confabulation

American  

[kuhn-fab-yuh-ley-shuhn] / kənˌfæb yəˈleɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of confabulating; conversation; discussion.

   One night, over a beer, Jake and I got into a confabulation on the world and life in general, and Jake's affairs in particular.

2. Psychiatry, Psychology. the replacement of a gap in a person's memory by a falsification that they believe to be true.

   The report concluded that while the information elicited under hypnosis may be accurate, it may also include confabulations and pseudomemories.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• confabulatory
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of confabulation

First recorded in 1490–1500; from Late Latin confabulātiōn- (stem of confābulātiō ) “conversation,” equivalent to confābulāt(us) ( see confabulate) + -iōn- noun suffix; see -ion

Explanation

If you're chatting away for hours to your old college friend who you haven't seen in years, that's a confabulation — a personal, often rambling and generally wide-ranging conversation. A second, slightly sinister and less common meaning for confabulation is a false memory that someone creates to fill out gaps where real experience has been too traumatic to recall. As with the more common and happier meaning, both types of confabulation generally imply a good deal of creative, free-wheeling association.

Example Sentences

Confabulation is the creation of false memories in the brain, causing an individual to tell a story that’s untrue.

From Washington Times • Aug. 25, 2023

Confabulation is common among people suffering from vascular dementia, a situation where impaired blood flow to the brain can impact judgment, memory, and other thought processes.

From Washington Times • Aug. 25, 2023

Confabulation is an issue, but understanding noncommitment better could help develop ways of eliciting more accurate eyewitness testimony, he says.

From Scientific American • Jul. 20, 2023

Confabulation, she says, is more common than we realize.

From Scientific American • Jun. 28, 2023

Hush, Speak softly; I go, go: But hark'e Mrs. Patch, shall not you and I have a little Confabulation, when my Master and your Lady is engag'd?

From The Busie Body by Byrd, Jess