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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe science behind Brian Williams’s mortifying memory flub
The science behind Brian Williamss mortifying memory flub
When we tell stories about our lives, most of us never have our memories questioned. NBC's Brian Williams, like other high-profile people in the past, is finding out what happens when questions arise.
Williams's faux pas retelling a story of his helicopter coming under fire in Iraq a dozen years ago when it was actually the helicopter flying ahead of him was much like Hillary Rodham Clinton's during the 2008 presidential campaign. Her story was about coming under fire during a visit to an airfield in Bosnia 12 years earlier. George W. Bush also misremembered when, on several occasions, he told audiences that on 9/11 he watched the first plane fly into the north tower of the World Trade Center on TV, just before entering that classroom in Florida to read a book to school kids. In each case, these were highly emotional moments. Williams's helicopter made an emergency landing in the desert behind the aircraft that was hit; Clinton was made to don a flak jacket and was told her airplane might not be able to land at the airport in Bosnia because of sniper fire in the area; and Bush was told by an aide about the first crash into World Trade Center just before entering the classroom.
That each of those memories was false created huge public relations headaches for Clinton and Williams. But the fact is that false memories are not that uncommon, especially when they involve highly emotional events.
Scientists have been telling us for years that memory of autobiographical events, also known as episodic memory, is pliable and even unreliable. The consensus from neuroimaging studies and laboratory experiments is that episodic memory is not like replaying a film but more like reconstructing an event from bits and pieces of information. Memories are stored in clusters of neurons called engrams, and the proteins responsible for storing those memories, scientists say, are modified and changed just by the reconstruction process of remembering.
These findings are just one reason that last year, the U.S. National Research Council recommended that the criminal justice system exert tighter control over the use of eyewitness testimony in court and come up with a more scientific approach to the identification of suspects in police lineups.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/02/05/the-science-behind-brian-williams-mortifying-memory-flub/
Mike Nelson
(9,966 posts)...to have fun at his expense, and he can afford it!
egduj
(805 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)He lied.
JimmydaRustler
(4 posts)It's a shame the righties have taken up this cause to try to embarrass him.
KG
(28,752 posts)and more self-aggrandizing every time he told them.
yeah, that's the ticket!
Chemisse
(30,816 posts)That would seriously suck if this was a mis-remembering, yet the whole nation thinks he is a liar.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)however unintentional it may be.
Shame you totally missed that.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Back in the 80s many day care workers were convicted of crimes they did not do. The young witnesses were coached and sincerely believed they were abused in satanic rituals. Adult daughters accused parents of horrific crimes based on repressed memories, which does not exist. The therapists implanted these memories, usually in good faith.
It is very easy to add details the more you tell a story, because each time you tell a story you reremember it, not reading off a tape recorder. You rerecord it every time.
Williams added details every time he told the story over the years. This is consistent with the science of memory and my experience with eyewitnesses over the years.
Chemisse
(30,816 posts)We have a lot of faith in what we remember. Usually nobody steps in to dispute our memories - and consequently shake our faith.
rock
(13,218 posts)The brain lies to you. It presents an uninterrupted view of the world, and to do so it fills in any missing gaps with .... er, enhanced information.
former9thward
(32,068 posts)Williams wanted some bad ass war cred. And he got away with it for 12 years even though NBC knew he was lying.
sunnystarr
(2,638 posts)being told about an event when you're young then remember it like it was your own memory instead of remembering that it was something you were told.
Also I remember my stepchildren recalling how their family would go on vacations every summer and how much fun they had. There was only ONE vacation. They swore that wasn't true.
There may be many forms of mis-remembering.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Williams told, and kept on telling over the course of 10 years.
You don't mis-remember being forced down due to hostile ground fire.
The ONLY reason Brian Williams fessed up to his lie is because actual soldiers that were on that bird came forward and refuted his lie, otherwise, he would still be claiming he was on that bird.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)and the habits in question are HUMAN which means you and I both occasional tell "lies" unintentionally.
It's kind of sad that some rightwing military decided they are going to take down a reporter they perceive as liberal.
Williams wasn't claiming he fought in the service.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Maybe you should read this.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/06/media/stelter-iraq-pilots/
That pilot, Rich Krell, told me he was flying the helicopter Williams was on in Iraq -- an account now contradicted by several other soldiers.
On Friday morning, Krell told me that "the information I gave you was true based on my memories, but at this point I am questioning my memories."
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Neither bird was fired on, so why would his bird have to make an emergency landing?
The paper continued: "All three said Williams was riding with them, not with Krell. They all said neither bird took fire at any time that day."
AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)You believing that you were in the chopper that went down. Two very different experiences there.