Creating False Memories - Essay Example

According to different forms of false memories exist among people. Fake childhood memories, in which people recall events that never really happened, are the most common among them. The people may deny the happening of an event but its memory can be planted by feeding them with little details about the ‘fake’ incidents. These details are picked up by the mind and it feels as if the incident really happened. Also, people become more confident and remember more details about a fake event if they are made to talk about it frequently.

It has also been experimented that people can be coaxed into ‘forming’ memories that are impossible to form by associating something special with such memories. These memories belong to the first year of a person’s life in which memories are not properly stored. False memories are usually formed as a result of some sort of pressure. False memories can be easily planted if the event is corroborated by another person. A person can even accept a wrong that he has not done if someone claims he has seen the person doing it.

False memories are formed when our mind mixes reality with the information received from others. The subject is still undergoing research and there is little cure for false memories as it is very difficult to differentiate between reality and illusion. (F.Lotus, 1997). In my view, awareness should be created about the creation of false memories to prevent any exploitation. The idea of creating false memories should only be used positively for investigative studies about the functioning of the human mind.