Why do our memories drift? Part 1: The War of the Ghosts

Why did lions look so strange in medieval European art? What does this have to do with Native American folklore, eyewitness memory of a car accident, or what a person remembers 3 years after witnessing the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center? And what does any of this have to do with flashbulb memories, misinformation, and the telephone game that you played as a child? Join Eagleman for part 1 of an astonishing journey into what we believe about our memories.

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More Information:

Bartlett FC. Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge university press; 1995 Jun 30.

Loftus EF, Palmer JC. Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior. 1974 Oct 1;13(5):585-9.

Loftus EF. Lost in the mall: Misrepresentations and misunderstandings. Ethics & behavior. 1999 Mar 1;9(1):51-60.

Hirst, W., Phelps, E.A., Buckner, R.L., Budson, A.E., Cuc, A., Gabrieli, J.D., Johnson, M.K., Lustig, C., Lyle, K.B., Mather, M. and Meksin, R., 2009. Long-term memory for the terrorist attack of September 11: flashbulb memories, event memories, and the factors that influence their retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(2), p.161.

Hirst, W., Phelps, E.A., Meksin, R., Vaidya, C.J., Johnson, M.K., Mitchell, K.J., Buckner, R.L., Budson, A.E., Gabrieli, J.D., Lustig, C. and Mather, M., 2015. A ten-year follow-up of a study of memory for the attack of September 11, 2001: Flashbulb memories and memories for flashbulb events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(3), p.604.

Paintings of medieval lions, showing the strange variety that results from the telephone game.

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