Insight into memories may alter our view of eyewitness testimonies

Our memory for the who, what and why of a situation appears to fade over time, but we may be better at remembering where it took place. Understanding how memories can change could have implications for how we judge eyewitness testimonies in criminal cases.

To better understand how memories change, Wilma Bainbridge and her colleagues at the University of Chicago carried out two experiments. In the first, 1609 people were shown images of six scenes – a…