One volunteer claimed to have had vivid memories of being a hockey player – even though her parents confirmed she had never played hockey in her life.

Another claimed to have remembered seeing a living dinosaur. In many cases, people continued to have memories of events after their parents or siblings had told them they could not have happened.

‘Autobiographical memory provides us with a sense of identity and it is usually accurate enough to help us negotiate our lives,’ said researcher Giuliana Mazzoni.

‘But as our study shows, not all that we remember about our past is true. Our research also shows that this phenomenon of non-believed memories is much more frequent than people had imagined.