In terms of memory, most of us tend to think that if something has happened before, we will definitely remember it the way exactly how it happened. However, to our surprise, according to our textbook “in fact, memories are revised, edited, and altered on an almost continuous basis.” (Ciccarelli& White, 2009). Our memories are actually never accurate, and as time goes by we remember things less clearly.
One of the most interesting phenomena I found related to our inaccurate memory is the false-memory syndrome, which refers to the creation of inaccurate or false memories through the suggestion of others, often while the person is under hypnosis (Hochman, 1994). It is true that people sometimes can claim something that has never happened before to be real without even realizing it. This reminds me of the story of my friend.
One day my friend lost her room key but she did not know how that happened. I told her to try to recall the tasks she had done in that period of time to get some clue. Then she told me she was getting the trash out before she realized that her key was missing. So I asked her unintentionally that if she accidently put her key in the trash bin with the garbage. After hearing my guess, she started to panic. And then she actually believed that she threw her room key away by accident when she was taking out the trash. But several days later, she found the key in the drawer of her room. My friend was really surprised and she laughed at herself that she actually persuaded herself to think that she threw away the key while taking out the trash.
This story may sound funny, but in fact things like this are happening all the time to us. Other examples are like remembering different things happened in childhood from your siblings do, and condemning the wrong person for doing the crime. As we can see, our memories make mistakes all the time. However, it is good to know that most of our memories are reliable. Otherwise our world will be a mess.
References
Ciccarelli, S.K. and White J. N. (2009). “Chapter 1.” Psychology. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 16-18. Print.
Hochman, J. (1994). Buried memories challenge the law. National Law Journal, 1, 17-18
I really enjoyed your post and thought you shared a great example of how our memory tends to change itself over time. I decided to reply because there have been countless times where I too, have convinced myself that I did/didn’t do something just like your friend convinced herself that she threw out her keys when it never actually happened. I think it’s so interesting how our memories, like you said, can be revised, edited and altered on a continuous basis like this and actually convince us that the memory was completely different than what actually happened. Also I’d like the applaud you on your background information and research on false memories, it helped show the amusement and connection of your story to the topic of your post.