Memory as Fragile, Fallible, and Malleable
Memory is such a crucial, constitutive, and also consistent element of our everyday lives that we often take it for granted. That is, we regularly count on our memories to guide us through the day, recall tasks we want to accomplish, call to mind the faces and names and stories of those around us, and more, such that we hardly give it a thought.
Until, that is, we can’t remember…a phone number or appointment or name or fact. And then we get nervous, but usually only briefly. It’s as if the momentary lapse pierces the illusion we regularly hold that our memories are intact and flawless, but also as if that illusion is so important we quickly patch the hole in our failed memory.
If you have a loved one who has suffered memory loss, you’ll know that some holes are harder to patch than others, and you likely will be more keenly sensitive to the fragility of memory. Yet even then we tend to recognize only that we can lose elements of our memory, forgetting certain strands of the larger tapestry of our lives. But rarely do we imagine that we can also distort memory or, more accurately, remember wrongly.
Perhaps the thought is simply too difficult to entertain. I mean, our memory plays such an essential part in navigating our daily lives that perhaps if we seriously considered just how inaccurate our memories regularly are we’d lose all confidence.
Yet whatever our reticence about admitting that our memory is fallible as well as fragile, yet the fact remains that we regularly have what psychologist Elizabeth Loftus calls “false memories.” Most simply put, false memories are recollections of things that did not actually happen or that happened very differently than we recall.
Sharing both startling statistics and riveting stories in this 17-minute TED Talk, Loftus invites us not only to contemplate the errors of our memory but also to consider the ethical implications of operating with the perhaps necessary illusion of perfect recall. What happens, for instance, to the concept of testimony – whether in a legal court, at home, or when reading the testimonies of Jesus’ earliest disciples (my interest, not hers ☺)? And how do we trust that our perceptions of the world – guided and informed so profoundly by our memories – are accurate? Further, are there ways to avoid the sometimes dreadful impact of possessing memories that are profoundly more malleable than we’d like to imagine? Listen to Elizabth Loftus’ powerful Talk to find out.
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