title: What people believe about memory.
abstract: Two representative samples of adult Norwegians (n=2000) were asked a set of general and specific questions regarding their beliefs and opinions about human memory. The results indicate that on many questions, such as time of the earliest memories, inhibiting effects of collaboration, and memory for dramatic versus ordinary events, the views of the general public concurred with current research findings, and people in general had realistic views about their own memory performance. On other questions, such as the reliability of olfactory as compared with visual and auditory memory, the memory of small children in comparison with that of adults, the likelihood of repression of adult traumatic memories, and on more general questions such as the possibility of training memory and the capacity limitations of long-term memory, a large proportion of the participants expressed views that are less supported by scientific evidence. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, Norway. svein.magnussen@psykologi.uio.no
authors.forename: Svein
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Magnussen
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cornoldi
authors.forename: Rossana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Beni
authors.forename: Tor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Endestad
authors.forename: Gail S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Helstrup
authors.forename: Asher
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koriat
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melinder
authors.forename: Lars-Göran
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: Jerker
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rönnberg
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zimmer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003463:Cues; D003469:Culture; D005239:Fear; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008016:Life Change Events; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D009664:Norway; D010465:Perception; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011639:Public Opinion; D012903:Smell; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors