I was just thinking how easy it would be to persuade someone that they are going mad / senile even if they weren't. I'm sure it's the sort of thing that awful people in novels or films do to their parents in order to get their hands on the dosh. Such an easy way to mentally torture somebody by sewing seeds of doubt in their mind.
Mr H and I sometimes have disagreements about what we have told each other, or accuse each other of remembering something wrongly. We are both convinced that we are remembering correctly, although it cannot possibly be the case (and it's not in writing so neither of us can prove it).
Right now I am hesitating about passing on some casual news in case he says "I told you all about that the other week, don't you listen to a word I say?" I'm wracking my brain in advance and I don't recall knowing anything about it... aaggghh I'll just have to risk it! ;-)
People make the fallacy that there memories are perfect recording of events when actually they are not the brain takes short cuts in remembering things which leads to gaps, merging info with other events and even stealing other peoples recounts of events. It is also possible to create false memories in people using docked photos and a convincing story. If you ever have the time read "The Invisible Gorilla" It's an interesting read about how are brains screw with us on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteMight be fun to look at their website as well
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/overview.html
Hi CJ
ReplyDeleteIndeed, we studied this sort of thing in the memory section of psychology last year. Memory is so constructed by prompts, beliefs and all sorts!
Thanks for the link, I'll look at that later.
J.