Memory is not a permanent recording
Experiences are encoded incompletely, stored selectively and reconstructed when recalled.
Knowledge fills missing details
People use expectations about how events normally occur to create a coherent account, sometimes adding plausible but incorrect information.
Suggestion can become memory
Leading questions, repeated stories, photographs and statements from trusted people can introduce details later experienced as personal recollection.
Imagination increases familiarity
Repeatedly imagining an event can make it feel familiar, and familiarity may later be mistaken for evidence that it occurred.
Source confusion changes ownership
A person may remember information but forget whether it came from direct experience, a dream, a conversation or media.
Emotion does not guarantee accuracy
A memory can feel vivid, distressing and personally important while still containing substantial errors.
Correction can be difficult
Once incorporated into identity or repeated publicly, a false memory may resist contradictory evidence.
Evidence notes
Evaluation should examine when the memory first appeared, how it was elicited, exposure to suggestion, consistency with contemporary records and whether independent evidence existed before repeated recall.
Ethical questions
Was the memory recorded before suggestive questioning?
Could the remembered information have come from another source?
What evidence existed at the time of the alleged event?
Conclusion
Memory can create events that never happened because recollection is reconstructive rather than reproductive. Sincerity and vividness therefore cannot replace independent evidence.