Human memories have the ability to undergo three different stages: sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory. Memories are encoded, stored in the brain, and later recovered. However, some memories are forgotten. In order to elongate the time span of a memory, a person must use the technique of maintenance rehearsal. Through mentally or verbally repeating a word, event, or other information, maintenance rehearsal allows a person to be able to remember things longer and more accurately. This technique is something that is learned over time by someone, rather than in children. For this reason, children appear to forget information quicker than adults. This also makes children’s reliability for memories or eyewitness reports faulty in most …show more content…
With that being said, researchers also found that if they asked non leading questions providing the children with little details, the children were more likely to remember the actual experiences. This information indicates that it is possible for children to be reliable sources under certain circumstances. Children are more likely to remember things incorrectly, although adults can as well. Sometimes, the memories of adults can be unreliable too because memories can be repressed. Repressed memories are those which have been blocked by someone's subconscious due to a connection with an unpleasant occurrence. Repressed memories can cause memories to be recovered imprecisely. Sigmund Freud proposed the theory of repression and many American psychologists continue to study it today. A study of repression in eighty one percent of college students and over sixty percent of therapists revealed that they believe in the repression of traumatic memories, however, an increasing number of researchers are beginning to believe that repression very rarely, if ever,