Human beings can generate false memories of events mere seconds after they have occurred, a new study has found.
The phenomenon, which researchers have dubbed “short-term memory illusions,” shows how easily and rapidly humans reimagine experiences to fit our preconceptions, rather than accurately recording what takes place. The researchers published their findings April 5 in the journal PLOS One.
“It seems that short-term memory is not always an accurate representation of what was just perceived,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Instead, memory is shaped by what we expected to see, right from the formation of the first memory trace.”
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