Hi,

 

Today when i was driving home, i looked at a car number plate/liscense plate, but it was reveresed. I then looked again and it was normal. Any ideas what caused this?

I strongly suspect you imagined it.

i'm sure i didnt though.

what would cause me to imagine it?

Maybe someones after you. I would lay low if i were you.

The mind doesnt record information, it only stores enough to re-create the memory on demand.

 

If you caught a glimpse of the plate in a mirror but didnt immediately realise it, you might look again, knowing that it's a reflection.

It often happens when you have your mind set on a task, you dont see the whole picture untill you look for it.

but i was staring ahead.. i looked left to a tree or something, looked again and it was reversed.

 

What do yo mean:

 

"record information, it only stores"

 

Record and store are the same thing surely?

Today when i was driving home, i looked at a car number plate/liscense plate, but it was reveresed. I then looked again and it was normal. Any ideas what caused this?

See this thread on Alcohol Damage.

most people think the brain stores every second of life somewhere.

not quite true, the brain encodes information as links to other ideas and experiences so you can recall the main points and peice together an equivalent image later.

if you only caught a quick glimpse of the plate the first time you saw it, your memory might not have enough information to put the image togther properly in your mind, so the memory might make the image, upside down for example.

the second time you saw it, you would have been paying more attention.

 

even looking straight ahead, you can have that effect. if the brain doesnt get all the information it needs, it'll make up something weird when you try to decode it again.

 

happens a lot to me.

Rocket Man: I find your explanation very interesting. Know of links online regarding/expounding your information? Would really like to read it. Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers,

 

Sabbath

i actually read it in a magazine, bbc's "focus" number 162 in the mind hacks section if you have access to them.

it had a memory test, a list of words, you memorise them then write them down on a separate page. people invariably write a particular word that's not on the list.

The list is designed to call that word as a "false memory"

i'll try to find an online equivalent.

 

failing that, i can always scan it.

heres the article.

Many thanks!

I took the first test and these are the results:

 

On list A I got 12 out of 15 and wrote Needle which wasn't on the list. In writing the words down I also wrote them according to which column I could remember putting them in and I was correct in all entries save for one. I put Sewing in the second column instead of the first.

 

In List B I still got 12 out of 15, wrote one word that wasn't in the list (Sleep) and misplaced one word (Snooze) coz I put it in the second column.

 

I made the same errors in the two tests. Remarkable.

Oh wow. I just read the explanation. (image #2)

I committed the errors that they predicted. I find this really interesting.