Memory: Errors, Constructive Processes, and Conscious Retrieval

Abstract

Memory can be explicit, in the form of actual thoughts and images, or implicit, in the form of largely unconscious skills. Autobiographical memory is a form of explicit memory that encodes the events of our lives from our points of view. We now have a basic understanding of the neural underpinnings of autobiographical memory. Two disorders of autobiographical memory are Korsakoff’s syndrome, and aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery. They cause patients to confabulate, that is, to confidently report as memories events that did not happen to them. Normal people and children can also report false memories on occasion. Contemporary theories of confabulation posit two stages of malfunction. First, a false memory appears in consciousness, and second, the brain’s frontal executive processes fail to correct it.