9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In a study in the 1990s, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 participants recalled getting lost in a [br]shopping mall as children. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Some shared these memories[br]in vivid detail— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 one even remembered that the old man 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who rescued him was [br]wearing a flannel shirt. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But none of these people had actually [br]gotten lost in a mall. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They produced these false memories 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when the psychologists conducting the[br]study told them they’d gotten lost, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and although they might not remember[br]the incident, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their parents had confirmed it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it wasn’t just one or two people [br]who thought they remembered getting lost— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a quarter of the participants did. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These findings may sound unbelievable, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but they actually reflect a very[br]common experience. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our memories are sometimes unreliable. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And though we still don’t know precisely[br]what causes this fallibility 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on a neurological level, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 research has highlighted some of the[br]most common ways our memories 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 diverge from what actually happened. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The mall study highlights how we can[br]incorporate information 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from outside sources, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like other people or the news, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into our personal recollections[br]without realizing it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This kind of suggestibility is just [br]one influence on our memories. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Take another study, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in which researchers briefly showed a [br]random collection of photographs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to a group of participants, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 including images of a university campus[br]none of them had ever visited. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When shown the images three weeks later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a majority of participants said that[br]they had probably or definitely 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 visited the campus in the past. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The participants misattributed information[br]from one context––an image they’d seen— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 onto another––a memory of something[br]they believed they actually experienced. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In another experiment, people were shown[br]an image of a magnifying glass, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then told to imagine a lollipop. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They frequently recalled that they saw [br]the magnifying glass and the lollipop. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They struggled to link the objects to [br]the correct context–– 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whether they actually saw them,[br]or simply imagined them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Another study, where a psychologist [br]questioned over 2,000 people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on their views about the legalization [br]of marijuana, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 highlights yet another kind of influence[br]on memory. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Participants answered questions in 1973[br]and 1982. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Those who said they had supported[br]marijuana legalization in 1973, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but reported they were against it in 1982, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were more likely to recall that they were [br]actually against legalization in 1973–– 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 bringing their old views in line [br]with their current ones. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our current opinions, feelings, and experiences[br]can bias our memories of how we felt in the past. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In another study, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 researchers gave two groups[br]of participants background information 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on a historical war and asked them to rate[br]the likelihood that each side would win. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They gave each group the same information, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 except that they only told one group[br]who had actually won the war— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the other group didn’t know the[br]real world outcome. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In theory, both groups’ answers should[br]be similar, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because the likelihood[br]of each side winning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 isn’t effected by who actually won— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if there’s a 20% chance of thunderstorms,[br]and a thunderstorm happens, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the chance of thunderstorms[br]doesn’t retroactively go up to 100%. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Still, the group that knew how the war[br]ended rated the winning side 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as more likely to win than the[br]group who did not. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All of these fallibilities of memory [br]can have real-world impacts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If police interrogations use leading[br]questions with eye witnesses or suspects, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 suggestibility could result in incorrect [br]identifications or unreliable confessions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Even in the absence of leading questions, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 misattribution can lead to inaccurate [br]eyewitness testimony. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In a courtroom, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if a judge rules a piece of evidence [br]inadmissible 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and tells jurors to disregard it,[br]they may not be able to do so. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In a medical setting, if a patient [br]seeks a second opinions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the second physician is aware of the [br]first one’s diagnosis, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that knowledge may bias their conclusion. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our memories are not ironclad [br]representations of reality, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but subjective perceptions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And there’s not necessarily[br]anything wrong with that— 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the problems arise when we treat[br]memory as fact, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rather than accepting[br]this fundamental truth 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about the nature of our recollections.