When six-year-old Sven's parents overhear him describing his third birthday party, they look at each other in surprise. Sven appears to remember that the birthday cake his father was baking burned and his aunt had to run out and buy one from a bakery, even though Sven was not present when those events occurred. Sven's memory illustrates the concept of _________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Sven's memory is an example of confabulation, which is the production of false, distorted, or misinterpreted memories. Sven has combined information he was told later with his own memories to create a false memory of the burned cake and store-bought cake. Priming is when exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus, implicit memory is a type of non-conscious memory, and decay is the fading away of memories over time. None of these concepts apply to Sven's memory in this scenario.

When Six-Year-Old Sven's Parents Overhear Him Describing His Third Birthday