False Memories

A false memory may be defined as a cognitive experience that is mistakenly accepted as a real memory. These false memories may relate or add to a real event, or may be entirely fabricated by the brain. Whilst these discrepancies do not reflect true life, they are formulated and processed in the same area of the brain that is responsible for real memories and, as such, they may be used to assist in revealing the basic processes that take place in normal memory. False memories occur in everyday life, and are often dismissed without much further thought. However, when episodic memories are altered with sufficient inaccurate details to impair truthful recollection of more serious events (for example, a witness’ or accuser's memory of an event whilst

In other words, if a situation is not perceived correctly, then it cannot be encoded accurately into long-term memory. This is affected by various sources such as how far away the memorable event occurred from the individual, their emotional state and light levels in the situation to name a few. The second source comes from inference- or using prior knowledge to assume information about the situation. A classic study from (?) presents subjects with words such as rest, peace, drowsiness, slumber, etc. Later on, subjects report hearing the word ‘sleep’ in the list even though it was not present. Similarly, in a more practical sense, when hearing a story about a lady visiting the hospital, subjects are more likely to assume the visit is for pregnancy reasons if they have prior knowledge that the woman is pregnant (?). This tendency for humans to take meaning from situations rather than actual occurrences may lead to a gap between the individuals perceived memory of what was inferred from the event to what truly happened- it might also lead to the forgetting of non-semantic details

A classic study from Loftus (?) exposes subjects to a slide show of an automobile accident involving a red Datsun approaching a give way sign. Some subjects are later asked if they saw a car pass the Datsun as it was parked at a stop sign. This question provided false information, as there was in fact no stop sign present in the video. This affected participant’s memory and made them less capable to identify slides from the original slide show than those who were not asked the question. This interference may also occur internally as individuals who describe a person’s face have been found less successful at choosing them from a line-up (?) and imagining an event may lead an individual to later believe they completed said event