Perspectives

This chapter summarizes current interpretations of all forms of confabulations discussed in the book and reviews the relationship between the four forms of memory-related confabulations. Experimental investigation has confirmed the dissociation between various types of false memories and considerably advanced the understanding of the mechanisms of some forms of confabulation, in particular behaviourally spontaneous confabulation and false statements in anosognosia. Overall, experimental evidence is scarce; many models have no controlled experimental basis or extend their proposed range of application well beyond the empirical evidence. The chapter concludes with a call for heightened respect of basic scientific standards in the research on confabulation.