Escape from illusion: reducing false memories

Illusory memories are unsettling, but far from uncommon. Over the past seve ral years, increasing experimental and theoretical attention has focused on misattribution errors that occur when some form of memory is present but a ttributed to an incorrect time, place or source. Demonstrations of errors a nd distortions in remembering raise a question with important theoretical a nd practical implications: how can memory misattributions be reduced or avo ided? We consider evidence that documents the occurrence of illusory memori es, particularly false recognition responses, and then review three ways in which memory distortion can be minimized.