The imperfect ways we remember

Memory is not a file cabinet or computer where information is neatly stored and easily retrieved. We are constructing and reconstructing our memories all the time.

Psychologist Ciara Greene says we should think of memory as the bricks in a LEGO tower that we are constantly reassembling. She is co-author of a new book, Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember.

While our memories can be unreliable and malleable, they are also a key to our identity, including the decisions we make, the social bonds we form and how we make sense of the world.

We’ll talk about how memory has evolved to help us solve problems, why eye witness testimony is often wrong, how emotions influence memory, why we forget and why fake news and false memories can feel so real. Ciara Greene leads the Attention and Memory Lab at University College Dublin.