Chocolate Case

1) Memory is reconstructive. We can use clues to "fill in the blanks." However, reconstruction is prone to errors. We can attribute something to the wrong source. People can recreate false memories due to suggestibility. We can assume that we might have done something that we didn't do based on what others may suggest to or tell us.

2) There are many dangers of suggestibility. First of all, misleading questions can lead to eyewitness misidentification. In eyewitness identification, confidence will not always correlate with accuracy; people can be highly confident in inaccurate identifications. Moreover, people may even be led to confess to crimes they never committed. False memories often arise due to a combination of suggestive questioning, emotional stress, and social pressures. Another form of suggestibility takes place in the form of, therapy techniques. These techniques can often trigger false memories; these are especially dangerous since they're unintentional.

3) Memory distrust syndrome is a term used to describe individuals who distrust their own memories and are compelled to rely on external sources-that are often inaccurate-to verify the accuracy of memories. One famous case involves Peter Reilly, who distrusted his own memory so much that he believed that he murdered his own mother but forgot about it.

4) The misinformation effect is the discovery that exposure to misleading information presented between the encoding of an event and its subsequent recall causes impairment in memory. This effect is more likely as original memory gets older and is less likely to notice the inconsistencies between the accurate memory and suggested memory. Misinformation is more likely to take hold if no discrepancy is noticed; but, even if it is noticed, it can still take hold (Discrepancy detection principle). Furthermore, we can reduce the misinformation effect by warning people before either before or after misinformation. Research has suggested that age, personality variables (such as empathy, absorption, and self monitoring), and paranormal experiences can distinguish who is more susceptible to this effect. More research has also taught us that memories for information often contain longer verbal descriptions, more verbal "hedges", more reference to cognitive operations, and fewer sensory details. Lastly, we discovered that while one may be able to implant little details, implanting an entire event might