full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Daniel L. Schacter: Are all of your memories real?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
These findings may sound ueelvilbnbae, but they actually reflect a very common experience. Our memories are sometimes unreliable. And though we still don’t know precisely what causes this fallibility on a neclaouigrol level, research has highlighted some of the most common ways our meiomers diverge from what actually happened.
The mall study highlights how we can iortcnapore information from outside sources, like other people or the news, into our personal recollections without realizing it. This kind of suggestibility is just one influence on our memories. Take another study, in which rreerscheas briefly showed a random collection of porphhatgos to a group of participants, including images of a uieinrvsty campus none of them had ever visited. When shown the iemags three weeks later, a majority of participants said that they had probably or definitely visited the campus in the past.
Open Cloze
These findings may sound ____________, but they actually reflect a very common experience. Our memories are sometimes unreliable. And though we still don’t know precisely what causes this fallibility on a ____________ level, research has highlighted some of the most common ways our ________ diverge from what actually happened.
The mall study highlights how we can ___________ information from outside sources, like other people or the news, into our personal recollections without realizing it. This kind of suggestibility is just one influence on our memories. Take another study, in which ___________ briefly showed a random collection of ___________ to a group of participants, including images of a __________ campus none of them had ever visited. When shown the ______ three weeks later, a majority of participants said that they had probably or definitely visited the campus in the past.
Solution
- images
- memories
- unbelievable
- neurological
- university
- incorporate
- photographs
- researchers
Original Text
These findings may sound unbelievable, but they actually reflect a very common experience. Our memories are sometimes unreliable. And though we still don’t know precisely what causes this fallibility on a neurological level, research has highlighted some of the most common ways our memories diverge from what actually happened.
The mall study highlights how we can incorporate information from outside sources, like other people or the news, into our personal recollections without realizing it. This kind of suggestibility is just one influence on our memories. Take another study, in which researchers briefly showed a random collection of photographs to a group of participants, including images of a university campus none of them had ever visited. When shown the images three weeks later, a majority of participants said that they had probably or definitely visited the campus in the past.
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