Intro: What are false memories? Did you all specifically remember an event like going to a basketball game and then someone reminded you that you didn't go because you were sick or something. If so, you have created a false memory. The study of false memories began in the early 1990s, when people began reporting "recovered" memories of abuse (Laney & Loftus 1). To understand how false memories work, you must first have a basic understanding of how memory works. In general, your brain stores memories in different ways depending on the type of memory it is. For example, short-term memories are most often stored acoustically, but long-term memories are stored according to their meaning (Foster 3). For this reason, long-term memories are more error-prone. To be able to convert your short-term memories into long-term memories, you use the diencephalon and hippocampus regions of your brain (Foster 3). This process is why you are able to create and store your long-term memories. Removing one of the seahorses won't have much effect, but if you remove both, you might end up not being able to create new long-term memories (Ornstein and Thompson 136). On the other hand, memories end up being forgotten because the brain can only remember a limited number of things (Théan 1). This understanding will help you better understand the creation of false memories. False memories are simply memories of events that you believe happened when they actually didn't happen. Scientists believe that false memories are created in several ways. Some scientists conclude that every time you access your memory, you rewrite it a little differently, so it will never completely be the exact recap of events that people...... middle of paper... ...." Technology Review 116.4 (2013): 48. MasterFILE Premier Web. February 2, 2014. .Laney, Cara and Elizabeth F. Loftus "Recent advances in false memory research." South African Journal of Psychology 43.2 (2013): 137-146. Academic Search Premier Web. Loftus, Elizabeth F. “Creating False Memories.” Ornstein, Robert and Richard F. Thompson. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984. Thean, Tara. No, it's not. Study shows false memories plague us all. November 11, 2013. Time Science and Space. Web. January 21, 2014. .Trafton, Anne. “Neuroscientists plant false memories in the brain. » MIT Press Office. July 25, 2013. MIT News Web, February 15. 2014. .