ABSTRACT
On Wednesday, August 13, 2003, a conv ersation with a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, Benedict Carey, startled me out of my scholastic thoughts. He was calling because, as he explained in a newspaper article published 5 days later, “a UC Irvine professor had driven to work and forgotten to take his 10-month-old son out of the car. The boy later died of heat exposure, as have at least three other young children left unattended in cars in the West this summer.” He was seeking advice from memory researchers regarding whether it is possible that a responsible, loving parent could make this mistake, or whether it had to be a jaded excuse.
