Erika Hayasaki has an article in The Atlantic for November, 2013, asking "How Many of Your Memories Are Fake?" She notes that there are 50 people in the USA who have "Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory" and are able to remember what they ate and who they talked to on any day of their lives." They have phenomenal memories in power and in accuracy. But even they make mistakes.
The Atlantic article refers to studies by Professor Elizabeth Loftus, who herself studies contaminated memories – remembrances that can be quite sharp and sure of events that never happened. Loftus has found that these memories can be planted in someone’s mind by exposing people to misinformation after an event or by asking suggestive questions. This research has a jarring and startling effect on our criminal justice system, with its reliance on eyewitness testimony.
The Atlantic article refers to studies by Professor Elizabeth Loftus, who herself studies contaminated memories – remembrances that can be quite sharp and sure of events that never happened. Loftus has found that these memories can be planted in someone’s mind by exposing people to misinformation after an event or by asking suggestive questions. This research has a jarring and startling effect on our criminal justice system, with its reliance on eyewitness testimony.
Recently at MIT, researchers were able to plant false memories in mice successfully.
The person who is telling the story always filters that tale through an approach or "take" on that story.
Much more at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/how-many-of-your-memories-are-fake/281558/
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