Where: Cafe Phipps (1 Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
When: 2PM TODAY
RSVP at: http://www.meetup.com/CFI-Pittsburgh/events/233020561/
Center for Inquiry – Pittsburgh
Our discussion this month is memory – how do we form memories and how reliable are they, based on the work of Dr. Julia Shaw is a psychological scientist and senior researcher in the Department of Law and Social Science at London South Bank University. The link to the podcast is below.
Our memories are a collection of perceptions of our past experiences, and they influence what we think we’re capable of in the future. Dr. Shaw argues that if we start to question the accuracy of our memories we’re then forced to question the foundation of who we think we are. She shows us that our memories aren’t as reliable as we think. Not only are we capable of co-opting other people’s memories as our own, but we can also be easily persuaded by the power of suggestion that we’ve committed acts that have never actually occurred. Even when it comes to our most confident recollections, the potential for memory error has proven to be profound, and Dr. Shaw believes understanding the science of memory can help us deal with our brains’ tendency to rewrite the past.
Pittsburgh – USA
Sunday, October 9 at 2:00 PM
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