Oklahoma City Bombing: An Example Of A Memory Error

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Something that I found interesting when looking through the chapters in the book was the concept of memory gaps and errors. It’s an intriguing thought that people can believe they saw one thing when they actually had not experienced that specific event. The example the book uses is really mind-opening. It describes a tragic event in which a plane lost control and crashed into a building. When people were asked about the event, the researches asked if they had seen the movie where the plane crashes. The majority of the people questioned said they had seen the movie and could remember specific events although this event was never recorded or made into a film. It really made me wonder if I have any recollections of events that I believe happened in one way but that really happened in another way. …show more content…

After the Oklahoma City Bombing happened, a mechanic thought that he recalled seeing a man with Timothy McVeigh at a body shop. This was important because McVeigh got a van from that shop that he used to carry out the crime. It turned out that the mechanic had confused an innocent man he had seen another day with whom he thought was McVeigh. The mechanic had “combined accurate bits of memory from two separate episodes into a single recollection.” This made me wonder how someone could strongly believe that they had witnessed an event with specific details when they actually may be confusing the details for something

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