Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A talking together; chatting; familiar talk; easy, unrestrained conversation: as, the two had a long confabulation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A casual conversation; a chat.
  • noun psychology A fabricated memory believed to be true.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (psychiatry) a plausible but imagined memory that fills in gaps in what is remembered
  • noun an informal conversation

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin confabulari "to talk together", com- "together" + fabulari "to chat" from fabula "fable, tale"

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Examples

  • Assuming he got away with murder the first time, which I think 95 percent of Americans do believe, he developed what I call a confabulation between denial and delusion.

    CNN Transcript Dec 26, 2008 2008

  • Assuming he got away with murder the first time, which I think 95 percent of Americans do believe, he developed what I call a confabulation between denial and delusion.

    CNN Transcript Dec 5, 2008 2008

  • The basic idea called confabulation is that what humans (and mammals in general) are computing is not the most likely answer to a set of facts (baysian) but instead what would make the existing facts they have most likely to be true.

    Framing Effects and Memory, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Furthermore, brain scientists have noted the pervasive nature of self-deception and of different species of "confabulation", and they have begun to make progress in unmasking the underlying neurological processes (Hirstein 2005).

    Emotion de Sousa, Ronald 2007

  • This ties into the idea of confabulation as the frontal lobes’ post-facto rationalization of decisions already made by the mammalian or reptilian brains.

    i have no thesis here, i just like saying numinous 2007

  • This ties into the idea of confabulation as the frontal lobes’ post-facto rationalization of decisions already made by the mammalian or reptilian brains.

    Yatima » 2007 » October 2007

  • The idea of "confabulation" is central to "The Museum of Lost Wonder," as you might expect.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Jon Carroll 2011

  • The idea of "confabulation" is central to "The Museum of Lost Wonder," as you might expect.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Jon Carroll 2011

  • Tell all you friends and neighbors along with family member about my quest and ask them go mark their vote for "confabulation" thank you one and all …

    confabulation 2008

  • Psychologists call this tendency to fill in nonexistent details confabulation.

    World Wide Mind Michael chorost 2011

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