Relying on Memory...

On the day after the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1996, two researchers, Neisser and Harsch, conducted detailed interviews with 106 people on their recollections of the day’s events (where the were when they heard, what they were doing, what happened, etc).

Almost 3 years later those same 106 people were asked the same questions again, and overall, the participants were confident that their memories of such a powerful event were accurate.

Except they weren’t - a quarter of participants misremembered every single detail, and not one person recalled all details with 100% accuracy.

So if it matters, write it down - because some memories are too important to rely on memory to keep them safe…