memory

"No, I promise it happened just like that! I remember, I can picture it right now..."

I've done it. You probably have too. Nobody remembers your conversations or escapades quite like you do. You have an unusual capacity for recalling exactly how it happened.

Did you know that you are totally wrong?

If your brain stored every detail of every memory you ever had, you would be overloaded with information. So instead, to save space, your brain ingeniously edits events and stores what it considers to be important details for you to recall when you need them. And then, when you need that memory, your brain reconstructs what happened around those few important details that were stored in their entirety. It fills in the rest, and it tends to fill it in slighly differently than you'd like. Basically, your brain guesses--usually it guesses pretty well. Sometimes it doesn't.

Read Stumbling on Happiness. Great book. It will make you think twice before you use your own memory in an argument =]