Psychological Research of the 21st Century: Human Memory

¶ … Human Memory

Psychology

This literature review upon human memory will cover a fairly wide spectrum of ideas regarding the subject. While there will be a number of connections among the divisions or categories of this literature review, there will certainly be several distinctions or differences among them. The psychological research a part of the review will span, roughly, the duration of the 21st century thus far, with a few sources of research having taken place in 1999, just before the turn of the century. The review will approach the selected body of psychological research on human memory by dividing the research loosely into the following sections: memory distortion, repressed memories, body memory, and the changes in perspective on memory with respect to appropriate psychological/psychotherapeutic treatment.

The section of the review that focuses upon memory distortion will identify that memory distortion does, in fact, occur. The research presented in that section will additionally attempt to describe what the factors of memory distortion are. Research in this section will additionally discuss why because of memory distortion, why memory cannot be the only or primary evidence in a criminal investigation, or in other matters of law. The section of the review regarding repressed memories will provide a definition for repressed memories, as well as theories on how they form, how they can be retrieved, and their vulnerability to external manipulation. This section additionally reviews research that connects repressed memories to memories of and experiences of trauma.

The section on body memory will provide definitions and theories behind the validity of body memory. Essentially, the theories are based on the supposition that the brain is a muscle, and is the site of a great deal of human memory storage, yet the body is full of muscles as well, which have their own kinds of memories. Researchers contend that the memories of the body are just as valuable, valid, and arguably, more accurate or retain greater reliability than those memories stored in the brain.

The literature review will also include with a section about the old and new perspectives on human memory, particularly as they relate to methods of treatment (psychotherapy, etc.). This shift in thinking and perspective on the subject of human memory can be attributed to a number of factors, including that there shifts of thought and perspective in any area of study on a fairly regular basis (from a historical perspective). This shift may additionally be attributed to the change in the centuries, as many areas of thought, research and study experienced a shift or other sort of change with the coming of the 21st century.

Literature Review

As the 21st century approached, Daniel Schacter of Harvard University conducted and published research that seemed revolutionary or radical at the time -- research that fell upon the "wrong side" of the arguments regarding the structure, capacity, and function of human memory.

We are all affected by memory's shortcomings in our everyday lives, and scientists have studied them for decades. But there have been few attempts to systematically organize or classify the various ways in which memory can lead us astray and to assess the state of the scientific evidence concerning them. Given the scientific attention paid recently to the fallibility of memory, and the important real-world consequences that are sometimes associated with forgetting and distortion… (Schacter, 1999, 183)

His research, then is an attempt to perform precisely what he claims is lacking or that was lacking in the body of contemporary psychological research of that time. His work was an attempt to classify and organize the ways that memory cannot be relied upon with the use of scientific inquiry and research. Memory is so essentially that this kind of dedication and attention should and must be paid to it, as most of us rely on our memories more than we may be consciously aware.

There is no doubt that functioning memory is essential to everyday function and completion of tasks, from the most basic, to the most complex. In the time that Schacter's work was in the present, and in the modern moment that this literature review is composed, there is still a great deal that is unknown regarding the working of human consciousness, and how human consciousness functions with specific respect to memory. This is to say that the gap that Schacter detected is somewhat expected and understandable, as even fifteen years later after his research was current, there is still more we do not know, though we claim to have advanced regarding technology and perspective.

Based upon this lack or gap in the research that Schacter detected, he created an extended metaphor to structure and support his research, comparable to the "seven deadly sins" as described in the Judeo-Christian text, the Holy Bible. He organized his work into the sins of the human memory. He used this extended metaphor to reach readers who may not be as well versed in the complexities of human memory as it applies to psychology and neuroscience primarily, though he does site that much of what he based his ideas upon is firmly grounded in his studies in cognitive, social and clinical psychology. Therefore, this research, though compact and succinct, is dense with psychological research from various branches, very well linked and built upon for further exploration or trajectory into a new, promising direction. He writes:

I suggest that memory's transgressions can be divided into seven basic "sins." I call them transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestability, bias, and persistence. The first three sins reflect different types of forgetting…The next three sins all involve distortion or inaccuracy…The seventh and final sin…refers to pathological remembrances: information or events that we cannot forget, even though we wish we could. (Schacter, 1999, 183)

This organization of memory's "sins" is revealing about how we understand memory to work. It is also revealing regarding how we understand memory to malfunction. Knowing how memory works and does not work is of great assistance to psychological researchers and those who practice psychotherapy. It is not just that memory malfunctions (or does not always work the ways that we want it to or can control), the greater significance is the methods in which memory malfunctions and distorts.

Schacter's research demonstrates that understanding the vulnerabilities and fallibilities of memory help us understand how memory functions and can provide insight onto how to strengthen and stabilize it. Schacter additionally questions whether these inaccuracies in memory are actually normal -- that forgetting, distortions, persistence -- these are the natural ways in which human memory operates, and that they are not accidents or errors, but a part of how human memory is supposed to work, which is an intriguing and possibly controversial perspective to consider.

Human memory is not just important because we need it in order to perform tasks, including self-care. Human memory is vital as it relates to individual identity. We need our memories so that we know who we are. Our memories help us construct and maintain who we think we are, who we have been, and who we may become in the future. Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000) performed their psychological research on the human memory with respect to its connection to self-identity and what they call, "autobiographical memories," which are memories that we have of ourselves from our pasts, or the memories we have of past versions of ourselves -- sort of like our own self mythologies that we base our past senses of self upon that absolutely have direct effects upon who we think we are presently, and the potential for who we will become in the future. They assert:

Nearly all researchers in this area consider there to be an important and strong relation between the self and autobiographical memory. Brewer (1986), for example, argued that the inherent self-referring nature of autobiographical memories was a defining feature that distinguished these memories from all other types of long-term knowledge. Robinson (1986) proposed that autobiographical memories were a "resource" of the self that could be used to sustain or change aspects of the self. Indeed, memories have been found to be closely related to aspects of personality & #8230;trait information…patterns of adult attachment…and goal change and emotions… (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000, 264)

Without autobiographical memories, people would not know who they are, or who they have been. Additionally, autobiographical memories are essential to personality and identity cohesion. People rely heavily upon their memories of who they were to explain who they are presently. Autobiographical memories have the potential for significant and widespread influence in an individual's life. Autobiographical memories can serve as significant predictors of and determinants over a person's entire lifespan. A person may make decisions about whom they choose to socialize with based on autobiographical memories. A person may choose an educational or career path based on who he/she remembers being as a younger version of themselves based on his/her autobiographical memories. Keeping in mind the pliability and malleability of human memory in general, autobiographical memory has the potential to be a great resource or a great impedance.

Another intriguing aspect of Conway & Pleydell-Pearce's research about human memory and autobiographical memories is not just that autobiographical memories exist, but how they believe them to function. They contend that autobiographical memories are constantly present, yet are "activated" by events or occurrences in our present lives that trigger these memories, as well as their influence.

A fundamental premise of our approach is that autobiographical memories are transitory dynamic mental constructions generated from an underlying knowledge base. This knowledge base, or regions of it, is minutely sensitive to cues, and patterns of activation constantly arise and dissipate over the indexes of autobiographical memory knowledge structures. Such endogenous patterns of activation may not coalesce into "memories," nor do they necessarily or even usually enter into consciousness; instead this most often occurs when the system is in "retrieval mode"… (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000, 261)

There is also a great deal of psychological interpretation involved in understanding the meaning of an activation, in so far as specifying what mental process is signified by an activation. Modern imaging studies report activations arising from the difference between two tasks. Such differences are not only open to a variety of interpretations but also are often confounded with factors that influence outcomes. Autobiographical memories, as they imagine them, are transient; they are not permanent or fixed. We are not constantly aware of them as such. It is in moments that trigger or activate them that we become aware of them (or re-aware of them), and in the moment of activation, comes their potential to influence the present self. Autobiographical memories can lay dormant or latent in the unconscious and subconscious, coming to the surface or conscious mind when we receive a cue or trigger in the present that connects directly to a relevant autobiographical memory. Cues, triggers, and prompts seem to be key to their understanding and concepts of human memory, specifically autobiographical memories.

Overall, the authors are saying that memory is some kind of reservoir with depth and contents unknown to the individual, even though the reservoir is of his/her own memories. The authors are also concluding that memory is not something that is always on or always immediately accessible. Human memory is triggered, activated, and retrieved by incidents that occur in the present; therefore the implication is that access to memory is time-based, like a time-based release capsule in the form of medicine. We do not get access to the relevant memories until something in the present cues the necessity for access to that knowledge from the memory. Autobiographical memories are a form of knowledge, self knowledge, which is some of the most valuable and influential knowledge a person can have and apply, thus demonstrating the significance of their research of human memory.

Body and energy psychotherapy is perceived by the mainstream psychological body as an example of "alternative" treatment, when considered within the context of the psychoanalysis or psychotherapy. This line of thinking emerged from Wilhelm Reich, who was a follower of Sigmund Freud, who essentially defined modern psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in the west. Reich proposed theories based on the inspiration from Freud. His theories regarding body memory, energy therapy, and other related ideas resulted in his rejection from the mainstream academic community.

Freud investigated forms of physical hysteria, such as hysterial blindness and hysterical deafness. Without knowing so himself, he was, in some ways, one of the earliest body psychotherapists. He understood or acknowledged the connection between mind and body. In his work The Ego and the Id, he writes how the ego is, above all else, a "body-ego," and that a person's first sense of self is that as an embodied self. (1923) Some theorists argue that this aspect of his work has been obscured since Freud shows a preference for psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as "the talking cure." (1923)

More recently, there has been greater communication among psychological organizations around the world, particularly those whose research focus is on the more fringe areas of thought and research, such as body therapy. The growth of the psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic communities around the world have resulted in shifts in thinking, including the serious consideration of ideas once previously considered ridiculous. There is increased recognition, training, and experience in this area, receiving more attention in research, and the application of academic or scientific vigor seen in professional research journals.

Body Psychotherapy is now a distinct branch of psychotherapy. It has a history and body of literature that is based upon a sound theoretical position, respected by professionals and researchers in the field of psychological, globally. Body Psychotherapy relies upon an explicity theory that the connection between the mind and the body has a unique function, and that function takes very much into consideration the variations and complexities in that connection. A concept central to the understanding of Body Psychotherapy is that the human body includes the whole person -- that there is a functional unity between the human mind and the human body.

So much of cultural ideology, language, particularly in western cultures, bombards people with the message that the mind and the body are separate. That though the body has abilities different from the mind, but that those abilities are impossible without the mind, that the mind is both superior and separate from the body. We know, literally, that despite all the sources around us that want to tell us that the mind is separate from the body, it is housed within the body. Our very physiology and anatomy goes against what "society tell us" about the separation of body and mind. Body Psychotherapy is a field that reminds of what we should already know, which is that the body and mind are connected in many ways; that their connection has a purpose. We should heal one, the other, and both.

The average person, who is not a psychological professional, but yet has heard of psychotherapy, has a fairly accurate idea of what most psychotherapy sessions are like. The average conception of a psychotherapy session is of an individual, couple, group, or family, arriving at an office, where the therapy will be conducted. The patient(s) enter the office, in the company of the psychotherapist, where they will have the session -- which primarily consists of talking. Most people think that psychotherapy session is the Freudian stereotype, consist of talking, conversations, etc. This average conception of a psychotherapy session, again, is accurate. This is the normative structure of sessions.

Sometimes the therapist may speak more than the patient, or vice versa, certainly the therapist will ask questions of the patient to get that person to speak further upon a subject, experience, or memory, but that is, essentially, it. This is and has been the norm for psychotherapy sessions for much of the 20th century, and is still widely practice in the 21st century. This does not mean that there is no deviation from this norm, nor does it mean that there is potential for get a patient to delve deeper into a subject, experience, or memory through speech only. Developments in psychotherapy in the 21st century have expanded to include different approaches to psychotherapy sessions and to exploring the human memory.

Belgian psychotherapist and researcher Leijssen (2006) is one such researcher who studies and advocates for the use of the body in psychotherapy sessions, specifically in use as it relates to all of human memory, and to the act of remembering. Her research about the body as a source of human memory calls for "body interventions" as part of "body therapy." (2006) This practice she has developed is based in an amalgamation of several psychodynamic theories including: Reichian theories, neo-Reichian theories, humanistic psychology, existential psychology, transpersonal psychology, and behavior therapy. (Leijssen, 2006) She integrates these models into a firm foundation upon which she proposes her work in body therapy and body memory.

Leijssen's drive to come up with and apply body therapies came from the urge to validate the entire the body as valuable the remembering and healing processes, not just to limit the focus of psychotherapeutic treatments to the brain. This acknowledgement of the body as a valid source of memory and a valuable site in the psychotherapeutic process. She explains the academic and professional confrontation with her ideas regarding the body as a site for memory and therapy:

There is often confusion when the body is talked about in psychotherapy because there are many ways of validating the body as a valuable part of the psychotherapeutic process. Different approaches can be situated along a continuum from verbal to nonverbal. Verbal psychotherapies that pay no attention to the body are situated on the far left of the continuum. The spoken word dominates the therapeutic interaction and in the verbal interventions there is no reference to body aspects…Therapist and client are never just 'talking', they are always 'bodies interacting'…Body-oriented interventions in this stage validate the body language and the nonverbal communication. In these approaches the body-oriented interventions in therapy can still be mostly verbal. Moving further on the continuum there are approaches that are sometimes called "body therapy." Major methods here are: working with movement, nonverbal expressions, and touch… (Leijssen, 2006, 127 -- 128)

Consider why people who are formally trained in the art and science of massage are called "massage therapists." Massaging the muscles is a form of therapy. Leijssen would argue that it is a form of body therapy and a form of psychotherapy -- one exclusively consisting of touch, as the above quotation suggests. There are often many cases of people receiving massages from massage therapists who weep uncontrollably or exert other seemingly inexplicable emotional responses. These responses are not inexplicable. The massages are releasing tensions from past experiences that have accumulated in the person's body/muscle memory.

Leijssen suggests that body-oriented interventions and therapies are a resource that have yet to be fully tapped and applied by the psychological professional community. (2006) There is a resistance to deviate from the norm of talk therapy and to remain on, what she described, on the verbal extreme of the continuum of the psychotherapeutic process. Most professionals/experts contend that the majority of communication is non-verbal, so why can we not posit that the majority of memory is non-verbal as well? This is the psychological research into the human memory that Leijssen's work focuses upon and what questions it brings to the table.

Memory is critical when discussing trauma. While humans can suffer all kinds of physical traumas, emotional and psychological traumas are the kinds that often do the greatest damage. People can usually recover from or adapt to the consequences of physical traumas much faster than they recuperate from emotional and psychological ones. Emotional and psychological traumas can manifest at the same time as the physical trauma (if there is one), but often, they manifest after the physical trauma, such as in the case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder often found in law enforcement officers and members of the military that have seen active duty.

At the British Psychological Society, some of their research has focused upon the relationship between forms of traumas. Peres, et al. (2005) focused their psychological research upon the human memory with respect to how studying trauma reveals aspects of the human memory that were previously unknown or not considered. They propose different ideas regarding the nature of memory and memory storage. They also have interesting ideas about how trauma changes the nature of memory at the time of occurrence and times of memory retrieval of the trauma. They additionally propose ideas about the factors of the human mind itself that influence memory, and by influence, that often means change. They write:

The perception and memory processes are intimately connected to generation of adaptive behaviours. Perception is also an inference process and may be biased by unconscious strategies that were functional and adaptive in the past (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003). Hence, past experiences affect current behaviour patterns by the predictions of the future that are biased by memory storage. However, the reconstruction of emotional and traumatic memories is continuous and dynamic. Neuroscience findings have shown that the brain does not actually store memories, but stores traces of information that are later used to create memories, which do not always factually represent what was experienced in the past. To perform this process, different parts of the brain act as important nodes of the neural network that encode, store, and retrieve the information that will be used to create memories (Baddeley et al., 2000; Gonsalves & Paller, 2002). Hence, whenever a traumatic or emotional event is retrieved, it may undergo a cognitive and emotional change. (Peres et al., 2005, 433)

This quotation is dense, informational, and it links several of the ideas presented in the literature review regarding the nature of human memory as proposed or argued by several researchers. Perception and memory are processes; they are not isolated or fixed. Memory is on-going, both in construction and in retrieval, which goes against the layman's understanding of memory. People generally tend to think that all of their memories are somehow stored in their brains, fixed, and unchanging, almost like photographs. Once taken and framed, photographs do not change. The image of the event remains fixed with the circumscription of the frame of the camera and the frame holding the picture. This is not the case in reference to the true nature of human memory as proposed by Peres et al. (2005)

Memories change based on the time that has lapsed since the event occurred was in the present, in other words, when the event was a reality and not a memory. Memory storage fluctuates, again, based on the amount of time that has passed since the event and memory storage fluctuates based on the behaviors of the individual holding the memory since the time of the event. Memory storage is additionally influences or biased by the unconscious of the individual in question. This assertion or connection aligns with other research presented in the review regarding the vulnerability of human memory. It is susceptible to influence and changes. That seems to be fact. The human memory is not fixed, not even within a single individual, let alone the entire species.

Then, regarding trauma, the human memory is particularly vulnerable and adaptive. Human memory changes especially when the memory is of trauma. What is furthermore intriguing regarding their psychological research that is closely tied to neuroscience, is that the brain does not store memories discreetly or wholly in their entirety. The brain, in fact, only stores traces of memories, or lynch pins, key points, that when triggered or cued, the entirety of that memory will be reconstructed around that trace, such as when in a waking state, a word, image, or sound, can trigger the entire memory of a dream had during the previous night's rest. An individual may be able to reconstruct an entire dream around the presence of a single image or sound. This assertion goes against how we understand the brain to work, in terms of storage, and goes against how we think, or want to think, how the human memory works. Trauma changes how memories are stored and once trauma memories are retrieved, they themselves change in their fundamental nature due to the person's behavior since the trauma occurred, and due to the nature of that person's unconscious.

The Research Board of the British Psychological Society additionally published a lengthy journal exclusively dedicated to most of the issues covered in the literature review in one comprehensive document that contains a series of studies of human memory, approaches to understanding it, and applications for their research in the real world (the world outside of academic research). (2008) The research conducted by the BPS was gathered and organized under the umbrella of human memory and the law (civil and criminal). Their research generally argues that while human memory can be of practical use as evidence and testimony as part of criminal and civil lawsuits, scientific understanding of the nature of human memory must be taken under serious consideration, so that the application or integration of human memory in the investigation/legal proceedings will maximize the usefulness of human memory, while not ignorant of the limitations of human memory in this context.

The law generally is unaware of the findings from the scientific study of human memory. Consequently, courts and hearings typically cannot take advantage of these findings and use them to inform their decision-making. Most importantly, courts/hearings cannot draw upon a scientifically informed understanding of human memory during the process of evaluating an account that claims to derive from a memory of an experienced event. (BPS, 2008, 4)

Therefore this collection of psychological research, in part, serves to bridge or fill a gap in legal understanding of the scientific explanations how human memory functions, and thus can serve in a productive manner with respect to legal proceedings. Legal professionals or the justice system, in general, not only does not use human memory effectively as part of legal proceedings, they neither know how to properly use human memory, nor how to truly, scientifically understand human memory, in order for it to be a viable option in a court case.

The BPS does an excellent job of providing in-depth yet vigorously concise research and conclusions about the nature of human memory and its applications when the law is involved. For example, they provide evidence and explanations for how human memory is comparable to modern forms of media such as films, videos, and audio recordings. (BPS, 2008) They argue that memories are records of people's experiences of events and are not a record of the events themselves. There is much more to an event than what a witness remembers about the event, just as there is much more to a sporting event besides what a single camera records of that event.

Furthermore, their research shows how a memory of a specific event (a memory of an individual) is not only of that experienced event, but that memory is also of the knowledge of a person's life, i.e. schools, occupations, holidays, friends, homes, achievements, failures, etc. (BPS, 2008) Other research by the BPS presented in this literature review shows that memories, specifically of traumas are changed by behavior and by individual unconscious. Memories of traumas, such as crimes that may become subject of criminal investigations, change and are fluids; such changes will occur, but the changes will be unique and indigenous to the person remembering the trauma.

The BPS reminds readers and those in the legal profession relying upon human memory that remembering is a constructive process and that memories for experienced events are always incomplete. (2008) Therefore, memories typically contain only a few highly specific details that can be recalled by the conscious mind. Recollection of a single or several highly specific details does not guarantee that a memory is accurate or even that it actually occurred, considering the powerful factors that influence and change every person's individual body of memories. The content of memories arises from an individual's comprehension of an experience, both conscious and non-conscious. (BPS, 2008) People can remember events that they have not, in reality, experienced. The fallibility of memory, as well as the practice of people to have and believe their own false memories, must be taken into consideration when entering human memory into evidence as part of a legal proceeding/trial.

The BPS goes on to explain that the memories of traumatic experiences, childhood events, interview and identification practices, memory in younger children and older adults and other vulnerable groups all have special features, necessitating the presence of a memory expert to be included as part of the court case, trial, etc. According the BPS, a memory expert is a person who is recognized by the memory research community to be a memory researcher. (2008) Far too often, the person with the people with the memory of the event/trauma is included in the court case, but there is a distinct lack of a memory expert; therefore, if attorneys are going to use people and their memories as evidence, in order to perform due diligence, there must also be a memory expert as part of the case. Providing memories without proper context to understand them essentially renders the memories useless or practically inadmissible.

Within the discussion of human memory, there must be made mention of false memories. False memory is a term that refers to the remembrance of an occurrence, including details, that never occurred. No matter how confident a person may be in the clarity of a specific memory, this confidence does not validate or prove that the memory is authentic. As the literature review demonstrates, human memory is prone to fallacy and operates in ways that are contrary to the average beliefs and general understanding. Human memory can be influenced by several factors, including misinformation and misattribution of the source of information. Other factors such as an individual's existing knolwedge and that individual's previously existing memories have the potential to generate interference in the formation of a new memory, resulting in the creation of and recollection of an event that is partially or completely false. Johnson (2001) provides reasoning for false memories as:

…false memories occur because the mental experiences arising from events of different sorts (e.g., imagination and perception) overlap in characteristics (they are imperfectly differentiated) and because the processes that make judgments about these mental experiences are also imperfect (i.e., they not only operate on imperfectly differentiated data, they are not always fully engaged, they sometimes overweigh nondiagnostic evidence or employ inappropriate criteria, they are subject to social influences, etc.). (5255)

There are many functions of the brain. Many functions of the brain are simultaneous and there are many functions of the brain that have great similarity, especially when considering brain functions as they vary across the stages of human consciousness. So, when considering all the operations that the brain performs at once, all the time, and considering the various stages of consciousness a humann typically occupies within, for example, a 24-hour period, it seems quite plausible for a person to develop at least one, if not more, false memories over the course of a lifetime. Over the course of a human's life time, the number of memories a person accumulates must seemingly be infinite. Thus, a few false memories here or there can potentially be nearly harmless, or even useful. Johnson concurs as he writes:

Survival would be difficult, if not impossible, if there were no differences between the memory records of things that happened and things we imagined, or between activities we observed or participated in and activities we only read or heard about. Fortunately, the imperfect system people have is usually good enough, and perhaps even has some advantages over a perfect system (e.g., life satisfaction may be higher when we remember things as better than they were, social relations may be better when we agree on a common account of events, or generalization between similar situations may be faster when we are not concerned about where inferences come from). (2001, 5256)

Furthermore, it can be quite dangerous for a person with false memories of important occurrences, particulary memories of false traumas and other events that, metaphorically, cast the longest shadows over the present and future of a person's experience. There are, of course, some serious consequences of false memories that are more serious and important with respect to a person's current and future development. There is a possibility for subsequent disorders and syndromes associated with the creation of (or implantation of) false memories. Individuals or associations, including mental health professionals, who believe the phenomenon of traumatic events being forgotten for a period of time and subsequently remembered is rare, and yet to be scientifically proven. They also believe in the absence of independent corroboration, claims of recovered memory and false memory need to be regarded with caution, and must be determined by the available facts. There is ia condition such as false memory syndrome, which is a condition wherein a person's identity and a person's close relationships are deeply affected by false memories of traumas.

Another example is the misinformation effect which occurs when false memories are a product of exposure to misleading (wholly or partially false) information presented to a person in the encoding stage of memory formation and in the subsequent recollection of that memory. There are many other areas of research and discussion within the realm of false memory, including ethics. Unfortunately, there are some psychotherapists and other psychological professionals who abuse the therapy and their patients' vulnerabilities to manipulate memories, sometimes imposing unreasonable influence, directly resulting in the creation of important memories, including traumatic ones.

It would be useful, as part of the psychotherapy process, if, when confronting the emergence of repressed memories, "long lost memories" or any memory or series of memories suspected of partial or complete falsehood, should be evaluated by more than one psychological professional. Any memories suspected of falsehood should be treated with gravity. Clinicians should regard the client's needs and well-being as paramount, independent of the objective truth of memories.

Assumptions and biases of the clinician and client about recovering memories should be explored. (PACFA, 2005) Psychological research clearly shows that human memory is fluid and permeable. Time and again, psychological research about the human memory shows that it is influenced by factors from without and by factors from within. Memory and to remember is a reconstructive process affected by the experience of the event, the context of remembering and events occurring between these two time points. Memories are fluid in that they can be altered during encoding, storage and retrieval. The content of memory recall is partly determined by mood state. (PACFA, 2005)

Something interesting to consider is that false memories may not be completely false. Some research presented shows that some false memories are natural and even ok; in an analogous vein of thinking that false memories are not all bad, some psychological research shows there is a possibility that false memories, in some cases, are not entirely false. A psychological research group from Australia, invites this line of thinking in some of their research material on the subject of false memories: