Chapter 8 - Realizations

After reading chapter 8, specifically the Misinformation Effect section, I was able to recall a memory of being lost at Art in the Park when I was between 4 and 5 years old. This used to be a vivid memory, because it was the first and only time I was REALLY lost that I could ever remember. With time, the vividness has decayed, but I thought I could remember the important details. To test this, I asked my mom what her account was of what had happened after trying to remember as much as I could myself. Here was my account:

I wandered away when my mom was taking too long at one booth, and ended up not knowing where I was going. I ended up in the more open part of the park and started getting freaked out because I couldn't see my family anywhere. I remember thinking that my mom had always said 'If you get lost, just wait where you are and I'll find you." So I sat down next to an elderly couple on a bench. They were strangers so I didn't respond when they asked me if I was lost. 15 minutes later my mom found me.

Here's how my mom remembers it:
I wandered away (about 30 ft...far enough away that I couldn't see her over the heads of other people, but she could still see me). My mom finished looking at the items of the booth she was at and then caught up with me. She had let me be for about 3 minutes so that I would learn not to wander away again.

Obviously, there's a bit of a difference between our stories. Something tells me that her at-the-time 35-year-old memory was better than my 4-yeard old memory. Being in a scary situation that marked my first experience of being "lost" may have made me misrecall what had actually happened. Many other similar instances have happened, I'm sure, but this was definitely one of my most memorable.