Are all of your memories real? - Daniel L. Schacter

Dig into the psychology of how memories are susceptible to false information and why we shouldn’t treat them as truth.

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In a 1990’s study, participants recalled getting lost in a shopping mall as children. Some shared these memories in vivid detail, but there was one problem: none of these people had actually gotten lost in a mall. They produced these false memories after psychologists told them they’d gotten lost and parents confirmed it. So what’s going on? Daniel L. Schacter explores the fallibility of our memory.

Lesson by Daniel L. Schacter, directed by AIM Creative Studios.

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[HellsDevilwildrift]

I watch these videos to try and fall asleep, I end up questioning my existence for 2 hours straight in bed.

[captainmesencephalon]

It is scary how past exists only in our memories and even a part of it might not be true. Really poses the question if the past really happened or not ?

[parasb]

The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened
~Mark Twain

[whatislife]

Now imagine you are a lucid dreamer and you can't tell which memory was from your dream and which is real.

[saimanojnelavelli]

This takes 'My whole life was a lie' to next level

[MC_lupin]

My memories:
10% actual life
20% childhood headcanons
30% Anime plots and deaths
40% Ads

[nii_t]

That's a very aggressive way to give someone a lollipop.

[rayna]

Someone told me once that everytime you have a memory, you are actually remembering the last time you remembered it- not the moment itself. So overtime they can slowly morph

[zhangao]

I had something similar:

I was talking to my parents about that time when i was younger and was sitting on the back seat of my dad's bicycle during a ride and got my right ankle caught in the back-wheel's chain which was extremely painful that i cried out so much. I even remember how my dad reversed the bike to un-tangle the flesh caught in it and how i was sitting on the curb crying after taking off my socks and asking for a band-aid.

I also remember how weeks later in kindergarden when we were going to our mid-day nap a teacher asked me about that scab on my ankle when i was walking to my bed in slippers. I even recall later on one morning when my dad took me to the kindergarden nurse and how much it stung when she was applying anti-septic solutions on the scab.

Then my parents said that it actually happened on my brother, not me. I was so astonished.

[manzoox]

Plot twist, their parents didn’t want to admit they lost their children at the mall 🤷‍♂️

[Tranquility._]

Me: why are some of my memories fake

Brain: Understandable, have a good day

[roshif]

Damn, I think I can't even trust myself anymore these days...

[Termsofseve]

Test subject: “I never got lost in a mall!”

Psychologist & their parents: “You did.”

Test subject: “I did.”

hm

[arielgharsi]

this is why it’s so important to journal once in awhile your thoughts/opinions and feelings during different periods in your life. so when you look back you can activity see what was going on and what you were thinking at any given moment.

[snoopy]

I’ve always been a maladaptive daydreamer and i find myself with this question a lot. I know that I’ve imagined so many things throughout my life that i often struggle to remember and distinguish between what actually happened and what I imagined.

[Novasium]

Now *this* is an interesting topic I'd like school to talk about.

[scarlettassassinator]

TED-ED: Are all your memories real?

Me(at 3 am): I don't need sleep, I need answers.

[mistertea]

Me: *sees the title*

Me: Oh sure TED Talks, give me an existential crisis why don'tcha?

[jeijei]

Had a fake memory buried in me. Growing up, I've always thought that my parents and I went on a mountain hiking. Until I brought it up with my mom 10 years later, she said we never did a mountain hiking because there are no near mountain in our hometown. It was so vivid that I can still imagine it.

[standasebek]

I have a great childhood memory (about 10yo) of reading one of my first fantasy books. It has a specific scene - a shipwreck on a stormy sea. I was reading it during a rainy vacation in a camp by the lake. I was on a porch and it was pouring all around me. Some raindrops even fell on the pages and I thought - this moment complements this book very nicely. It is very vivid memory and great reading experience.
Twenty years after that I look at the book again and found out that it was first published about two years after that vacation :-).