What people believe about memory.
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.
Magnussen
Svein
S
Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, Norway. svein.magnussen@psykologi.uio.no
Andersson
Jan
J
Cornoldi
Cesare
C
De Beni
Rossana
R
Endestad
Tor
T
Goodman
Gail S
GS
Helstrup
Tore
T
Koriat
Asher
A
Larsson
Maria
M
Melinder
Annika
A
Nilsson
Lars-Göran
LG
Rönnberg
Jerker
J
Zimmer
Hubert
H
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