5. Your memory isn’t as good as you think.
5.你的记忆力并不像你想的那么好
When you remember an event in the past, your brain uses a very similar technique to imagining the future. The process is less like “replaying a video” than “putting on a play from a script.” If the script is wrong for whatever reason, you can have a false memory that is just as vivid as a true one. Eyewitness testimony, it turns out, is one of the least reliable forms of evidence allowed into courtrooms.
我们的大脑记忆过去的机制和想像未来的机制是非常相似的。这个过程更像是“照着剧本演戏”而不是“重放录像带”，如果剧本出错了（不管是什么原因引起的），你就会得到一段虚假的记忆，而它和真实的记忆一样生动清晰。因此，目击者的证词其实是法庭上出示的所有证据中最不靠谱的一种。