Memory Is a Reconstruction: Myth or Truth?

It is difficult to explain the definition of memory and its function in one sentence. Therefore, we use several metaphors to implicitly write memory. Our beliefs, ideas and imagination influence our memories. The fact that memory is described as a reconstruction process explains that memory is not an accurate record of a specific experience. Instead, fill in the blanks with a predefined pattern at recall time by combining various components. The metaphor of "building the entire skeleton of a dinosaur in fossils" is to explain memory as an indirect way of cognitive reconstruction.

Abstract: When reconstructing or communicating personal biographies, people tend to expand myths, cognition, and memory fragments that have been discussed over and over again and again. Sometimes we mix events, which are considered common to a particular generation, when memory is the basis for interpreting the past. For example, although only a few women got university education in 1968, this view is exactly opposite to "there are many people at university", as for the extensive use of contraceptives at the time as well is.

According to Wiseman, this myth seems to originate from literature on neuro-language programming, or self-help philosophy NLP born in the 1970s and 1980s. "Initially, they wrote about the difference between memories of reconstruction and generations' memories - imagination and what actually happened," he said. "Over the years, it has evolved into lies and real memories somehow." As the belief spread, it was accepted and integrated into the training manual without strict testing. "Interviewers at many organizations were told that when someone talks about their past they will be looking for a specific eye movement pattern, this is why the candidate does not tell the truth if they appear" Said Wiseman.