Memory Exercise


Two Fridays ago, an odd event occurred in lecture which we asked you to describe in detail. On Monday, we asked you to reproduce your description word for word.

As you might guess, a lot of detail was lost in one week. The second descriptions are in general much shorter than the first ones.

Individual students also CHANGED their descriptions:

Three students mentioned the white card on the hat and one student mentioned the pink rubber glove in their second descriptions even though no one mentioned these in their first descriptions. The white card was real, but

THE PINK GLOVE DID NOT EXIST! YOUR PROFESSORS PLANTED THIS IDEA IN YOUR MEMORIES!

Picture of the perp

Your memory is not like a video tape that you can rewind and watch over and over. Every time that you retrieve a memory, you alter it, you construct new details and omit old ones.

Now that you have experienced first-hand the problems with remembering after only one week, you can appreciate the problems with memories of Roswell AFTER 30 YEARS!

If you are interested in false memories, research the name Elizabeth Loftus. This topic is connected with "recovered" memories of childhood sexual abuse, satanic rituals, and UFO abductions.