Humans have an incredible capacity for thinking and memory. We can remember events from our past, our future, and things that have no relative meaning to us. These memories can be traced back to different systems in our brain through a process of encoding, storage and retrieval. As part of the retrieval process, memories may be remembered with or without their sources. As research has shown, our memories are not labeled or tagged with their origin (Johnson, Hashtroudi, and Lindsay 1993). For this reason, our memory has developed a process called source monitoring. This is how we link our memories to the source from which they developed, usually by using specific characteristics and general knowledge of memory. For example, source monitoring involves identifying who said something to you, whether or not you saw an event in real life, the time of the event, and whether you said something to your friend or only thought about saying it. The source monitoring framework for the process involved in locating the origin of information by Johnson and colleagues explains both vertical and distorted memory with a set of common principles. First, a specific memory consists of specific features, including spatial, temporal, and perceptual details. Second, memories may differ in characteristics that can be used to find the origin. Further monitoring of sources may involve beliefs about memory and cognition as well as retrieving more information from the memory and searching for the source of the memory given those beliefs, other specific features, or general knowledge (Johnson et al. 1993). Sometimes these beliefs are not always accurate. Because some people may be influenced by their personal ideologies during retrieval...... middle of article......mental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(3), 432-442 .Gordon, R., Franklin, N. and Beck, J. (2005). Wishful thinking and source monitoring. Memory & Cognition, 33 (3), 418-429.Johnson, MK, Hashtroudi, S. & Lindsay, DS 1993 Source monitoring. Psychological. Bull. 114, 3-28. Marsh, RL, Cook, GI and Hicks, JL (2006). The effect of context variability on source memory. Memory and cognition (before 2011), 34(8), 1578-86. Marsh, R.L., Landau, J.D., & Hicks, J.L. (1997). Contributions of inadequate source monitoring to unconscious plagiarism during idea generation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23(4), 886-897. Vinogradov, S., Willis-Shore, J., Poole, J.H., Marten, E., Ober, B. and Shenaut, G. (1997). Clinical and neurocognitive aspects of source monitoring errors in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry, 154, 1530-1537.