Your memory – how reliable is it?

How’s your memory? Do think it’s accurate? Can you rely on it? Have you tested it?

Memory is not a video

It’s easy to imagine that the way we remember things is like viewing an old film or video. But that’s not really the case. Your brain doesn’t work like that.

Memory is about making sense of things

Here’s an interesting experiment carried out by Elizabeth Loftus, one of the top researchers in the field.

A group of people were shown a film of a car crash. They were then asked questions about it. One question was:

“How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

Others were asked:
“How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”

Those asked the second question said the car was going a lot faster than those asked the first question. Even more interestingly, when they were asked later if they had seen any broken glass, those who were asked the second question were more likely to say there was broken glass.

There was no broken glass at all. They constructed it in their memories.

Your memory is not reliable – you just think it is

It’s important to know this, so that when you are convinced you remember word for word what a person said, it’s probably extremely unlikely that you do. If you need to remember information like that, write it down.

And be aware that the way you ask others about what they ‘remember’ has a big impact on what they think they remember.

And yes, I did check the recording of the interview to make sure I got the details for this blog correct, just in case you are wondering.

To find out how you can improve your memory, check out our teleseminar on memory. To look after your brain, get our booklet "Boost Your Brain in Your Spare Time"