Memory

False memories have been defined as "either remembering events that never happened, or remembering them quite differently from the way they happened (Park, 2012). This topic opens many doors for research and raises questions about the reliability and susceptibility of people’s memory. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. A repressed memory is one that is retained in the subconscious mind, where one is not aware of it but where it can still affect both conscious thoughts and behaviour. When memory is misleading or confabulated, the result can be what has been called the False Memory Syndrome (Stephanie D. Block, 2012) a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are entered around a memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false but in which the person strongly believes (note that the syndrome is not characterized by false memories as such). We all have memories that are inaccurate. Rather, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the memory is so deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire personality and lifestyle, in turn disrupting all sorts of other adaptive behaviour. The thing we call ‘memory’ is by no means a perfect record of the things we experience in our daily lives. There are many situations in which our memories of events or experiences do not match the reality of those events or experiences. This essay will describe and discuss empirical research that demonstrates the imperfect records of events and experiences that are our memories.

(Jutta Joormann, 2009) Argues that through diffusion activation, which is during encoding of a list individuals tend to recall items that are related to the list rather than those present. (Jutta Joormann, 2009) Also states that false memories show insufficiency of memory when initial stimulation is stronger, the higher the likelihood of false recall. (Jutta Joormann, 2009) Shows the flaws our memories possess demonstrating the