Imagination Inflation

Imagination inflation is a type of memory distortion in which imagining an event that never actually happened increases a person's confidence that they remember it happening. Several factors have been shown to strengthen the effect: imagining a false event increases its familiarity, which can be mistaken for evidence the event was actually experienced, and the effect may also stem from source confusion, in which a person remembers information generated while imagining a scenario but forgets that imagining, rather than experiencing, was its source, misattributing it to a real memory. The effect is significant for the study of memory and cognition generally, and particularly for false memory: it often arises during attempts to retrieve repressed memories, such as in recovered memory therapy, and can contribute to false or distorted memories, and within criminal justice it has been linked to false confessions produced when police interrogation practices lead a suspect to imagine committing or planning the crime under investigation.