Practice question · Select all that apply
Which effects reshape a memory before it reaches an interviewer?
Hints
- Memory is reshaped by coherence, confusion, conformity and the present.
- None of these makes the witness dishonest.
Show the answer
- A. Retrospective coherence: the past edited to fit how things turned out
- B. Social conformation: memory reshaping toward the group’s version
- C. Present concerns determining what surfaces and how it is framed
- D. Source confusion: what was read or watched becomes what is remembered
Why
All four, compounding, for decades. None of it makes the witness dishonest, it makes them human, and it means the interview is a source about the present as much as the past.
Practise Oral History and Testimony
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
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- Complete the practice.