misremembering

Misremembering refers to recalling an event, detail, or experience inaccurately. It is a common aspect of human memory and can affect people who feel confident about their recollections. Misremembering is not the same as lying or deliberately fabricating; there is no intention to deceive, but memories are reconstructed during retrieval and can be influenced by various factors.

The phenomenon arises from the reconstructive nature of memory. Encoding failures, retrieval processes, and the influence of later information can alter what is later recalled. Factors such as suggestion, social influence, expectations, and schemas can shape memory content. The misinformation effect, where post-event information changes memories, is a well-documented example. Source monitoring errors, which confuse the origin of a memory, and imagination inflation, where imagining an event makes it feel more real, also contribute.

Misremembering can involve uncertain or incorrect details (dates, times, locations), altered sequences, or misidentifications of people. In everyday life, this can lead to misplaced confidence in faulty memories. In legal and educational contexts, misremembering can have significant consequences, especially when memory informs judgment or testimony.

Research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience shows memory as a malleable process. Key findings come from eyewitness studies, the DRM paradigm, and work by researchers such as Loftus and Ceci & Bruck. Related ideas include false memories, memory biases, and source monitoring errors.

Reducing misremembering involves critical evaluation of memories, corroboration with independent sources, and careful questioning techniques. Strategies include avoiding leading questions, using structured interviews, maintaining notes, and recognizing the fallibility of memory while seeking consistent, verifiable evidence.