Memory Games

Memory is malleable, dynamic and elusive. When we tap into our memories, where's the line between fact and fiction? How does our memory play tricks on us, and how can we train it to be more accurate? TED speakers discuss how a nimble memory can improve your life, and how a frail one might ruin someone else's.

Forensic psychologist Scott Fraser studies how we remember crimes. He describes a deadly shooting and explains how eyewitnesses can create memories that they haven't seen. Why? Because the brain is always trying to fill in the blanks. Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman goes through a series of examples of things we might remember -- from vacations to colonoscopies – and explains how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. Some people can memorize thousands of numbers, the names of dozens of strangers or the precise order of cards in a shuffled deck. Science writer and US Memory Champion Joshua Foer shows how anyone can become a memory virtuoso, including him.

Learn more or listen again to this week's episode, which originally aired on May 26, 2013.

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