Someone whose name escapes me once said:
“We do not remember days, we remember moments”.
And that’s the thing about memory. It doesn’t really work the way commonsense tells us it works.
It’s not a simple mechanical process whereby memories are stacked and stored in nice neat compartments, like boxes in a warehouse. Rather, it’s probably better to think about memory as a creative process: it’s not that we actively make-up memories, as such.
It’s more to acknowledge that memories are fallible.
And they can be easily influenced and manipulated – both by ourselves (we tend to recall events differently, depending on how we’re feeling at the time) and by others.
The bottom line, when you start to think about memory, is the extent to which it can be trusted and Daniel Reisberg is well-known for his work in this area, particularly how our memories are constructed and how they can intentionally and unintentionally mislead us.
If you want to introduce his ideas – or just stimulate an interest in memory in your students – this short interactive video (you can not only play along in class, it’s something you should encourage your students to do) is a good start.
And if you find this useful and interesting there’s a second activity you can use as the basis for getting your students thinking not just about memory in general but the concept of false memories in particular…
*If you use the first of these two films (or maybe it’s the second – I forget) the reason for this Casablanca misquote will become apparent.
It will be our little shared moment.
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