Memories.

[Flickr Photo: Memories., by: Priscilla G.. CC License.]

Memories can be deceiving. This is due to the fact that we don’t always remember things exactly how they happened. In other cases we may also interpret some past memories as our own when really they had nothing to do with us. This may happen when someone tells you about something that happened to them and, in doing so; you believe that this actually happened to you instead. There isn’t an exact reason as to why this happens in the first place but there are several studies that have been done in order to better understand how memories work.

In one of these studies it was discovered that, even though we may doubt if memories are real or not, we experience them as realistic events that occurred beforehand. It’s because of this reason that memories can be so confusing and why they can be organized into three different categories depending on how the person remembers them:

  • Believed- the memories that you actually experienced
  • Non-believed- a memory that a person believes didn’t happen due to the lack of concrete evidence or because it was denied by the person who actually experienced the memory
  • Believed but not remembered- these are memories that you think are legitimate but can’t recall as well as believed and non-believed memories

If you wish to learn more information about the different categories click here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-voices-within/201102/remembering-events-never-happened