How Your Memory Can Be Tricked
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- čas přidán 2. 04. 2017
- Do you remember what you did a week before today? And are you sure you actually did that instead of dreaming it up? Our memory can be tricked easily. But how? Hank explains how your memories can be tricked.
Hosted by: Hank Green
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Sources:
blog.ted.com/tk-elizabeth-loft...
webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/Loft...
webfiles.uci.edu/eloftus/Loft...
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cg...
psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%2...
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
experts.umich.edu/en/publicat...
www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~doneill...
memlab.yale.edu/sites/default/...
You actually got me with the word list. I thought "window" was there!
I paused the video to read the first list and when the second popped up I was SURE window was in the first one... damn brain
All I know was that I read sill in both pictures. That was my only lil' guess. :-)
+
Nate Hladki it got me too
Me too!
"Memory is scarily unreliable" - okay, but what do you expect? We're recording life experiences and knowledge *into MEAT*.
dzScritches Into FAT. The brain is mostly made of fat, no meat.
LOL you're right! Even better (worse)! xD
The _"meat"_ as you say (physical brain) is definitely part of the apparatus of recall, but to say the memories are stored there. . . ? That would be the seemingly intuitive assumption, but would you say that a piece of music that is played on a CD player is in the player, or on the CD itself? Perhaps this is more similar to the relationship between the physical body and the immaterial soul, as evidence of near death experiences show that some people who have had their physical brains absolutely die under observation, have later come back to life and given convincing testimony of an authentic experience of a continued conscious state without the use of their physical body, while their self-awarness and memories where fully intact and unaltered. So how can the physical be the seat of those memories? Clearly there is some duality to this nature.
Something to think about.
Piotr Rywciu I'm not sure about that. Spinal fluid is mostly water (but does it count as part of the brain?, it is surprisingly little spinal fluid inside a skull and people have survived, with very little permanent damage, for extended periods without it), the fat tissue in the brain contain some water, the nerve tissue none, the blood vessels some and the blood in the brain is mostly water, but there isn't much of it. I don't know if any of the connective tissues in the brain contain any water. If there isn't huge amounts of water in the brains connective tissue, my best bet is that the brain contains less water than most other parts of the body, and, from a chemists point of view, mostly consists of either fat or some protein that make up the connective tissue of the fat tissue. Maybe I should have written "mostly fat tissue". You really need that fat tissue to function, even miniscule deficits cause mental diseases.
It's a great trick, to be sure, and under many circumstances quite reliable - but it *is* still just a trick. Too many people believe the lie their brains tell them - that if they remember something happening a certain way, then it must have happened that way.
Ellegant way to say:
1. Wikipedia sucks;
2. Your mind sucks x2.
yes. false memories are like the only downside of lucid dreaming.
when you are so focused on remembering dreams, you can easily put some things in the real memories category.
and sometimes you don't remember it in the morning, but then you suddenly remember it, and think. "that was a dream!!" because like. I can't drive not old enough for lessons, and I was flawlessly driving a car. like it was normal. that's my latest one.
I already have horrible memory problems so none of this surprises me tbh
The last experiment described made me think about how most of our problems stems from how unreliable our memories actually are. Reinforcement and false memories can make prejudices a very real thing in some peoples minds.
My brain made up an entire scenario where I saw a video notification, clicked it, played the first part of the video, clicked on another one. I ended up going back and seeing that the video was gone. I checked my subscriptions, youtube search and watch history, nowhere. The video never existed.
After my head injury, once my dreams returned, I'd often confuse some dreams as smthg that actually happened; so it has a name, "source misattribution"...one of the many ways my world got screwy and none of them for the better.
Can you guys do a video on déjà vu? Would be really interesting if it was covered!
We've covered it on Scishow channel! czcams.com/video/dDjov6-7a7w/video.html
Thank you for pointing me towards it! :)
It's a glitch in the matrix lol
There is also a really good Vsauce video on it!
Wasn't anything new found out about that topic in the last few years? I'd be especially interested in anything about dreaming something that than happens later.
I love this new channel I'm a psych major in college and we have discussed most of these things, but these videos are fun and goofy while keeping the info fresh for me.
This is why John had a vivid memory of your pet dodson's poop being inside his nintendo?
I remember learning the car example in my intro to psychology class. It's interesting that verbal suggestion can alter one's memory so significantly. I wonder how this affects rumors and such as I can imagine that verbal suggestion is used unknowingly in everyday life. For example, "The teacher scolded the student" and "The teacher yelled at the student" might be used interchangeably, but might give different ideas about what actually happened. Cool stuff!
Yet witnesses are a reliable source in courts.
Do you have an alternative? Let the criminals go?
Hard forensic evidence maybe?
+Jonathan Eaton
Right. Because only "criminals" ever get arrested and charged.
Sleight94 Interestingly, under Sharia, eyewitness testimony is essentially required for any kind of conviction.
There are a lot of flaws in our judicial system. People are judged by normal people who most likely don't know the law, not people who studied law and have experience. A polygraph test is still widely used even though it was proven multiple times to be very unreliable. People are naturally bias. I can go on. The death sentence is wrong because it's nearly impossible to know if someone actually committed the crime. I'm also against the police shooting immediately because they can also easily make mistakes, and a lot of people are killed because of that. I know all Republicans without exception believe killing innocent people on accident is better than letting a criminal go, and I'm pretty sure Trump will make it legal to kill people you see commit crimes, but I'm against that.
Okay, thank you for this. I was wondering why I was so susceptible to false memories of partaking in events other people describe, of which I wasn't there. Now I'll be wondering if I actually watched this video...
+Jacob Robinson +SciShow Psych Great idea! We should definitely that one! Also What About Music on the brain and how it helps us, motivates us, etc? and why music therapy is effective
Love the video! I'm currently finishing up back bachelor's in psychology and hope to start the cognitive neuroscience master next September specializing in memory. I'm not going to be doing behavioral studies like these, but I'm very exited to learn more about the underlying neurological mechanisms involved in our memory
I have three false memories that I know of, all about first reading about something in a place where that couldn't possibly have occurred because I haven't been there since years before the event I was reading about.
This video made me feel so much better about all those times I dreamt something and went months thinking it actually happened.
this is pretty spontaneous, but I love that shirt. its color and the way that color interacted with the light was fascinating
Who else paused the video and tried to memorize the words? I counted 7, including the false word 'window'! Gosh.
omg nice to see you here, I love you and your videos :)
Yay! New Scishow channel! And it's one of my favorite subjects!
Show this video to juries before trials.
What about dream memory? I have always remembered my dreams and even remember events from one dream in another. Every time I remember something I have to try to place it with things that I know actually occured. This is because I realize that I remember dreams as well as I recall actual events.
Because I know that this is an issue I usually get it right. There have been occasions where only after stating something do I realize that it was a dream memory not an actual one. I then have to go and correct myself which is embarrassing. Therefore I will often talk about memories as if someone else related the story to me so that I can issue a buyer beware warning. Unless I can tie it to known events and more importantly, explain to myself why I was where I was and why the things I remember happened, I treat them as unverified information.
Im loving this channel!
I hate this. It feels like my life and everything I remember about it is a lie. :c
That's why you write all your memories down in an autobiography.
So you're saying that I can lie all I want, but disguise it as unintentional spontaneous memories?
Only if people call you out on it.
When I lie, I tend to make unintentional spontaneous memories as I speak lol
Alice Red same. It works better when you plan a story out in preparation, forget that you planned it, then replace your memory with whatever you need to.
This new channel is so good
Reminds me of Derren Brown's work. Namely the Guilt Trip, where he manipulates a really nice guy into believing he committed cold blooded murder--to the point where the guy goes to the police and confesses. Terrifying.
I once remembered reading a Webcomic and in the process of trying to recall some details I remembered that the author said that this is the story so far and that this part of the comic might take some time or won't get finished at all. Of cource I was confused by this. I vividly remembered images I've seen from this comic, the same way I usually remember images I've seen. I remembered some details like shading and the artstyle of the artist. I was really confused due to this conflicting information, so I looked it up again and yes, the comic didn't exist, only the written story. No pictures at all. I somehow managed to remember images of something I've actually only read text of. This was a few weeks after I've read it when the memory and the realization of this oddity randomly struck me.
Today when i woke up i saw an avast window saying "your avast licence has ended".
Then i said: "My avast licence has ended? I should go to corner of shame and let me sleep..."
That's the strangest reason i was late...
I have this 'memory' from when I was really young. Like, 6-ish? Basically, I was in some sort of zoo and there was a crocodile who was really still, and I remember my dad telling me that crocodiles did that to hide or something. But anyway, it's definitely false, although I'm not sure where it came from. I went on a school trip around that time to some zoo and I swear that my dad _did_ tell me that at a zoo, but I feel like it also partially came from a dream. Maybe it was a dream that was an amalgamation of two memories. I dunno.
I don't think people saying they remember "window" have a false memory. I think they just want to impress the researchers. They see the word window would fit in the first list so it was probably in there. Guessing it was in there therefore probably gains them one more remembered word, which is cool because "look how good my memory is". I can see why test subjects would take that risk.
Anyway, your assumption gets into the real info, so you end thinking it was there, because it Should be there, but the result is the same.
That would make the conclusion incorrect.
I wouldn't mind seeing a subsequent study done on what happens when someone takes a photograph and then tries to remember later. Does the photograph help us remember, or do we still remember most things incorrectly *except* what's in the picture?
That's actually fascinating. Have you considered running a study?
They did a study like this. They found if they altered a detail in the picture, the person will make something up to explain why it was there rather than correctly figure out that the picture is wrong. Since we trust the picture, the brain tries to find a way for the picture to fit with our memories.
So even if the picture is correct, it may help us remember or help us think we remember when we actually made part of the memory up.
This whole video is like 3 pages out of the APA handbook.
And those are probably the people they hire.
What is an APA handbook?
I did my senior capstone research on DRM lists and false memories in undergrad!
Sci show us more useful than my uni classes 😊😊😊😊😊
Great stuff here
Welp thanks for that existential crisis. Gonna go question everything that's ever happened in my life now
That happens to, where sometimes I cant remember if something actually happened or if it was a dream.
Really cool to learn the brain can remember everything without any errors. I will never forget what I learned in this video!
I wonder if this, the Freudian slip update or the impostor syndrome are included in "Hide & Seek the Pschology of Self Deception" book by PH.D. Burton? I'm guessing they aren't but I only scratched the surface of it.
That was a smashing video.
I was not sure about window, yet I chose it...
Creating false memories is a genuine technique used by magicians for centuries to make their magic more memorable and impossible in the minds of the audience. I am not kidding, many literature in magic can prove my point. That's why i think that many episodes in this channel can be made with the consultation of magicians. Because magic is all about making you to step onto a way that you think will lead you to the trut, but actually it will take you somewhere else. So by studying how magic works, you will get a better inside of how human perceives truth, which is what many psychologists and brain scientists are doing right now.
Yeah you got me, I actually thought window was there!
This is why we should all have ECC ram installed instead of the regular type.
This is why witness testimonies can be so unreliable, and should never weigh heavier than actual evidence.
I'm going to use this video in court...
I see what you did there, Hank. I came straight here right after watching the latest HFS podcast. So, now when I think back to this episode I'll remember there was a different host for it. Because, Brit.
When is the personality tests video coming up?
Really excited about that one.
I can't remember what I was gonna write.
What the hell? Does anyone else remember Hank Green dying in prison, way before he got let out (or never went) and got made the President of sci show?
I think it's like alternate realities or something. We should call this the Green Effect.
Haha i find it funny :D When there is such a ratio on video, first thing comes in mind ,must be Hank. :D
Please do a video on the illusion of asymmetric insight. It's really interesting and eye-opening.
This is why I don't trust myself, let alone other people
I remember doing this in psychology, really interesting how our brains do stuff like this....
I swear I just saw a Scishow about memory. I probably just imagined it.
I actually did a High School STEM Capstone experiment based on the Loftus and Palmer study (the hit/smash one). I showed a video of a car going through an obstacle course, and asked my test subjects "[X] the first and last obstacle?" [X] was tested with 'How near were,' 'How close were,' 'What was the measurement,' 'How far were,' and 'How distant were.'
I didn't have any knowledge from a statistics class when I made the poster, so looking back on this makes me cringe. I think there was no significant result in the T-test, but I thought the box-and-whisker plot looked interesting. Of course, I can always play the "more research is needed" card. This was my poster for the gallery walk.
drive.google.com/file/d/0B-7RsRaoJGYWUEF6YllDekh6SE0/view?usp=sharing
I once thought a dream was relief
I really remember leaving a comment on this video...
Holy shit, I memorised window as well, didn't pause the video or anything, I legit though window was on the list, shit!
on top of having dissociative amnesia, i ALSO have just general ADD memory troubles, which is terribly troublesome
i hope this doesn't come out in my exams.
This is frightening indeed! You mention that we modify a memory every time we recall it. Are we better off not recalling something frequently so as to leave that thing "intact"? Or does not recalling something let it slowly fade into oblivion?
omfg that window thing got me really hard, must be the demon work hahahah
I had a false memory of the most amazing burger ever, like it was straight up fire. it was I even "dreamed" that I dreamed of that burger.
The Brain is more like a computer storage file unit. Like Indigenous Americans, I trust the power to interpret dreams as distinct enough to warrant further understanding
Hahaha I have literally just been learning about this in my psyc course at uni, and we've talked about all those studies 😂
I love these facts of the mind. perspective
Hahaha.. I fell for that window thing.. oops..
life hack: convince your body that you've eaten by thinking really hard about getting up and eating, without actually doing it
My dad has a false memory of taking my pet snake to the vet. Probably because when we first got the snake my dad really wanted to freak everyone out by taking him in a bag and wait for him to move.
my autism heavily affects my memories in stressful situations which I find interesting
that is really interesting! does it help or hurt your memory in stressful situations?
Well I usually can barely recall anything more than, "I got upset and loud".
Core sorry this is an old comment but it's not just people with autism! I have anxiety and it happens to me as well, my therapist explained it as your brain being too busy freaking out about something to properly store the information :3
can y'all do a video on interruption's impact on memory?
I always have trouble remembering if things happened in a dream or real life
Loftus and Palmer!
this would have bee great for my coursework due in last week!!! haha oh well perhaps it'll be good for y summer exam instead :)
'window' was the only word I remembered 😐
thanks again Hank for this great video, now you can go wash your shirt
So did I really subscribe to this channel myself? Or am I remembering wrong...?
Didn't SciShow Psych already discuss that car crash experiment in another video? Maybe they're conducting an experiment on us to see if we remember it?
Everyday I realize I'm just a meat machine.
I clearly remember seeing this before. Even the part where the Smurf walked in and told me to burn things.. annnnd.. yep.. there he is.. see?
Do the Mandela Effect!
ShawnGuy he did do one, or sci sho science
was last week
I think that was Thoughty2 that did the Mandela Effect, Kelly.
Alexandria thx I watch too many videos. lol
cool, I'll check it out
While the effect is interesting, I think the explanation of memory provided here is enough to explain it.
i knew window wasn't there, what does that mean?
Can this also be a thing with your memory of a intention you had behind something you did?
Ok so i wanted to comment a few videos ago but now it's starting to seem that i do the opposite of the desired effect all the time. E.g. the first word i thought was not part of the first list was window. And before in the counting ball throws (uhmm don't remember the title) but i did see the gorilla (when i watched that some 5 years ago aprox.) And when i was in grammar school I was the one subject in the conformity experiment. I had not heard of it before we did it in class, but even tho all my classmates were saying the wrong line was matching the one on the handout, i did not conform.
Interesting, i'm going to keep watching.
Hank, DFTBA!
do a video about dreams
Wikipedia isn't like memory at all...
I only "remembered" window...
Sometimes me and my brother argue about something that I did but he thinks he was the one that did it
For example: I remember going down a red slide into a deep pool but my brother said he did it
I know he didn't because he was just bit too small
what is consciousness and can computers ever make it
Could you do a video on Sociopaths?
I would like to eat the glass please :)
The memory test went by much to fast!
YESSSSS
Try explaining this to those "Mandela effect" fools.
Time to imagine me and my crush kissing, alrighty
And whats the effect called when two channels make a similar video? Thoughty2's video last week...