Book contents
- Making Decisions: Analytics, Cognition, and Application
- Making Decisions: Analytics, Cognition, and Application
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Copyright Acknowledgements
- Part I Analytics: Probability, Evaluation, Decision Trees, and Strategies for Decision Making
- Introduction to Part II: Cognitive Processes of Decision Making
- 5 Heuristics: Assumptions and Quick Rules of Thumb We All Use, But Maybe Shouldn’t
- 6 Prospect Theory: Psychological Aspects beyond Expected Value
- 7 Two Systems: A Descriptive Model That Explains How People Make Decisions
- 8 Decisions Are Made Based on Our Memories, But How Reliable Are Our Memories?
- 9 Psychology + Economics = Behavioral Economics = Ways to (Gently) Influence Decisions
- Part III Applications, Examples, and Selected Topics
- References
- Index
- References
8 - Decisions Are Made Based on Our Memories, But How Reliable Are Our Memories?
from Introduction to Part II: Cognitive Processes of Decision Making
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025
Book contents
- Making Decisions: Analytics, Cognition, and Application
- Making Decisions: Analytics, Cognition, and Application
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Copyright Acknowledgements
- Part I Analytics: Probability, Evaluation, Decision Trees, and Strategies for Decision Making
- Introduction to Part II: Cognitive Processes of Decision Making
- 5 Heuristics: Assumptions and Quick Rules of Thumb We All Use, But Maybe Shouldn’t
- 6 Prospect Theory: Psychological Aspects beyond Expected Value
- 7 Two Systems: A Descriptive Model That Explains How People Make Decisions
- 8 Decisions Are Made Based on Our Memories, But How Reliable Are Our Memories?
- 9 Psychology + Economics = Behavioral Economics = Ways to (Gently) Influence Decisions
- Part III Applications, Examples, and Selected Topics
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
When we make decisions, we base them on a combination of the current state of reality and our memories of past events. The research of Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues demonstrated that human memories of past events are not simply stored in an unchangeable form when events occur to be retrieved later when they are needed. Instead, memories can be shaped by subsequent events, including conversations, questions asked, similar events, and even the grammar and choice of words in how a question is formulated. People can conflate the memory of one event with previous or subsequent events. Loftus’s research demonstrates that the memories of eyewitnesses who testify in court can be contaminated by events that occurred between the time of the crime and the trial. When we retrieve what we think is a memory, and make a decision based on that memory, we are probably retrieving and reconstructing something that changed while it was stored in memory.
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- Making Decisions: Analytics, Cognition, and Application , pp. 100 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Recommended Reading
Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report. Cognitive Psychology, 7(4), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(75)90023-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loftus, E. F. (2019, March 5). Eyewitness testimony. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33, 498–503. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/acp.3542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13(5), 585–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-5371(74)80011-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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