Think back to your time at school. Were you hard-working, popular, anxious? And what exam grades did you get? Now, imagine someone pulls out your school reports from that time. How closely would they match the results you just brought to mind?
If your recollections match exactly, you might congratulate yourself on having an excellent memory. But as a psychologist who has spent years researching what people remember – and misremember – my work often challenges the idea that the “best” memory is always the most accurate one.
In fact, some of the distortions commonly regarded as memory failures may be signs of a healthy and adaptive memory system. In many aspects of life, research suggests people misremember their past in predictable, self-protective ways, reshaping experiences to support their current, positive sense of self.
For example, a 1996 US study investigated how former pupils recalled 3,220 high-school grades. The study found they accurately remembered A grades 89% of the time, but D grades only 29%. Most of the errors saw grades misremembered as higher, suggesting many people carried with them an illusion of better academic performance.
Similarly, participants in a 2006 study underwent cholesterol screening, then were followed up months later to see how accurately they remembered the results. Most recalled having lower-than-reality cholesterol, especially those with the highest readings.
