Photos can change memories

A balloon ride that never happened

Key ideaA photo seen later can change a memory

Besides the 6 pictures, this network once saw and stored a doctored photo: a cake pasted under a hot-air balloon (the seventh picture above). Now we recall the top of the real balloon. But what comes back is not the real balloon — it is the doctored photo. The photo seen later has taken the original memory’s place.

Why?In a 2002 study in New Zealand, people were shown childhood photos with a hot-air balloon pasted in and asked to remember that day. After a few interviews, about half recalled at least part of a balloon ride they had never taken. Photos can bring memories back, and they can also create memories that never happened.

Go furtherWhen a memory is recalled and stored again, what we think and see at that moment can mix in and change it a little. This is called reconsolidation. So a vivid memory is not always an accurate one.