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Memories Are Flawed by Us and Not True to the Facts
Recalling what has happened in the past would seem to provide a true rendition of everything, but research is pointing to how we mold memory into something else.
Do you have a true memory of what happened in your past, as a child, an emerging adult, or even last year? Many of us, who pride ourselves on our memories, think we can clearly state what happened, where, with whom, and the aftermath. But that would be incorrect, according to a growing wealth of research on the subject. Yes, we know that memory may fade with age because of health, brain changes, medications, and disease, but do we deliberately or unconsciously remake our memories to fit into some particular mode?
Even though memories are sometimes regarded as the foundation of our personal history, they are far from being the accurate records we might think they are. In contrast to our intuitive belief that memory is a reliable record of the past, it is a highly malleable construct that our minds can manipulate, distort, or even completely make up. This phenomenon has its roots in the intricate interplay of perception, cognition, and time, all of which together influence how memories are manipulated.
Encoding, the process through which sensory data is converted into brain representations, is where memories are first formed. Nevertheless, this…
