Can We Trust Our Memories
By Ruby Hawk
@RubyHawk (99405)
Atlanta, Georgia
May 20, 2022 8:05am CST
Do you believe all our memories are factual? Science tells us this is not always true. We know that our memory doesn't always coincide with the memory of someone else who was at the same event.
Scientist proved it once again by staging an event and taking actual pictures of the event, but also adding pictures that were fake.
The real and faked pictures were shown to the subjects who were asked to recall everything they could about the scenes in the pictures.
Many of the subjects recalled things that never happened. When the subjects were told about the fake pictures, they said they still remembered it happening. Science tells us that fake memories are easy to plant. A person can be told about an incident that actually didn't happen and over time "remember" it as factual.
That's why at a crime scene investigators try to record all witnesses information immediately after the crime.
If you would like to learn more about fake memories you will find more information in the book "Subliminal" by Leonard Mlodinow.
20 people like this
20 responses
@moffittjc (121729)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 May 22
This is very true! I discovered this in conversations with my brother about our childhood. We were inseparable growing up, and did everything together as kids. But his memories and my memories don't hardly ever line up equally, where he'll remember things completely differently than I remember them. It's crazy that our brains can do this to us. But I'm not complaining, my memories are almost entirely happy ones, so even if they're not entirely 100% correct, they at least bring a smile to my face!
5 people like this
@moffittjc (121729)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 May 22
@RubyHawk I agree. I’ve gotten into arguments with my brother over the differences in our memories, because mine are always so vivid.
3 people like this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
21 May 22
@moffittjc I can hardly accept that my memories can be wrong. They’re just too real.
3 people like this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
21 May 22
When my siblings don’t remember things as I do I think they’re the ones who have false memories and mine are correct. I know that’s not always right but my memories are so clear it’s hard to believe they could be wrong. It’s strange that we can remember things so clearly that never happened.
3 people like this
@Letranknight2015 (52079)
• Philippines
20 May 22
I think my imaginations sometimes overruns my memories. Well, some people who wants to escape what they did tried to lie to themselves to the end.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (472060)
• Switzerland
21 May 22
@RubyHawk - This is true. I keep a daily diary, I write what I did during the day, the temperature, the kind of weather. It is interesting to go through my diaries and to check. At least I know that what often we think "never happened before" in reality happened but we forgot.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (181717)
• United States
20 May 22
I think that happens to my husband a lot. He will remember things differently from how they really happened and insist that he's right. I think he remembers his own version of the incident.
2 people like this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
29 Dec 22
@LindaOHio As well as I can understand, it happens to everyone, we don’t know it unless dates don’t coincide with a particular memory and we realize it couldn’t have happened as we remember it.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (181717)
• United States
29 Dec 22
@RubyHawk Do you know what causes that?
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (182204)
• United States
20 May 22
Yes, our minds deceive us. Plus if someone plants a seed of doubt in our mind about something we might think we are not remembering correctly
2 people like this
@beesure11 (234)
•
20 May 22
For all of you who are able to remember. I salute you.
Having a memory of any kind is a plus.
I can't even remember where I put my glasses. After looking for them for an hour as I pass by the mirror in the den and see them sitting on my head.
@GreatMartin (23671)
• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
21 May 22
I'm happy with whatever memories I have---who cares if they are real or fake????
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (83103)
• United States
20 May 22
Very interesting post. Definitely something to think about and I agree that our memories can deceive us at times.
My children have some of the same memories of their childhood and different memories of a same occurrence
2 people like this
@TheHorse (220275)
• Walnut Creek, California
20 Dec 22
I wonder if he's a student of Elizabeth Loftus. I think she's the one who wrote "The Repressed Memory Myth." You are so right. Memory is "constructive." We can't know for sure what's real and what's "added." But I DO fancy that I remember what it was like when my brother and I got (briefly) separated from our mom in a crowded plaza in Italy. We were Maybe three and four. An emotionally charged memory that is hard to forget is called a "flashbulb memory."
1 person likes this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
20 Dec 22
Our memories are so real. My sister reminded me of an incident that to me, had never happened but when I looked in an old journal it had happened just as she said. It wasn’t she who had a false memory, it was me who had forgotten. I have memories from the time I was two years old but how many are false memories?
@aninditasen (16501)
• Raurkela, India
21 May 22
Those people who insist on seeing something that was not present at are either suffering from some mental disorder or are trying to confuse the people who are around them and listening to them.
1 person likes this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
22 Dec 22
@aninditasen Not necessarily. They actually believe it’s true.
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@aninditasen (16501)
• Raurkela, India
21 Dec 22
@RubyHawk People sometimes instill imaginary stories into their brains and try to present it as true. My mother-in-law behaved in such a fashion.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
21 May 22
Interesting that you should write about this now. I've been watching New Amsterdam and a previous episode was about memories. It was quite interesting.
1 person likes this
@MommyOfEli2013 (84229)
• Rupert, Idaho
21 May 22
I know lots that say they can, or that they remember things perfectly and what not. I know I have a bad memory though myself.
1 person likes this
@Nakitakona (56486)
• Philippines
21 May 22
Memories are the product of the past or the things that we encounter or experienced. We can recall faces of our intimate friends and even family members closed to us.
Memories are defined as "the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms"
It's clear and simple "learned and retained". So it's not a product of imagination. It does exist.
In this point, I am confused of "fake memories" as you mentioned it.
1 person likes this
