Many childhood memories ‘imagined’, research says

SOME of our most cherished and vivid childhood memories may be nothing but figments of imagination, research suggests.

The memory really can play tricks, a team of British psychologists found when they interviewed a group of 1,600 students. Those taking part in the study were asked to recall memories of events they now knew had not taken place.

A fifth said they experienced “fictional” memories, mostly dating back to when they were four to eight years old. In some cases, a parent or sibling revealed the truth about a false memory.