Is Our Memory Similar to a Recorder?
By Jordann Biddle
Imagine being placed on trial after witnessing a terrible assault of a man on a woman. You swear to tell the truth and only the truth about what you saw. The verdict of the defendant’s guilt is in your hands. You decide to tell the complete truth about what you remember, but is what you remember completely true? In your head, the assault is crystal clear. You tell the court about the defendant and the details of what lead up to the assault. In the end, the court uses your eye-witness to determine the man’s guilt. They are placed in jail for over 10 years. Before you rejoice, are the details of your story the real details of what truly happened?
What You Remember
As you walked through a park, you saw a man standing with a woman near the entrance. Suddenly they began to argue and yell in front of their children. The man’s voice was harsh, and he seemed to be threatening the woman. They began to physically fight, and with seamless hesitation the man throws a hard punch and knocks the woman onto the ground. From this swing, she was bruised and cut on her forehead. He then takes his child and leaves the woman to lay alone unconsciously. The man began to flea with a knife in his hand. You immediately call the police and the man was apprehended while the woman was placed in an ambulance.
What Really Happened
A man was taking his daughter to a park for her to play with her friends. Before they entered the park, a woman came up to them. She was not recognized by the man at first and alarmed the man. She had bruises on her face and a cut above her brow. As she began to speak, he recognized her. She was a past lover of his who is now with an abusive partner. Suddenly, as the man began recognizing her, she asked, “If you want to make a fortune, I can help. Just tell me how much for the little girl?” Disgusted and alarmed, he shoves her away from his daughter. The woman began to yell and threaten them. The man and woman argue until the situation escalates. Discretely, the woman pulls a knife on him and lunges at the man. He shoved her to the ground. As she fell, her head hit one of the large stones. The man removed the knife from her hand before children saw it and quickly left the scene with his daughter.
Why Were You Wrong?
In truth, the woman was the assailant who tried to traffic the man’s daughter. You couldn’t have known this, but here’s where your memory was wrong: The man’s voice wasn’t threatening; it was terrified. The man defended himself and his daughter from swings of the woman’s knife. She fell unconscious from hitting the stone on the ground and not from a punch. He never threw a punch and she already had the bruising and cuts before the fight. Sadly, your memory warped the fight in favor of the woman. Due to this, the man was sentenced to prison and the woman was set free.
Cognitive psychologists have studied the way we remember our memories and the results are that our memory is not quite as accurate as we thought. It is a common misconception that our memories work as a video recorder. Why this is commonly thought is understandable; we rely on our memories for our whole life. We are biased on the truthfulness of our memories; we trust ourselves and unconditionally believe the stories our mind tells us, though they may be lies. For the most part, our minds are incredibly deceiving. It is important to keep in mind that some memories, even the clearest ones, warp over time. If memory was accurate, the man would not have been charged. Whether it’s testifying in the courtroom or telling life stories to friends, the reality is that we frequently rely on falsehoods.
How to Avoid This
There are ways to avoid accepting false memories as the truth. One of the ways is to recognize that a memory may be false. Use logic and understanding to determine the truth of the memory or its falsehood. Another way is to better control how you think. This is called “cognitive control.” One of the most reputable psychological organizations, the American Psychological Association, found back up to this. They discovered that those with better working-memories tend to recognize falsehoods more effectively. Age is a part of bettering working-memory, but learning about how our memories are not always truthful can help adjust our cognitive control for the better.
References
Increased cognitive control helps prevent false memories, American Psychological Association.
How marijuana causes memory loss, Medical News Today.
“I Don’t Remember.” ADDitude.