I'm gonna read you a list of 15 words
and after I'm done reading them, I want you to write down as many as you can remember.
Ready to listen? Okay.
Sour
Nice
Candy
Honey
Sugar
Soda
Bitter
Chocolate
Good
Heart
Taste
Cake
Tooth
Tart
Pie
Okay, now pause this video and write down as many as you can without cheating.
Even when you hit the point of getting stumped, close your eyes and think and you'll likely recall a few more.
Ready to reveal?
Now some of you likely got the last few words that I said like
Tooth,
tart
and pie.
But did you remember the word
sweet?
Be honest because surprisingly the majority of people are actually likely to write down the word sweet, even though it was not on the list at all.
And this is what we call
a false memory.
It's a psychological phenomenon where a person remembers something that didn't occur.
Like, how many people vividly remember the Monopoly man having a monocle?
He never has.
Or recall hearing the phrase, "Luke, I am your father."
when he only says, "No, I am your father."
Or the evil witch saying, "Mirror mirror on the wall..."
when she says, "Magic mirror on the wall..."
Memories are first formed in the hippocampus of the brain, one of the only areas where brand new neurons are made regularly.
This information is saved by altering neurons, and creating synapses in connections.
But it's often only focusing on the major details of your experience.
So you might remember the time, place, and person, but not necessarily the colour of their hat.
However, your memories aren't perfect.
If you're introduced to new information between the time of you experiencing something,
and when you try to recall it,
for example, if somebody else gives you a slightly different account of how things were,
it can alter, or even completely replace, your memory.
And eventually these new memories gradually migrate further into the cortex, becoming your truth.
And each time you think about, or misremember an event,
the further you cement this new truth.
This simple effect can have pretty incredible consequences,
like eyewitnesses for crime, or accidents recalling false details.
In fact, one study found that if they showed people a car accident,
and then asked two groups, either, how fast were the cars going when they bumped into each other,
or, how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other.
those who heard the word "smashed" , were more likely to report higher speeds.
This same verb also made them more likely to report that they saw broken glass in the accident, even when there was none.
In a similar study, a car was shown going through a stop sign, causing an accident.
But if a question was asked suggesting it was a yield sign, many witnesses would confirm that it was, a yield sign.
This is why eye witness accounts are less often used as evidence now, unless they are corroborated and verified.
Finally, some studies have been able to successfully implant false childhood memories into test subjects.
Researchers would give the subjects four short narratives describing childhood events that happened to them,
but without the subjects knowing, one false memory was included about being lost in a shopping mall as a kid.
and yet, 25% of the test subjects reported remembering the false event.
Think your memory is better?
How did this video even start?
I mean, other than our logo which plays at the beginning of every video we make,
can you remember what happened after that?
Except, we didn't play the logo at the beginning of this video.
And if you thought we did, I just gave you a false memory.
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