On 17 Jan 2009 at 1:45, Allen Esterson wrote: > Chris's link to the Mind Hacks website led to my following their link to > "Remembering", which brought up a rather charming short illustration of > how one's false memories can feel true. > > "One of the delicious ironies of memory is that, even when our > recollections are utterly false, they still feel true. Consider this > wonderful tale from the upcoming season of This American Life": > > http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/05/false_memory.php
Just as the blogger claimed, this is truly wonderful. Thank you, Allen. It shows that sometimes an anecdote is more than just an anecdote, it's a proof of principle. If I may add my own little story of false memory: I read the [also] wonderful book _The Kite Runner_. Then I saw the film, which I also greatly enjoyed, especially the scenes showing the sweep of the landscape, the desolate beauty of Afghanistan, the kite flying, and the grim, vivid details of the climactic event (which I won't tell, just in case there are any unfortunates who haven'n seen or read it yet). Then it came to TV, and my wife said "Let's watch it". I said, "No, we've already seen it." We argued about this, my wife claiming that we had not. We watched it again. As I watched it, I realized...no, I hadn't yet seen the film, despite my vivid visual images of it. I had only read the book. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
