Can memories be distorted? Researchers Postarino and Doyle-Portillio (2013); Bernstein and Loftus (2009); and Bartholomew (2009) have found growing evidence to suggest that the answer to this question is yes. Explicit and implicit memories are encoded differently, but it appears that both may be fallible. It is also worth noting that this can happen without a person being aware of it. Kolb and Whishaw (2014) examined studies that gave participants one list of words, then gave them a second list. The second list contained some, but not all, items from the first list, but many participants thought the word sugar was on both, when in fact it was only on the second. Similar words such as cake, sweet and candy were present in the first position, so this seemed to confuse the participants. Researchers call this phenomenon false memory. False memory is different from lying; unlike lying, the individual in this case can provide a false account of the past while truly believing that he is telling the truth. In other words, false memory can be defined simply as a mental experience mistakenly regarded as the truthful representation of the past. False memories can have both minor and serious consequences Bernstein & Loftus, 2009; Bartholomew, 2009). Minor consequences, for example, could lead to confusion about where you put something, like your car keys. Such confusion can lead to a simple inconvenience such as wasting time. Although more serious consequences could occur, for example, when an individual's memory causes the individual to provide false eyewitness testimony which could be costly to him or other third parties. Therefore, it is important to critically analyze the dynamics of false memory formation and highlight methods that could be used to identify...... half of the article ......Postarino, E., & Doyle-Portillo, S ( 2013). What are psychological essentials (2nd ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing. Schacter, D. L., & Slotnik, S. D. (2004). The cognitive neuroscience of memory distortion. Neuron, 44, 149-160.Vrij, A. (2005). Criterion-based content analysis: A qualitative review of the first 37 studies. Psychology, public policies and law, 11, 3-41. Vrij, A., Akehurst, L., Soukara, S., & Bull, R. (2004). Let me tell you how to tell a convincing story: CBCA and reality monitoring scores as a function of age, coaching, and deception. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 36, 113-126.Watson, J. M., Bunting, M. F., Poole, B. J., & Conway, A. R. (2005). Individual differences in susceptibility to false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(1), 76-85.