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00:00Think your memory is so sharp that you can recall most of what you see?
00:07Then pay close attention to this. This is an observation test. I'm going to deal the cards
00:13face up onto the table, and you need to count how many red cards I deal. So that is number one.
00:19It's difficult, so pay attention. Okay, here we go.
00:30How many red cards did you see? In fact, there were 14 red cards. But did you spot the puppy,
00:46or the kitten, the gorilla, the man, or the woman? It's amazing what you missed right in front of your
00:51eyes. Did you spot any of those things? We'll find out what your results say about memory and the brain
00:58in a minute. The fact is, our brains and our memories play tricks on us all the time. And
01:04there's a reason for that. Your memory is not simply a recording. Your memory is a carefully distilled,
01:12edited, and often over-edited digestion. In this special series,
01:18you'll participate in mind-bending experiments that will reveal how and why human memory is prone
01:24to mistakes. We often feel that our memories are extremely reliable. But some of the time,
01:31they can be very, very inaccurate. And we'll see how memory mishaps have affected all of us,
01:38even the famous and the infamous. We will also examine how these simple mistakes have impacted history.
01:45So often, the personal memories that we have are not what they seem. And so often,
01:52the history that we might consider truth is also not what it seems. These are effectively all stories.
01:58By exploring specific cases, from UFO abductions, to the actual timeline of the events of 9-11,
02:07as well as the battlefields of World War II, to the infamous murder trial of Lizzie Borden,
02:12we will uncover how human memory has shaped our world and changed the way we remember history.
02:20Sometimes, our brains can get us to remember something that never actually happened.
02:25Get ready to put your memory to the test as we delve into the mysteries of your bleeped-up brain.
02:42Let's go back to Richard Wiseman's test. Take another look. This time, don't focus on counting
02:54the red cards. Keep your eyes wide open. You need to count how many red cards ideal.
03:02So that is number one. It's difficult, so pay attention. Okay, here we go.
03:12It's amazing what you miss right in front of your eyes.
03:28Did you spot the hidden pictures and messages this time?
03:32If you didn't remember seeing those the last time, it's because of a simple fact.
03:37You can't remember what you don't notice. In fact, you're only conscious of a very,
03:42very small circle of attention, a kind of spotlight that moves around.
03:46Despite how complex and seemingly advanced our brains are,
03:50they only pick up a small fraction of the information they encounter every day.
03:55Even though our brains are a wonder of human evolution, they are still not perfect.
03:59And the select details they pick up on are what determine our memories.
04:07Memories work by extracting meaning, getting the gist of what's happening around us,
04:13rather than remembering every single detail.
04:15If a memory is in the details, what do the details reveal about one alien abduction story?
04:29November 5th, 1975, Snowflake, Arizona.
04:34In front of six witnesses, logger Travis Walton experienced something incredible.
04:39They saw something weird in the sky. They described it as a silvery disc.
04:47Walton approached this object and was basically pulled in by a tractor beam.
04:54He was abducted by aliens.
04:55You can imagine how scary this is.
05:01For five days, Walton was missing.
05:04Family, friends, and authorities could find no sign of him.
05:08Then suddenly, he reemerged.
05:11What stands out in this case is that Walton recalled his abduction experience
05:15in impressive minute-by-minute detail.
05:18Walton's story is that he woke up in a triangular room on a metal table,
05:22and he was being examined by aliens in orange jumpsuits.
05:26He had incredible details, height, weight, colors, numbers.
05:31He told very vivid details about what had happened to him, precisely when, where.
05:38Just this detail-rich account, like something you would see in a Spielberg film.
05:45In fact, his story was adapted into the alien abduction movie, Fire in the Sky.
05:50But could his elaborate account actually be true?
05:55In this case, we have no physical evidence.
05:58All we have is memory.
06:01It's just him and his memories.
06:02Is it possible that Walton could have remembered all these details with such precision?
06:08Is our memory capable of recording so much information with such accuracy?
06:14We've already seen how your memory can miss crucial details from our previous card experiment.
06:20Magician Ekaterina Dabrokatova has an experiment that uses a standard 52-card deck.
06:31This trick will challenge your memory to pick up the details.
06:35Do you think you have a memory that's above average?
06:38I would say so.
06:38Yeah? Awesome.
06:39Okay, so this is a little experiment.
06:41I have a fun trick for you.
06:42It's called the ambitious card routine.
06:44Okay.
06:44All right, so it's going to be very easy.
06:45You're going to select the card.
06:46So go ahead and just say stop whenever you want.
06:48Stop.
06:48Right here?
06:49Yes.
06:49Take your card.
06:50And make sure to show it to that camera so everyone can see it.
06:53I'm turned away so there's no way for me to see the card.
06:56Good?
06:56Got it.
06:57Perfect.
06:58Now to make it more difficult, we're going to have two selections.
07:00Okay.
07:01Two cards to remember.
07:01Just say stop.
07:02Stop.
07:03Right here?
07:03Perfect.
07:04Take the card and show both cards again to that camera.
07:07Remember these two cards.
07:11The eight of spades and the nine of clubs.
07:14Got it?
07:14And just let me know when you're done.
07:17I am done.
07:18Perfect.
07:18So Dave, place them anywhere you want.
07:21They don't have to be together.
07:21Make it difficult for me.
07:24Perfect.
07:25Now push them flush with the deck.
07:27Excellent.
07:27There you go.
07:28Fair enough for you?
07:28Yep, very fair.
07:30Perfect.
07:30Now Dave, watch.
07:32Very slowly, I'm going to make the cards go through the other cards all the way to the
07:37top, so they're going to rise in front of your eyes.
07:39Watch.
07:39Okay.
07:40Watch slowly.
07:42Did you see anything happen?
07:44I did not.
07:44I don't think they're up there.
07:47Watch.
07:48Dave, the first two cards are your selection.
07:53Yes, they are.
07:54That's amazing.
07:58How did the cards float to the top of the deck?
08:01How do you think I did this?
08:03I think it's a two-card deck.
08:05This isn't a trick deck.
08:07It's simply a trick on our memory.
08:10For this sleight of hand to work, your memory has to do its part.
08:14The first two cards are your selection.
08:20Yes, they are.
08:21That's amazing.
08:22But those aren't the cards that this man chose, nor are they probably the ones you thought you
08:27committed to memory.
08:29They may look similar, but they're not the same.
08:32Even though they've just seen their cards, by the time I take the other two cards off the top,
08:37they forget the details and don't notice the change.
08:41All along, we had the eight of clubs and the nine of spades on top of the deck.
08:46That these are not your cards.
08:47Oh my goodness, that's right.
08:49You confused the nine of spades with the nine of clubs, and your card was the eight of space.
08:54In this memory mishap, the suits have swapped.
08:58If you fell for this little suit switch, don't feel bad.
09:05Most people do.
09:06In fact, 100% of the people we tried this experiment on got it wrong.
09:11This ambitious card routine works because most people forget the details and falsely remember
09:21the wrong cards as the ones they picked.
09:23And unless someone points out our mistake, we'd never know the difference.
09:28People will overwrite their memory with new information without they're even realizing it.
09:37What could this mean for Travis Walton's highly detailed memory of alien abduction?
09:41In order to believe Travis Walton's story, you have to put a lot of faith in memory.
09:46In fact, all faith in memory. And the fact of the matter is that memory is fallible.
09:50Whether Walton was abducted by aliens or not may never be definitively proven.
09:58Some argue that if it were true, Walton would have needed to possess an eidetic or photographic
10:04memory which he showed no signs of at other moments in his life.
10:08We do know that the human brain can play games with your memory.
10:13However, Walton's memories of the event certainly make it real for him.
10:17In fact, the way we remember things ultimately determines what we believe
10:23and how we remember our very lives, whether those things happened or not.
10:33The human brain has been called the most powerful machine on the planet.
10:37It has unlocked mysteries of the universe and reshaped the story of humanity.
10:42When you become aware of just how your brain actually works,
10:46its amazing ability to construct your perception of the universe, it changes everything.
10:53But our brains are not without fault.
10:55And the biggest culprit in our minds may just be our memory.
11:01Sometimes, even when we're paying attention, the details can simply get past us.
11:07To prove it, Richard Wiseman has another card trick designed to mess with your mind.
11:11I'm here with Felicia and we're going to perform the amazing color-changing card trick with this blue back deck of cards.
11:21Now, the idea is very simple. I'm just going to spread the cards in front of Felicia and ask her to push any card towards the front of the table.
11:28OK. I think I'll go with this card right there.
11:33Excellent. Now, Felicia could have chosen any of the cards that were on the table,
11:37but she chose the card which is now face down in front of her.
11:40I'm going to ask her to look at the card and tell us which one it is.
11:44I have chosen me three of spades.
11:48The three of spades. That's an excellent choice.
11:50I'm going to ask you to give me the three of spades.
11:53That's great. And we'll place it back into the deck.
11:56I'll now spread the deck face up on the table.
11:59And what we'll see is that your card, the three of spades, has got a blue back.
12:03Not particularly surprising.
12:05What's slightly more surprising is that all of the others have got a red back.
12:10And that is the amazing color-changing card trick.
12:14What's the point of this trick?
12:16Once again, a seemingly simple exercise with a deck of cards can expose a flaw in our brain.
12:22The color-changing card trick has nothing to do with the playing cards at all.
12:26It's all about what you don't notice.
12:30Have you spotted any significant changes in the environment?
12:33Maybe one or two? But did you get all of them?
12:36There are four key changes in the color-changing card trick.
12:40I change my shirt, my partner changes hers, the tablecloth changes color, and the background changes as well.
12:47Why do we so easily miss these significant changes?
12:51If we had wonderful memories, we'd be able to look at a scene and think,
12:54hold on a second, that's not how it was at the beginning.
12:57But our memories are not that perfect.
12:59And so because of that, you can get away with the trick.
13:02It's estimated that the human brain takes in the equivalent of 34 gigabytes of information every day.
13:08And that's just the information we remember.
13:11No matter how complex our brains are, when it comes to memory, the details can get a little fuzzy,
13:17due to the massive amount of data we encounter.
13:20Sometimes, it doesn't even matter how often we are exposed to a particular situation,
13:25there's no guarantee our brains will remember what we need them to.
13:29Because of this selective retention of detail, one of America's most legendary whiskey makers
13:35suffered a deadly memory lapse.
13:43If you know anything about alcohol, you probably know about Jack Daniel's whiskey.
13:49Establishing this successful spirits business came with some hard knocks.
13:53One day in 1905, Jack Daniel went to the office early to get some documents out of his safe.
13:59But when Jack came to open the safe, he'd forgotten the combination.
14:03Despite using the safe every day, Daniel still forgot the combination.
14:08This had happened before, so he is pissed off.
14:13Finally, Jack Daniel gets so frustrated that he kicks the safe.
14:16But going toe to toe with a safe made of steel wasn't his best business decision.
14:21Right in that instant, Jack Daniel had shattered his toe.
14:26Daniel had opened his safe countless times.
14:28So how could he forget the combination on this fateful occasion?
14:34The reason might lie on the face of an ordinary penny.
14:43I'm going to hand you something. I just want you to tell me what it is.
14:45Okay.
14:47Abe, Penny.
14:48A little splotch on his nose.
14:52Let's stop here. Take a very good look at the penny.
14:56What was that that I just showed you? Ordinary U.S. Penny.
14:59Definitely just completely a penny.
15:00Okay.
15:02But this isn't the only penny Jeff's got up his sleeve.
15:05Why don't you take a look at this and tell me which of these pennies...
15:10Oh, Jesus.
15:11...is just like the one you just looked at.
15:14Oh, my God. I have no idea.
15:16There's only one right answer, and one of them is right.
15:21Are you also feeling stumped?
15:24Can you remember what a real penny looks like?
15:26Um...
15:26You just looked at one. Which one of these is the real penny?
15:34Let's see who can remember.
15:37I have no idea what was on it.
15:39But a penny is something that you've seen probably every day that you've been lying.
15:42Yes. I... Yeah.
15:45I have no idea what was on it.
15:47So I know it probably says United States of America, because N'Galby Trust doesn't look right.
15:52I'm gonna guess number seven.
15:55Pretty sure I saw him facing left. I'm gonna go with one.
15:59Okay.
15:59I'm pretty sure that he's facing the left, and United States of America makes sense.
16:05I'd go with six if you want to go with six.
16:06Okay. Okay, we'll go six.
16:07Okay. Six.
16:08You're sure?
16:09Sure.
16:11Did you guess seven, one, or six?
16:14Okay, I'll tell you, it's not number seven.
16:16Damn.
16:16It's not the number one.
16:18Six.
16:18Okay.
16:20It's not.
16:20Okay.
16:22People see pennies almost every day of their lives. But if you ask them which one is real,
16:28almost nobody gets it right. It's amazing.
16:34Should I know this? I should. I should know this. They all look so similar.
16:39Really use your mental energies to really draw on everything and give it all you got.
16:44I'll go with five.
16:45Why do you think it's five?
16:46In God we trust.
16:47Okay.
16:48I'm pretty sure of that.
16:49Okay.
16:50Honestly, I can't remember.
16:52I... I'm lost.
16:54Nine?
16:55Do any of them at all seem any better than any others?
16:58That really... I don't think I've ever really focused on a penny this hard.
17:04If you got this one right, congratulations.
17:07No one in our experiment did.
17:10Okay. You know what? I'm gonna... I'm... Here, just you take a look for yourself.
17:14It's actually number four.
17:16So it does say in God we trust.
17:19Yeah.
17:19Oh, man. Yep. It's the same.
17:23It's amazing how hard it is to identify something you've looked at,
17:26not only every day of your whole life, but you just looked at a couple minutes ago.
17:28I know.
17:30How many times have you seen a penny in your lifetime?
17:33Hundreds of thousands? Perhaps millions?
17:37Why are we prone to forgetting things that are familiar to us?
17:40Repetition and doing something many, many times is no guarantee that we'll remember what we're seeing
17:46or doing. In fact, it's the opposite. The more repetitious something is, the more automatic it is,
17:52the less conscious attention we bestow on it, the less likely we are to remember it.
17:56That's why you can still forget the lyrics to a song you've sung along with hundreds of times.
18:04Or forget your passwords to websites you surf every day.
18:07But Jack Daniel's memory problem led to a bit of a bigger problem.
18:12It eventually caused his death.
18:16Unable to open his safe, Jack kicked it in frustration. Eventually, his toe became infected,
18:21and he became consumed with gangrene. Six years after he kicked the safe,
18:26Jack Daniel died from that injury. This was a memory lapse that turned out to be painful and deadly.
18:33That's why Jack Daniel's whiskey has a commemorative black label on the bottle.
18:39Thankfully, not every memory mishap leads to death. But every time you look at a picture,
18:45have a conversation, or try to remember something specific, like the combination to a lock,
18:51you're missing more details than you're picking up. It's just the way our brains work.
18:57It's estimated that the brain encounters 400 billion bits of information per second,
19:03but we're only aware of 2,000 of those. That means that every second of our lives,
19:09we're only retaining 0.5 millionth of a percent of what we experience. Doesn't seem like much,
19:16does it? And there's no telling just when you might need the information or how important it could be.
19:25In the past, some have described memory as a sort of filing cabinet full of individual memory
19:30folders that can store information. But today, experts believe that memory is far more complex and
19:37elusive than ever previously conceived. That our memory is not one simple system, but a complex,
19:44brain-wide process. Memory is a lot more sophisticated than you might imagine.
19:50It isn't simply a case of remembering what's happened in the past. We've seen how our memories
19:56can have problems retaining the details. But the brain has another problem. Every now and then,
20:03it can actually create memories for us. Taking the details of people, places and events and making
20:09them seem so real, they must have happened. Our brain can actually create fictitious memories.
20:18And this very thing may have happened to one of America's greatest generals.
20:22George Patton is one of America's most brilliant soldiers. He was a general during World War II.
20:36General George S. Patton was a hero of World War II, driving American forces across Europe and
20:42striking fear into the Nazis. General Patton believed in reincarnation. The guy the Nazis feared had all these
20:53crazy memories of past lives. Patton claimed he had memories of fighting in some of history's most famous
21:00wars, even under Julius Caesar. Patton believed he was a member of the 10th Legion, Caesar's most loyal,
21:07most trusted ruthless, bunch of horse riding bad asses. He also remembered serving under Napoleon,
21:14and he had a very clear memory of watching Napoleon retreat from a huge defeat in Moscow.
21:20It's almost like he knew that he could have done better were he in Napoleon's position.
21:25He even had memories from prehistoric times. Patton actually remembered holding a spear
21:31and thrusting it into the flesh of a woolly mammoth.
21:33Patton was like the Forrest Gump of history. Patton believed that he had thousands of years of
21:42military experience. This gave General Patton the confidence that made him the warrior that he was.
21:48We all remember events from earlier in our lives. This is called retrospective memory. But many
21:55people claim to remember events from previous lives. Why is it that people can have a hard time
22:01remembering the combination to their safe, but believe they can recall events from a different lifetime?
22:09Perhaps because to us, the truth of a memory just lies in how our brain organizes the details.
22:16In fact, if you change the details of an event, it's possible to actually give someone a false memory of
22:22what really happened. To see how suggestible our memories are, science journalist Jeff Wise is
22:33examining people's memories by showing them a photo of a historic moment.
22:38I'm going to show you this picture. I want you to tell me what you remember.
22:42Do you remember this event? Yeah, that's Tiananmen Square.
22:47Is that Tiananmen Square? Tiananmen Square.
22:50Yeah, I remember. That's big news.
22:52So this took place in June 1989, the height of the student protest movement against the communist
22:59regime. Now, I seen it in school when I was taking history and they showed this picture,
23:03so at the same time now it's like an everlasting image in my head.
23:06With the help of this photograph, can you recall the details of what happened on this day in history?
23:14Let's see what others remember.
23:18There was one lone individual, as you can see there. There was a crowd there. I remember the
23:22crowds were all for the protests at that time. I remember the crowds chanting him along because
23:27they were supporting him for what he was doing, for trying to stop them from bringing the tanks in.
23:31He's standing still, whoever that person is, but I like I always think about the like craziness,
23:38like the large crowds and the movement. But the big crowds were a major part of that event.
23:44Thousands of people that were there that are in that picture watching are in support of this demonstrator.
23:49And it was a big deal that they were protesting to begin with. It's a hell of a statement.
23:54We couldn't have put it better ourselves, but did it really happen this way? Tell me again what you do.
24:01I'm a psychotherapist. I work mostly with trauma and memory.
24:05This, hopefully this won't be too traumatic for you, but in fact this image has been doctored.
24:10This is the undoctored image.
24:12Oh, you don't see the people. There are no people.
24:14In fact, there were no crowds in Tiananmen Square when this photograph was taken.
24:20It was just one man against the tanks.
24:24Well, this is this tricky thing about memory. Like now I feel like, I don't remember there were a lot
24:28of people in that picture. I feel like that was an all alone person picture.
24:32Oh, wow. This is the real photograph.
24:36When this moment took place, Tiananmen Square had been cleared of the crowds.
24:40Now you felt like you remembered that previous image.
24:44The picture felt so real that I actually remember the crowds being there.
24:48It kind of messes with my mind.
24:49Did your memory trick you? Don't feel bad. The memory of everyone we tested was tricked as well.
25:00But this is one of the most famous images of the 20th century.
25:04You can see how easy it is to forget the details.
25:08And how small changes to the photo can alter people's memories.
25:12How many of us have altered memories of events? Chances are, all of us.
25:19So you can introduce a false, not only a false image of a historical event, but a false understanding.
25:28What does this tell us about the reliability of memory?
25:32It ate.
25:36Like these participants, General Patton may have also had altered or modified memories of famous past events.
25:43While his was a more extreme case, he may have had what is sometimes referred to as
25:48a spontaneous recall or residue memory.
25:52He studied historic battles so closely and accumulated such incredible details on them
25:58that it's possible he began to believe he took part in them.
26:01Patton wasn't pulling these memories out of nowhere.
26:04He had training at West Point. He had training on the battlefield.
26:07He studied these battles. He knew what he was talking about.
26:10I think Patton studied these battles so closely that they became part of his life.
26:18Our brains and our memories are open to manipulation.
26:21And when filled with details of a particular event,
26:24it's not difficult for our brains to start to see that event as if we were there.
26:29as if we are experiencing spontaneous recall, whether we were there or not.
26:38The memories stored in your brain can be contaminated by new information.
26:43Your memories can be manipulated.
26:45And through no fault of your own, you can get the details of any event confused.
26:51The truth is, confusing memories and getting the facts wrong is just a part of our bleeped-up brain.
26:58But why do we often have so much confidence in memories that are simply not true?
27:03And through. Get ready for an experiment that will test your short-term memory.
27:15Take a look at this board. It contains 15 words.
27:20Try to commit as many of these words to your memory as you can.
27:25We'll give you and these participants 10 seconds to do so.
27:33We'll give you an example of what we can do.
27:39Got it? Keep a hold of those thoughts for the next few minutes.
27:43And let's see what your ability to remember these words can reveal about why some conspiracy theorists
27:50shockingly believe 9-11 was an inside job.
27:54Most of us remember where we were when 9-11 happened.
28:04It's a day we are likely to remember for the rest of our lives.
28:09And most of us know where President George W. Bush was, too.
28:12Bush was in front of the classroom reading a children's book,
28:15and his chief of staff came and told him about the attacks.
28:18It was captured on video.
28:20Soon the airwaves were flooded with live images of the second plane hitting the towers.
28:29But three months later, President Bush remembered this tragic event in a different light.
28:34And I saw an airplane hit the tower.
28:37Bush said that he remembered being outside the classroom waiting to go in to talk to the kids,
28:41and he saw the first plane hit the twin towers.
28:43But footage of the first plane's impact did not air live and was only broadcast on television the following day.
28:52And President Bush was not alone in remembering this event inaccurately.
28:57A recent study indicated 73% of test subjects also wrongly remembered seeing the first plane hit the tower live.
29:05Despite 9-11 being one of the most well-documented days in human history, most of us don't remember it accurately.
29:15Nonetheless, Bush's innocent memory mistake set conspiracy theorists in motion.
29:21They believed that Bush had been watching the attacks in real time somewhere in some secret location.
29:26So to them, it all made sense. Like, oh my God, you know, Bush said he saw the first thing, no one else saw it.
29:32So he must have seen it, you know, while he was watching his evil plan unfold.
29:39Though conspiracy theorists saw Bush's memory as proof that 9-11 was an inside job, the truth is much simpler.
29:47The president made a mistake because our memories just aren't that good.
29:51In fact, it's estimated by most experts that our short-term memories can hold between 4 and 7 details in our brain at any one moment.
30:02When we start to exceed that number, we tend to get things wrong.
30:06Don't believe us?
30:08To prove it, let's return to Richard Wiseman's memory test.
30:13You've had a few minutes to put these 15 words to memory.
30:17Let's see which of them you actually remember.
30:19So you've had some time to remember the words. I'm going to give you some words on here.
30:25And for each one, I'd like you to tell me whether you think it was on the board or not.
30:29So the first word is wake.
30:31Do you remember the word wake?
30:34Yes.
30:34Yes.
30:35Yes.
30:36Yes.
30:37Yes.
30:38Wake.
30:39Yes, I believe that was on the board.
30:42And how confident are you about that from 1 to 10, where 1 is not at all confident and 10 is very confident?
30:485.
30:49Very good.
30:50Next one was drowsy.
30:52Do you remember drowsy?
30:56No.
30:56No, I'm not certain about drowsy.
30:58How confident are you?
30:59I would say about a 4.
31:018.
31:025.
31:03And here's the last word in our little memory test.
31:06And sleep.
31:08Do you recall sleep?
31:10Yes.
31:11Yes.
31:12Sleep was definitely on the board.
31:14Yes.
31:15Yes.
31:15And how confident are you about that?
31:1710.
31:188.
31:1810.
31:1910.
31:19Very confident.
31:20In fact, of all the words, that's the one you're most confident.
31:23Yes.
31:24And how confident are you that sleep was on the board?
31:28If you agree with these participants, you're in for a rude awakening.
31:34Should we have a look?
31:35Yes.
31:36Yes.
31:37Oh, gosh.
31:42No sleep.
31:43No sleep.
31:44I told her that sleep exists only in your mind.
31:46Oh, no.
31:47No sleep.
31:48No sleep.
31:49Bummer.
31:50I thought it was where dream was.
31:53I just had that overall theme in my head, I guess, sleep.
31:56With the false memory test, you feel as if your brain has betrayed you.
32:00You ended up with a false memory, thinking you'd seen a word you hadn't.
32:03So, how does it feel to have a false memory implanted into your brain?
32:07There must be other things that people have planted into my head.
32:109 out of 10 people believed the word sleep was on this board when it absolutely wasn't.
32:16And most of them very, very confident.
32:18So, in just a few moments, we managed to create a false memory.
32:22When there is too much information to hold onto in our short-term memory,
32:26we start to get things confused.
32:28And this same premise may be why President Bush and many others falsely remember seeing the first
32:34plane hit the World Trade Center on that emotional day on live TV, even though that would have been
32:41impossible.
32:42Bush had a false memory of what happened on 9-11, and this is not unusual.
32:46It happens to people all the time.
32:48The thing that makes this different is that he was president at the time,
32:52and his comments fueled a conspiracy theory.
32:56And I saw an airplane hit the tower.
32:58False memories, like the one experienced by President Bush,
33:01affect people particularly during emotional events.
33:04Like the space shuttle explosion of 1986, or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
33:12In the wake of each of these events, countless people had false memories of the events planted
33:17into their brains.
33:19But the certainty of our recollections does not mean we've gotten the details right.
33:24I could have sworn sleep was on there.
33:27Bummer.
33:34We've seen how confidence in our memories is no guarantee that they're right, and that our memory
33:42is highly malleable.
33:44But for those memories and facts that do stick in our bleeped up brain, how do we know if they're right?
33:51Sometimes you don't.
33:52Most of us probably remember hearing about Lizzie Borden, the woman associated with one of the most
34:00notorious murders in American history.
34:04Do you remember if she was guilty of that crime?
34:08Let's see if this nursery rhyme about the case jogs your memory.
34:11Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks.
34:16When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.
34:20Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks.
34:23When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.
34:28Did you remember this nursery rhyme?
34:31If you didn't know it already, could you easily keep it in your memory?
34:35If so, pay attention, because it can reveal a sinister truth about the actual history of Lizzie Borden.
34:49Every child has heard that terrifying tale of Lizzie Borden.
34:53On August 4th, 1892, Lizzie Borden emerged from her home, screaming her family had been murdered.
35:00What the police found was shocking.
35:04Mr. Borden was found on the sofa, face down, covered in blood.
35:09Mrs. Borden was upstairs, lying in a pool of blood as well.
35:13Borden was promptly charged with murder.
35:16The gruesome legend of the crime has been forever preserved in that catchy rhyme.
35:20When she saw what she had done.
35:21But here's a question.
35:22Was Lizzie Borden actually guilty?
35:26The rhyme leaves absolutely zero doubt about Lizzie Borden's guilt.
35:30But here is the really surprising fact.
35:33The jury found her not guilty.
35:37In fact, every detail in the rhyme is wrong.
35:42The Borden's were found with 29 stab wounds in all, not 81.
35:47Despite Lizzie's acquittal, she is remembered as a brutal murderer, thanks in small part to a children's rhyme.
35:55But it would not be as catchy a poem if it were getting the facts right.
36:01Why does this infectious nursery rhyme compel us to believe something that's completely untrue?
36:07The story seems familiar.
36:09We tend to overestimate its truth.
36:12This is a psychological phenomenon known as the illusion of truth effect.
36:16The more often you hear an assertion made, the more likely you are to believe it, regardless of its objective truth.
36:27The repetition of a message can drill the memory into our head and reinforce a false sense of truth.
36:33This is why constant political propaganda can be so effective.
36:37And why advertising companies want you to see the same commercial over and over again, to reinforce the message in your memory.
36:46And this is partly why we remember the wrong story with Lizzie Borden.
36:50And that's not the only way our memory imposes itself over the details.
37:00To demonstrate, science journalist Jeff Wise has an intriguing picture for you to piece together.
37:07Do you recognize this pixelated image?
37:10I'm going to give you a hint. It's a famous work of art.
37:14I'm not good in art.
37:16Believe me, you've seen this.
37:19Try squinting. Recognize it now?
37:24Mona Lisa?
37:27Mona Lisa.
37:28Mona Lisa.
37:29This is, in fact, the Mona Lisa.
37:33Hey. This obviously is one of the most famous pieces of art. And your brain is so familiar with it, that looking at this handful of pixels, it's able to extract that complicated picture.
37:47Deciphering the big picture is what our memory does best. But there's a twist here.
37:52You just looked at the full resolution image of the Mona Lisa. Do you remember seeing a UFO?
37:59No. No.
38:04Aliens?
38:05No, I didn't see any UFO in there anyway.
38:08Do you remember seeing a UFO?
38:10When you ask people, did you see the UFO in the Mona Lisa? They don't know what you're talking about.
38:17Surely you'd remember seeing a UFO in this famous painting. Let's take another look.
38:23Oh, my God. There is a UFO in there. That's right. That's in the actual original painting?
38:28Oh, that's so funny.
38:30That's great.
38:30Why do you think you didn't notice this?
38:33I don't know. I was so focused on her face and thinking about the pixels.
38:38And sometimes you just see what you want to see.
38:41Did you notice anything else weird?
38:43Is there anything else unusual about this version of the Mona Lisa?
38:47So what's behind her shoulder there?
38:49Something like a dinosaur head or something.
38:54If you look carefully over here, you'll see the faint image of the Loch Ness monster.
39:01Yeah, it does. Wow.
39:04So these are things that you might expect would stand out like a sore thumb.
39:07To me, it's weird because I would never think, you know, that it would be UFOs and the Loch Ness monster right next to the Mona Lisa.
39:18Once our brain connects to the memory of the Mona Lisa, its quest for comprehension stops.
39:24It's very easy for the brain to miss the details. Why?
39:28Because they weren't expecting to see the UFO or the Loch Ness monster.
39:32They didn't expect to see it, and so they didn't see it.
39:34It's absolutely crazy. You know what, I guess the details are just invisible to me.
39:38Do you think this makes you distrust your ability to remember details?
39:43At our age?
39:46Though our brains gloss over the details to grasp the big picture,
39:50this process reveals one important purpose of human memory.
39:55What seems like a mistake actually points out the ways our brains work.
40:00It doesn't work that way just because evolution does a really crappy job.
40:04Our brains are designed to be efficient. Our brains operate on only about 15 watts of power.
40:10We have to focus our attention on what matters to us.
40:15Were you able to see past your memory's many mistakes?
40:19Did you recall the wrong penny?
40:22Or fail to remember the changes during Richard Wiseman's card tricks?
40:26Did you also experience memory contamination?
40:29And I saw an airplane hit the tower.
40:32If so, just keep this in mind.
40:35When you fall victim to an illusion, sometimes it feels like your brain has betrayed you.
40:40Like you failed to do something that should have been obvious.
40:43These are not your cards.
40:44Oh, man.
40:45It's part of being human.
40:47I don't know what to trust anymore.
40:49From history's most legendary figures, to its strangest conspiracies,
40:55there are countless ways human memory can play tricks on us.
40:59Because what you remember might just be another misstep made by your bleeped up brain.