Memory Exercise

On 30 January, an odd event occurred in lecture which we asked you to describe in detail. A week later, 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:

The perp got shorter: 6'6" became 6'3".
The perp got taller: 5'9" became 5'11".
The time gets longer: 10 sec became 1 minute.
The time gets shorter: 3 minutes became 30 sec.
A "girl" became a "woman".
A "woman" became a "person".
A "man" became a "woman".
"Professor Scalise" became "Professor Cotton".
Red lettering on the lab coat which only one student saw was then seen by several students.
A black dress appears.
"Brunette" hair appears.
The SMU logo appears.
The yellow dishwashing gloves appear twice.

THE SMU LOGO AND THE YELLOW GLOVES DID NOT EXIST! YOUR PROFESSORS PLANTED THESE IDEAS IN YOUR MEMORIES!

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.