To the Best of My Recollection: The Cognitive Neuroscience of True and False Memory

Memory is not a picture-perfect recollection of all details previously experienced.  Instead, it is a reconstruction based on an array of information, from experienced details to imagined reactions and current constraints of mood and task expectations.  In addition to misinformation from outside influences, normal memory processes themselves can affect how accurate memory recollection can be – processes that are affected by aging, neurologic and psychiatric conditions.  I will discuss these effects and how they relate to eyewitness testimony in the courtroom.