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If we search for the truth, will we find it through our memories? We might, but it won't be complete. Courts still search for the truth by listening to people share their memories, but Memories are not reliable. There are many factors to consider when assessing the reliability of a memory and enduring it is free of all biases since, over time, memories change and information is lost.

Norhan’s paragraph

Memory is not absolute; it can be distorted and altered due to present events, situations and biases. “False memory involves claims about remembering. We may sincerely believe that we have experienced certain events, and feel that we recall concrete details about the events, and, yet, have never experienced those events” (Payne, Eli, Blackwell & Neuschatz, 1996, cited by Reyna and Lloyd, 1997). Elizabeth Loftus, an esteemed professor at the University of California and a psychology expert who specializes in human memory, particularly eyewitness memory, has performed an experiment in regard to false memory. She had the participants read a journal relating to fictional event and that event was supported by a story of a relative. The participants then underwent three interviews with 2 weeks’ time difference between the first and remaining two. In the two follow-up interviews, participants were only provided with parts of the journal as retrieval cues and 25 percent of them claimed that they remembered the fictitious event (Loftus, 1997). They had actually convinced themselves that the event did take place and had some memories of such event. This is the danger of false memories, especially that they are unintentional; the person in question doesn’t differentiate between a real and a false memory as they believe both to have actu...

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...n change and having something as unreliable as memory decide the fate of another human being is faulty. (Reconstructing Memory: The Incredible Eye Witness, E. F. Loftus, 1975, P.188)

Memories are not reliable. The process of remembering events is flawed because it can be tampered with easily whether intentionally or unintentionally. Since vital information can be lost, the memory changes and becomes an alteration of an original event, falsifying any evidence it may present. Memory biases play a vital role in creating such false memory. Over time, our perception changes. We remember past events differently because we’ve absorbed new information that mixes with the original memory and eventually create a new memory. Although memories are important in variant areas in our lives, such as witness testimonies, it is crucial to know that they are not absolute or reliable.