Explain and evaluate what research has taught us about why our memories are not always accurate.

We use memory for numerous purposes throughout every day of our lives. It allows us to keep track of our activities, recognize peoples faces, and understand what we read or see on television.  The amount of examples for its uses is endless. Despite our strong reliance on the accuracy of memories, they often tend to be inaccurate. This essay provides examples of empirical research investigating why inaccuracies in memory may occur, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the theories that been developed from them.

Psychologists identify a series of stages involved in memory. Processes occurring during the presentation of the learning material are known as encoding. This is the first stage. As a result of encoding, some information is stored within the memory system. Thus, storage is the second stage. The third, and final, stage is retrieval, which involves recovering or …(short extract)