I know that you did it!

False memories can appear in adulthood. You may remember an incident with a

friend that never actually occurred or a trip that you never took. Although most

of these memories are usually quite harmless, sometimes they can cause a prob-

lem. Eyewitness testimony is one such example. People are actually very bad at

remembering important details and are easily misled by the questions people ask.

Psychologists tested this theory with a group of adults by showing video footage

of a car accident. The psychologists asked one group to estimate the speed of the

car when it hit another car. They asked the other group the same question, but

using the phrase ‘smashed the other car’. People in the second group ‘remem-

bered’ broken glass in the video footage although no broken glass was present at

all! It seems that when you ask people a misleading question, their memory of the

event is wrong.

Other studies have found that when something is shocking in an event, like a man

holding a gun, people only focus on the gun and can’t remember what the man

looks like. Imagine what happens when an observer sees a crime. So much is going

on – people are yelling, cars are honking, everything seems a little crazy. Can you

really expect that memory of the criminal’s face to be reliable? What if the man was

wearing a hat or covering his face? How can witnesses be sure of what they saw?

It’s actually quite difficult to recognise someone’s face. One tip is to immediately

focus on something distinctive like facial hair or piercings. This can make it a little

easier to identify someone at the crime scene. You can also write down what you

saw right away. Chapter 7 provides more suggestions on how to improve your

memory for faces, whether for business, pleasure, or as a critical eyewitness to

a crime