Direct Experience and False Memories

Going on our normal routines, we as humans come across and witness many situations in our everyday lives. In our text, a portion explains the differences between experiences that we go through and our memories. As critical thinkers, it is important to as much as possible accurately differentiate between the two. Some of the factors that affect clearly explaining what had really happened are trauma and language. When a traumatic event occurs, it starts to become difficult to clearly explain what was going on since there are many things going on in one's head. Words also have an effect on this. The choice of words and the order they are in can give a variety of responses. This is when it becomes difficult to connect between what has really happened and ones's memory. Moreover, one of the biggest issues is that when the most consistent information is needed, it is hard to tell if a memory is true or not since false memories are just as easy to believe as the accurate ones. At times, we even fall into false memory syndrome, which is when we alter our memories when we recall events, sometimes even memories that never even occurred. Being the critical thinkers that we are, we should practice and enhance our memorization skills through being more attentive and analyzing events so that we can accurately remember any new information.