The Fallibility of Memory Back in the fifteenth century, eyewitness testimony was taken as factual evidence in court. During the Salem Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts, people were put to death because a person claimed to have seen them preforming witchcraft. Within past decades, we have now discovered that eyewitness testimonies are not factual, or condemning evidence. This is because, memory is theorized and easily impressionable. As you sit outside with a friend at your favorite café, you hear a loud bang, followed by a man running out from behind the café, and when you run to the back of a building, you see a well-dressed man lying on the floor with red liquid coming out of his chest. From your past knowledge, you can determine that
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If we are told a series of events in a different way than they actually happened repeatedly day after day, we will actually begin to vividly remember it that way. A great example of this occurs in the film “Memento” directed by Christopher Nolan. Leonard, the main character, has short term memory loss and can only remember the events that led up to his wife getting raped. He wholeheartedly believes his wife died at the hands of her rapist and throughout the whole movie, he tells a story about a man named Sammy who had memory loss, and killed his wife by giving her too many insulin shots. By the end, we find out that Sammy was not the one who killed his wife with insulin, Leonard was. His wife had survived the rape, and Leonard killed her with too many insulin shots. When this is explained to Leonard, he is baffled, and he does not even believe that his wife even had diabetes. Leonard had conditioned himself to believe his own lies, and could actually see his wife dying at the hands of her rapist in his dreams and memories. Though it never happened, this became his reality. This can happen to any of us, even if we do not have memory loss. Our memories can be altered without even knowing that they are being
If we are told a series of events in a different way than they actually happened repeatedly day after day, we will actually begin to vividly remember it that way. A great example of this occurs in the film “Memento” directed by Christopher Nolan. Leonard, the main character, has short term memory loss and can only remember the events that led up to his wife getting raped. He wholeheartedly believes his wife died at the hands of her rapist and throughout the whole movie, he tells a story about a man named Sammy who had memory loss, and killed his wife by giving her too many insulin shots. By the end, we find out that Sammy was not the one who killed his wife with insulin, Leonard was. His wife had survived the rape, and Leonard killed her with too many insulin shots. When this is explained to Leonard, he is baffled, and he does not even believe that his wife even had diabetes. Leonard had conditioned himself to believe his own lies, and could actually see his wife dying at the hands of her rapist in his dreams and memories. Though it never happened, this became his reality. This can happen to any of us, even if we do not have memory loss. Our memories can be altered without even knowing that they are being