Reconstructive Memory and Kerry's Military Experiences
Immortalist
same incidents and was wondering how much is "reconstructive memory" and how much
was different locations;
Our memory plays an important role in all our social interactions. Because of
this, it is vital to grasp this one thing about memory: Human memory is
re-constructive in nature. By this I mean that we cannot tap into a literal
translation of past events.
It is not like playing back a tape recorder or a VCR; instead, we re-create our
memories from bits and pieces of actual events filtered through and modified by
our notions of what might have been and what should have been.
Our memories are also profoundly influenced
by what people might have told us about the
specific events— long after they occurred.
As Anthony Greenwald has noted, if historians revised and distorted history to
the same extent that we do in trying to recall events from our own lives, they'd
lose their jobs! Of course, most of us would like to believe that our memories
contain only the truth about the past. To most people, the idea that their memory
is fallible is somewhat frightening.
...Elizabeth Loftus ...conducted a fascinating program of research on
re-constructive memory—investigating how ... "suggestive" questioning can
influence memory and subsequent eyewitness testimony.
In one of her experiments, Loftus showed subjects a film depicting a multiple-car
accident.
After the film;
some of the subjects were asked,
"About how fast were the cars going
when they smashed into each other?"
Other subjects were asked the same
question, but the word smashed was
replaced by the word hit.
Subjects who were asked about smashing cars, as opposed to hitting cars,
estimated that the cars were going significantly faster; moreover, a week after
seeing the film, they were more likely to state (erroneously) that there was
broken glass at the accident scene.
Leading questions can not only influence the judgment of facts (as in the case
above), but also can affect the memory of what has happened.
In one of her early studies, Loftus showed subjects a series of slides depicting
an auto-pedestrian accident. In a critical slide, a green car drove past the
accident. Immediately after viewing the slides, half of the subjects were asked,
"Did the blue car that drove past the accident have a ski rack on the roof ?" The
remaining subjects were asked this same question but with the word blue deleted.
Those subjects who were asked about the "blue" car were more likely to claim
incorrectly that they had seen a blue car. A simple question had changed their
memory.
The Social Animal - Elliot Aronson - 8th Edition 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733129/
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22reconstructive+memory%22
BretCahill
>Message-id: <KaSdnUiYKaf...@comcast.com> writes:
. . .
>To most people, the idea that their memory
>is fallible is somewhat frightening.
What's really frightening is rediscovering all the
skeletons in your closet. Then you have to
admit you have a selective memory.
But if your only concern is coming up with new
ideas, a bad memory might not be so
frightening, but it still presents a minor problem.
Three times I "invented" a lighter than air
vacuum vessel -- a covered icosahedral or other
structure that could withstand the 14.7 psi
ambient pressure yet weigh less than the
evacuated air.
About when the preliminary calculations show
that the structural material will need to have a
strength/weight ratio a couple orders of
magnitude higher than the best composites, I
suddenly remember that I went through similar
calculation before.
Bret Cahill
All conservatism is based on censorship of
economic information.
-- Bret Cahill