I got back from shopping at the produce markets the other afternoon, looked inside my backpack and wondered: Where are the mandarin oranges I bought? Did they drop out of my backpack while walking, did they fall out into the car boot or what?
I remembered looking at the Murcott mandarins at the stall and thinking of getting some. I remembered picking out fruit into a plastic bag, paying for it, and putting the bag in my backpack.
When I examined my memory further, I realised there wasn't one of actually buying the mandarins. What I had bought was a bag of avocados. And I had thought while walking past the mandarins how the last batch I bought had too many seeds and I would think about it and come back later, which I didn't. The clincher was that the change I had in my pocket was more than I would have if I had bought mandarins. I didn't actually buy partly because I already had a bag of tasty seedless Afourer mandarins at home.
I imagine this is one way a false memory starts, from a confluence of different recollections which seem to add up to a false recollection.
I remembered looking at the Murcott mandarins at the stall and thinking of getting some. I remembered picking out fruit into a plastic bag, paying for it, and putting the bag in my backpack.
When I examined my memory further, I realised there wasn't one of actually buying the mandarins. What I had bought was a bag of avocados. And I had thought while walking past the mandarins how the last batch I bought had too many seeds and I would think about it and come back later, which I didn't. The clincher was that the change I had in my pocket was more than I would have if I had bought mandarins. I didn't actually buy partly because I already had a bag of tasty seedless Afourer mandarins at home.
I imagine this is one way a false memory starts, from a confluence of different recollections which seem to add up to a false recollection.
