then brought up again.

Poll Results

An Instagram poll asking 59 participants, “Is extreme trauma repressed to protect our psyches from stress overload?” the results were surprising, and kind of concerning. A lot more people voted that the myth was true rather than false, but only a few people attributed repression directly to Freud. The possible poll answers were two yeses and two nos, listed as the following: “True. Freud is always right”, “True. It’s a survival mechanism”, “False. Repression does not exist”, and “False. ‘Repression’ is just motivated forgetting”. Only 4 people (7% of the responses) believed that “Freud is always right”, which was the low percentage that we were hoping to get. One variable that may have influenced these results is participants voting for this answer out of irony, that they probably knew it was wrong but liked the way that the option was worded.However, many of the participants polled still believed that repression does exist, and 43 people responded “True. It’s a survival mechanism” (73% of the responses).Most importantly, and maybe most concerningly, only 12 people responded that it was false either because “repression does not exist” or because “Repression is just motivated forgetting”. Only 1 person (2% of respondents) voted for the first option, and 11 people (19% of respondents) voted for the second option. These results were shocking to our group since so many more people (47) voted to support the myth.

Getting back in touch with our social networks about the Myths

Meet The Brains!

Tatum

Hi! My name is Tatum and I’m a psychology major sociology minor. I’m looking forward to graduating in the Spring of 2023. I’m from Oahu, Hawai’i and I like to hike, paint, and spend time with my dogs. I really enjoy learning about cognitive and social psychology. I’m interested in working with young kids and adolescents in the future.

"This project taught me that people are a lot more willing to engage in conversations about their beliefs. I was responsible for polling sections for each myth and by using Instagram polls I was able to have a lot of conversations with my friends and acquaintances about their opinions on topics we normally wouldn't talk about. I intend on sharing the things about the brain that I learned in this class with others. I think teaching people to be more flexible with their mindsets and beliefs is the best way to fight misinformation without risking becoming hostile."

Abbi

Hello! My name is Abbi Best and I am currently a sophomore planning on graduating in the Spring of 2025 with a degree in psychology. I’m from McMinnville, Oregon and love spending time with friends, thrifting, trying coffee, and reading/writing! So far, I am interested in either Forensic Psychology or Psychiatry, but am still exploring anything to do with the mind!

"Throughout my work on this project, I have learned how easily false information can spread throughout society, especially information regarding Psychology. Because Psychology is still a relatively overlooked field, there are not many voices being heard or speaking up about the many psychology myths such as “left-brained” and “right-brained” individuals. I have also learned that these seemingly harmless myths and misinformation can be dangerous. Taking belief in myths such as these may lead you to misjudge yourself, therefore affecting the way you treat yourself and the ways in which you behave in your environment. I will continue to fight the spread of misinformation by educating those around me on how to identify it, and will keep fact-checking information online and doing additional research on the sources the information came from."

Maya

"Hi! My name is Maya and I am a first-year student majoring in psychology and I plan on graduating in spring of 2025. I am from Aurora, Colorado and I love being in nature! I am interested in becoming a therapist and I love learning about people and the brain!

This project taught me that we as a society tend to fall for misinformation and disinformation pretty easily and there are many well know psychology "Facts" that are actually myths but people tend to believe them anyways. It is important for people to fact-check information they hear, especially online, and with a conscious effort to find the truth, the spread of these myths will slow down and the truth will become more prominent. I will continue to question information that is presented to me in order to learn about and discuss the truth with friends, family, and peers."

Daniza

Hi everyone! My name is Daniza and I am from Maui, Hawaii. I am a Psychology and Philosophy double Major as well as a CSD Minor. I am currently a Junior and will graduate in 2024! I love my two guinea pigs and reading on the beach. I want to be a psychologist or be a therapist of some sort and I hope to do it out of the country!

"This project taught me to not believe everything I hear. At the start of the semester I believed at least some of the myths up on screen and thought "how could I have thought these were true? Am I really that gullible?" After this semester I now realized they are meant to be easily digested. Since I was responsible for doing the website I made sure that it was as easy as possible to understand the information while also having a laugh. I plan on continuing the fight against dis/misinformation by bringing it up in a lighthearted, funny way and letting people know that I was once in their shoes too!"

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