My latest psychological suspense novel – THE EXPERT WITNESS – was published 14th July 2025. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past – an event she’s elected to forget.
For the next few month’s my posts will briefly summarises a few of the tricks our memories play. Here’s the first.
TRICKS OF MEMORY #1 Filling gaps
Our brains like things to make sense and will ‘helpfully’ interpret and fill in the gaps using prior experience and information gleaned from all the senses. This allows us to understand the partial words in the accompanying photo, and to see a white triangle on the image even though it has an incomplete outline. To make sense of the world, the brain looks for patterns and makes assumptions. Without this talent it would be hard to operate in the world.
But this ability to fill in gaps can have an impact on our memories. Not everyone interprets a shared experience in the same way. We each interpret events in line with our self-perception, beliefs, past experience, culture, etc. This can lead to our brains misinterpreting what we heard or saw: filling gaps, imagining things that didn’t happen, or overlooking aspects if they don’t fit with expectations. When we form a memory, recall an event, or recount a past experience to others, we edit and add in order to create a cohesive narrative. We like to tell ourselves (and others) a story that makes sense, changing our recall to fit.
Think you can trust your own memories? Think again.
If you are interested in purchasing THE EXPERT WITNESS you can buy it here
Before I sign off for this month, I’m thrilled to share that I’m now the Author in Residence at Sudbury Arts Centre, where I will be organising a range of events for readers and writers over the coming months. If you’re interested in finding out more details of the schedule, do sign up to receive emails from the venue here https://sudburyartscentre.com/
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