ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an excellent example of not having access to what subjects experienced and encoded by using examples from the Challenger disaster. It describes the types of errors and biases that exist in spatial representations of the environment. The book examines basic research on age differences in the forgetting of verbal material. It argues that verbal list memory parallels memory for everyday events and that suggestibility of memory in both situations increases as the original memory fades. The book demonstrates that in some situations forgetting is routinely shown to decrease with age, and that children as well as adults benefit significantly from the effects of repeated testing on subsequent remembering. It also addresses the nature of memory representations by distinguishing between verbatim or gistlike memory.
