Can You Trust Your Memory?

To many people, memory is a mental recording - an archive of 'videos' that can be paused and replayed whenever we desire, so we can carry the past with us into the present. In actuality this is far from the truth, and our memories are less reliable than we thought. 

Contrary to popular belief, memory is not a storage device, but something entirely different. Memories are thoughts that are reconstructed every time they are retrieved. This combines bits of stored information with current emotions, beliefs and expectations which is known as “reconstructive nature of memory”. Therefore, each time an image is retrieved, the memory is slightly altered. Missing details may be filled in or subconsciously altered to make the memory make sense. This can explain the Mandela Effect, which is a term used to describe collective false memories. Some examples of the Mandela Effect include the Monopoly man never wearing a monocle and Pikachu never having a black tip on his tail. 

Another factor that makes memory unreliable is that humans are easy to influence. In the 1970s, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus explained how simply changing the wording of a question can alter what people remember. During a study, Loftus would show participants car crash videos and would ask them to estimate the speeds using different verbs like “hit” or “smashed”. When verbs like “smashed” were used instead of “hit”, people reported higher speeds and even remembered seeing broken glass that wasn’t there. This suggests that not just phrasing in a lab, but the media we consume daily can reshape our memories.

The most deceptive part of memory is how confident we believe it is, while recollections often have little accuracy. Humans believe that vividness equates to truth, but vividness is just a trick of recollection. Understanding that memory is undependable does not make it useless; it makes us human. Memory is essential for identity and learning, but we are flexible, adapting to make sense of ourselves. The fault lies in the belief that memory is perfect and recognising these imperfections helps us to foster critical thinking and make better decisions. 

Recollections are filtered through our current filters of emotions and imagination. Instead of being recordings, memories are narratives that evolve as we gain personal growth. Memory is a blessing; it is not a photograph of the past, but rather a painting that changes each time we look at it.