How much trust should we put in our memories? New research shows we have a good awareness of when we are recalling events accurately -- and when our brain is filling in gaps with general knowledge.
Memories are a blend of recalled details and 'prototypical' information, but a study at the University of Birmingham has shown that when prototypes appear more prominent, we become less confident in the recollection.
In the study, just over 200 participants completed a series of experiments in which they were asked to look at objects in different 'non-matching' colours. For example a blue apple. After completing a simple maths task as a distraction, they were asked to remember the colour and then pick it out from a colour bar to test how precisely they were able to recall the shade.
The results showed that participants' confidence in their colour selections tended to decline when the colours were closer to shades identified as prototypical by the machine learning algorithm. This suggests that we are aware of the likely degree to which prototypes are filling in gaps in our memory and can factor in that knowledge when we are asked to assess the accuracy of our recollection.
"Our research shows that people are actually quite good at knowing when their accounts are reliable and when they are influenced by their brain filling in gaps with generic information."Learning, remembering something, and recalling memories is supported by multiple separate groups of neurons connected inside and across key regions in the brain. If these neural assemblies fail to ...
Intelligence Brain Injury Psychology Dyslexia Perception Educational Psychology Neuroscience
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