These memories may then with the help of therapy emerge into the conscious at a later stage in life, many external factors can influence the way in which these memories are recalled, and in some severe cases, as a result of external suggestion, people have been made to believe that they are recovering a repressed memory, even though the event they recalled never actually happened. When interference occurs and a fake or inaccurate memory is born it is known as "False Memory Syndrome". Elizabeth Loftus is one of the main figureheads concerned with research on memory accuracy, in particular False Memory Syndrome. She suggested that "With the passage of time, with proper motivation, with the introduction of special kinds of interfering facts, the memory traces seem sometimes to change or become transformed. These distortions can be quite frightening, for they can cause us to have memories that never actually happened" (1997). Loftus refers to an experience she had soon after her father died. At first her thoughts of him were filled with recent images of him suffering the final stages of cancer, then gradually her memory began to include happier images. She then realised that the source of these images were photos she had of each event. She was remembering the pictures rather than actual events she had experienced, thus her memory was enhanced or filled in by additional visual information. This is known as the "misinformation effect".
An area of great controversy in our society is the practice of eyewitness testimonies. Many innocent individuals have been placed in prison as a result of inaccurate testimonies. Fruzzetti et al (1992) articulated that even a very low rate of false identifications have lead to hundreds of innocents being convicted of crime every year. Factors that influence the accuracy of eyewitness accounts have been of great interest to psychologists. One way in which eyewitness testimony can be influenced is when what is remembered is influenced by the observer's expectations (confirmation bias).