False Memories Essay

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Recommended: What are some of the causes of false memories

Brittney Shultz
PY 280: Cognitive Psychology
Final Paper
11/30/2017

False Memories

A false memory is a type of memory that someone may remember but it did not happen. There has been evidence to show that under certain circumstances, younger children are not as susceptible to false memories as other children or adults; this concept is known as developmental reversals (McGuire, 2015). In this paper I plan to discuss what false memories are, how they may occur, and also I will discuss two studies surrounding false memories. I hope to educate the reader in learning more about false memories, a study that they have used, and how this can help further research in the future. There are some reasons that false memories can occur. One of the many reasons, however, is emotion. The emotions can be from “to-be-remembered events or in our mood” in which the events have happened (Bookbinder and Brainerd, 2016). Emotion can elicit false memories; past experiences can create ‘emotional’ experiences from trauma events. Some of these events may include seeing someone at gunpoint or seeing a building vandalized. These events may elicit emotion for an individual; they may not want to remember these …show more content…

There has been evidence to show that under certain circumstances, younger children are not as susceptible to false memories as other children or adults; this concept is known as developmental reversals. When someone is introduced to a stressful or traumatic event it can create a range of emotions starting from happy to fear to mad. Due to the severity of the event, it may create false memories because an individual does not want to remember what has happened whether or themselves or just by witnessing what someone else has gone through. The more severe the traumatic event, the more likely it is for a person to experience a false memory; the studies have proven

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