Blog 1

One day, my mom got a call to go to court because she saw a car accident happen right in front of her. She was just waiting at a red light at the intersection when it happened. According to what she remembered, she thought the red car was trying to turn right on a red light, and the gray car had a green light. She believed that the gray car had the right of way and blamed the red car for causing the crash. When she was in court, she told the story based on what she could remember. But it’s important to remember that our memories aren’t like video recordings and they might not catch every single detail perfectly. Memory reconstruction is the process by which our brains attempt to piece together events from fragments of information stored in our mind. In my mother’s case, the traumatic nature of a car crash, along with the stress of being a witness in court, can influence the way she remembered the incident. For instance, her belief that the red car attempted to make a right on red might be influenced by her general understanding of traffic rules. In her mind, this scenario might align with what she expects to see at an intersection. Also, her emotions during the accident might have made some details stand out more in her mind. She also believed that the gray car had the right of way and blamed the red car. But sometimes our brains fill in the gaps in our memory to make a story that makes sense. This happens to all of us, especially when we’re trying to remember complicated or stressful events.In reality, the actual order of events might have been more complicated. Things like when the traffic lights changed, how fast the cars were going, and what the drivers were doing could all add more layers to the story.