Tricks of memory

Remembering an episode from event he recent past may involve a blend of fic tion and fact. We discuss a straightforward laboratory paradigm that is pro ving useful in the study of false memories of simple episodes. In this para digm, subjects study lists of 15 related words (bed, rest, awake ...) that are all related to a critical word that is not presented (sleep). Lager, su bjects recall and recognize the critical missing word with about the same p robability that they remember words from the list. This memory illusion is resistant to people's attempts to avoid it. We argue that similar memory er rors are common-place and are a natural outcome of an intelligent cognitive system, which makes inferences about incoming information. Therefore, memo ry illusions, like perceptual illusions, are a consequence of normal human information processing and offer a window for examining basic cognitive pro cesses.