Psychology Essay Example on False Memories

False memories are when individuals recall experiences in a different way than what actually happened.  Sometimes individuals recall experiences that never even happened.  These false memories could be extremely vivid, and the person swears that, that is what actually happened with strong confidence.  However, convincing the person that they are wrong is very challenging.  In the text it says, “Examples of this phenomenon can range from the fairly mundane, such as incorrectly recalling that you locked the front door, to the much more serious, such as falsely remembering details of an accident you witnessed” (Cherry, 2020).

Memories encode, store, and retrieve information.  Encoding is the process of receiving information and organizing them by similar information and correlating new ideas to existing ideas.  Encoding goes through two different processes, automatic and effortful.  “Autonomic processing is unconsciously recalling information easily, such as details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words.  Effortful processing is consciously recalling information slowly, such as what about the actual test material you studied” (Learning, 2021).  Storing is the process of keeping information “by changing the connections between neurons” (Queensland Brain Institute, 2018).  Retrieving is the process of remembering or recognizing information.  “In recall, the information must be retrieved from memories. In recognition, the presentation of a familiar outside stimulus provides a cue that the information has been seen before” (Boundless, 2021).

False memories can be extremely harmful.  False memories can lead to false accusations when a crime is committed.  For example, a woman accuses a man for sexually assaulting her.  Later on, it was confirmed that this was a false accusation, and the man was wrongfully convicted of the crime.  “Researchers have found that false memories are one of the leading causes of false convictions, usually through the false identification of a suspect or false recollections during police interrogations” (Cherry, 2020).  It is possible that several people behind bars are actually innocent and determined to be guilty based on a false memory.  “False memories are contagious; one person’s memory can be infected by another person’s errors” (Slide 43).  Do you really know what is the truth?

I do not think false memories can be prevented because you can easily misinterpret information.  For example, you hear a rumor from your friend, and you tell your other friend.  Then, you hear your friend tell the rumor to another individual, however the rumor is altered.  This rumor is not what you told your friend.  Eventually, the rumor gets completely bogus.  Is the rumor you heard from your friend actually true?  This is why false memories cannot be prevented because you never truly know if the information you heard came from the original source.  

I personally know I have several false memories.  For instance, I could have sworn I thought I heard a voicemail from my grandmother, however I only apparently dreamt of the voicemail.  Honestly, it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not anymore.  “Do we really know what we remember” (Slide 43).  I do not think we really know what we remember. 

Resources

Cherry, K. (2020, August 1). How your brain can create false memories. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-false-memory-2795193. 

PSY 2710 Lecture 12 PowerPoint Learning, L. (2021). Introduction to psychology. Lumen. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-psychology/chapter/how-memory-functions/. 

Queensland Brain Institute. (2018, July 23). How are memories formed? Queensland Brain Institute. https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/memory/how-are-memories-formed. 

Boundless. (2021). Boundless psychology. Lumen. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/step-3-memory-retrieval/#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20main%20types,information%20has%20been%20seen%20before.