False Memories


Introduction

False memory is the form of cognitive psychology which involves the mixture of fragmented traces of past events. Some of the major factors that affect the false memories include the surroundings of a person as well as the ageing. This essay discusses the false memories of human that resides in the corner of his mind, and how previous studies have examined this area.


Discussion

Memories are prone to fallacy, because a person can never actually capture the events as they occur. False memories are often categorized as those which are the distortion of an actual experience that did not actually happen. It refers to a particular zone of the human brain which is circled around by interventions of affairs; it is the area where a person possesses positive, distinct memories of events- although the degree of distinctness might vary. Regardless of the confidence the person has while narrating his previous experience, there always remains probability that some additions/deletions would have made by the person. Therefore, an event which did not actually happen, can be narrated by a person, For most of this century, psychologists had a great interest in investigating that how memory fails and transforms into false memories in the conscience of human mind.


The major reason for the memories to be false is the fact that these are highly influenced by the surroundings of a person. Usually, these memories can be described through the theory of interference in which proactive interference (earlier experience) has a relation over retroactive interference (later experience); the primary concern of this theory basically is on retroactive effect. When people are confronted to the receipt of misleading information, they make error when asked what they saw. Also, since the influence of new information cannot be detected over the past experience, therefore, it invades their conscience


Ageing is one of the important factors that impact the false memories. Older adults exhibit higher level of false recognition than younger ones. In a study of false memory which was conducted by Koutstaal and Schacter, people of varying ages were requested to observe detailed colored pictures of various categories. 3 days later, the recognition test of all participants revealed that older ones showed higher level of false recognition to non-presented pictures than younger ones.


Conclusion

False memories encounter a belief of false events and those memories which did not happen in actual. As memory resides on the convention of fallacy, it creates those events, to which one belief to be real in the past. The influence of the surroundings and other experiences affect the memories of a person related to a particular event. The element of false memory is highly evident in older people, which proves that ageing also plays a distinct role in creating false memories.

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