Forgetting or recalling a memory is a prevalent part of everyday life. There are, however, many different types of these things. Source monitoring confusion, flashbulb memory, and false memories are three of the many.
Confusion can often be associated with any of the above three. Confusion looks like this.
Source monitoring confusion is forgetting the source of a memory. For example, Peyton told Eli a joke about the Giants beating the Colts. Three days later, Eli told Peyton. When Peyton stopped him to say the he was the one who told him that, Eli was convinced he heard it elsewhere.
A flashbulb memory is a distinct memory of what you were doing at an important time in history. For many in our generation, this is the 9/11 attacks. I remember that I was sitting in third grade. The principal came on the loud speaker and said there had been a terrorist attack in New York City. All I knew of New York City was that the Statue of Liberty was there.
Beware of phantom flashbulbs, which are a false recollection of what was going on at the time.
False memories are those that are instilled in our minds. This is often associated with hypnosis.
An example of a false memory is that I was certain I had finished my blog; but I went to check and it was nowhere to be found. When I tried to remember what I had typed, I couldn't - false memory.
My parents always tell my sister and I stories of our childhood. After hearing the same stories being told, over and over again, my sister and I would retell these same stories as if we remembered them happening. Though most of these stories took place when we'd too young to remember, my sister and I were convinced that we did, in fact, remember them happening. This, I feel, is an example of false memories.