http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/02/how-memories-are-distorted-and-invented.php Understand your mind with the science of psychology - Mon, 04 May 2009 10:30:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/02/how-memories-are-distorted-and-invented.php/comment-page-1#comment-21873 Anita Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:16:00 +0000 http://spring.org.uk/2008/02/how-memories-are-distorted-and-invented-misattribution.php#comment-21873 I'm relieved to think that I am not alone. I have just had the most disturbing experience relating to False Memory. I recently met an old journalist friend, and was teasing him about his bad memory(!). I reminded him of the time, 30 years ago, that he had locked himself out of his flat in his pajamas. After he made a reversed charge call to me, I came and picked him up and drove him to his office, where he had a spare key. He could remember the incident, but maintained he had caught a taxi to the office. I, in turn, described in great detail what had happened, including the fact that a policeman had tried to move me on while I was waiting for him outside his office. He later looked up a published column that he written about the event, and discovered it had happened six years before we actually met! Either he locked himself out TWICE in his pajamas, ten years apart (very unlikely), or I had fantasised the whole thing. It's a very scary thing to think that I can no longer trust my memory. Could it be that he told me about the incident, and I dreamt about it so vividly that my mind filed it under 'Memory' instead of 'Dream'? Very unsettling.<br />Anita Dunne I'm relieved to think that I am not alone. I have just had the most disturbing experience relating to False Memory. I recently met an old journalist friend, and was teasing him about his bad memory(!). I reminded him of the time, 30 years ago, that he had locked himself out of his flat in his pajamas. After he made a reversed charge call to me, I came and picked him up and drove him to his office, where he had a spare key. He could remember the incident, but maintained he had caught a taxi to the office. I, in turn, described in great detail what had happened, including the fact that a policeman had tried to move me on while I was waiting for him outside his office. He later looked up a published column that he written about the event, and discovered it had happened six years before we actually met! Either he locked himself out TWICE in his pajamas, ten years apart (very unlikely), or I had fantasised the whole thing. It's a very scary thing to think that I can no longer trust my memory. Could it be that he told me about the incident, and I dreamt about it so vividly that my mind filed it under 'Memory' instead of 'Dream'? Very unsettling.
Anita Dunne

]]> http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/02/how-memories-are-distorted-and-invented.php/comment-page-1#comment-21222 HoverHell Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:16:00 +0000 http://spring.org.uk/2008/02/how-memories-are-distorted-and-invented-misattribution.php#comment-21222 I always feel some uncertainty when access memory that has been distorted/mixed/invented, yet I don't know if it's possible to train such ability and might just lose it as well. I always feel some uncertainty when access memory that has been distorted/mixed/invented, yet I don't know if it's possible to train such ability and might just lose it as well.

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