How are false memories formed?

False memories can be implanted seemingly seamlessly in a multitude of ways. I found a website that concisely summarised the ways that this can be done and it brought to my attention that I'd never explicitly made a reference the ways false memories are formed. Therefore I will here do so with my own theorised examples of when they'd occur from my understanding of the explanation given:

Suggestion

Interference of a true memory with added, incorrect post-event information which makes our brain add that information to the already formed memory.

For example:
Through leading questions that are asked after an event taking place. If after a house invasion, the victim was interviewed and asked if the criminal was wearing a blue coat or a black coat, they are unconsciously processing the new suggestion that the criminal was wearing a coat even if they didn't even have a coat on. So the new false memory of a coat is created and they may answer with what the brain automatically fills in. "He was wearing a black coat".

Misinformation

Being fed false information that convinces you that what is described is a real memory.

For example: 
After a drunken night of partying a friend could be telling somebody about how they got on the table and danced however they are mistaking that person for somebody else. The person told that they did this may remember dancing so the brain may automatically assume this person is right so will alter the memory and remember getting on the table too even though it was somebody else who did it.

Inaccurate perception

The brain stores whatever information is sent to it by the rest of the body- sometimes the rest of the body gets confused on what it is perceiving so that wrong perception can be stored by the brain as a false memory. 

For example:
If you think you see somebody that you know (as they have the same colour hair and same facial shape) before you process that it is not the person you think it is you may move on so the only information gathered by the eyes are the hair and the facial shape which is sent by the optical nerve to the brain which then fills in the gaps (schema theory) to give you a memory of you seeing somebody that you didn't.

Misattribution

When the memory of multiple separate events becomes one within your brain so the recollection of the memory is all things that truly occurred but with a timeline jumble. 

For example: 
When asked abut your 7th birthday party, you may remember having a bouncy castle and a clown but in reality the clown attended somebody else's birthday party when you were young but as your brain has a blurred memory of general parties and party related events at that age, they all become one.


False memories are not simply forgetting something, they are remembering something incorrectly but most importantly about false memories is that the person who has them is so utterly convinced that they are right. So saying 'Wasn't it really sunny last Saturday?' then after being told that it rained going 'Oh of course it was' is not a false memory that has been solidified in the brain.