Memory distortion has become a hot topic this week in the wake of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams’s admission of falsely recounting one of his experiences during coverage of the Iraq War.

For years, Williams talked about riding in a helicopter that was ultimately forced down after taking fire during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. But this week he publicly apologized and admitted that he had been mistaken after reports surfaced that he was not in that particular aircraft, but in a following helicopter.

Williams said he made a mistake in recalling the incident, having conflated video he had seen with his own experience. He described the error as resulting from the “fog of memory over 12 years” and this explanation has fueled interviews in many high-profile outlets with psychological scientists who are memory experts.

Psychological science continues to uncover new findings about the factors that shape how memories are formed, how they can change over time, and how we can end up with false memories, including these recent discoveries reported in Psychological Science and the APS Observer: