The perils of relying on memory in court

whose version of events do you believe?

Everyone recalled a slightly different sequence of events, even when it came to such basic facts as the number of bullets fired or the clothes de Menezes was wearing

Most of us, he says, are unaware of how fallible our memories actually are.

"from the colours we see to the experiences we have. The brain is editing the information we take in even before it's laid down as a memory, and further editing takes place as the memory is formed."

memory is not a record of reality, like a video: it is a rough sample of what occurred

In one series of experiments, researchers wrote to the parents of their students, asking them to provide a shortlist of events from the pupils' childhoods. Before giving the list to the students, the scientists added a false event

A third of students not only said that they remembered the incident

but later elaborated on it and integrated it with their other childhood memories