ABSTRACT
Contrary to popular belief, how memory works isn’t always common sense. In a recent representative national survey of nearly 2,000 Americans, almost twothirds (63 percent), endorsed the belief that human memory works like a video camera, accurately recording events so that these recordings can be reviewed at a later time. Almost half (48 percent) of respondents agreed that once a person forms a memory of an experience, the memory doesn’t change (Simons & Chabris, 2011). As we introduce these chapters, written by world experts on false and distorted memories, few readers will be surprised to learn that these commonly held beliefs about human memory are not well represented among these pages. Indeed, both beliefs are wildly at odds with those of memory scientists.
