Topic 7.5: False Memories

Flashbulb memories

Emotional memories that are vivid and feel exceptionally detailed

• However, the accuracy of these memories declines over time just like the accuracy of normal memories

Imagination inflation

 imagining an event inflates confidence in the likelihood that the event occurred

Source monitoring confusion

a lack of clarity about the origins of a memory. Can cause numerous memory illusions, including cryptomnesia (failure to recognize that our ideas originated somewhere else)

Suggestive memory techniques

procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place.

Misinformation effect

creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place

• Lost in the Mall

• Impossible/implausible events