Takeaway is that every memory is a meta-memory, or an interpretation of a past time, one that can be impurified or purified by suggestions from the social environment. Simple awareness of this fact is crucial.

Oeberst’s study is innovative in suggesting that it’s equally as easy to reverse false memories.

Knowing the base truth isn’t even necessary to revert the fake recollections.

Use these two techniques:

1. Recall the exact source of the memory -...

• Short-term memory allows us to be present in the moment.
• Long-term memory helps piece together our identity through the recollection of our past experiences, among other things.
• The farther back we go, the more our recollection gets murky.
• When you think back to your ...

The human memory system is fallible and malleable, so much so that it is possible—and even quite common—for people to possess false memories.

Memory glitches can lead to all sorts of social implications, especially in the legal and forensic field.

But now, for the fi...

Our brains are far from perfectly functioning recorders of our life events.

Researchers have demonstrated just how easy it is to trick the mind into remembering something that didn’t happen.

They also used two very simple techniques to reverse those false memories.