Julia Shaw on memories that aren't true
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Early in her career, Julia wanted to know if it was possible to get someone to believe they committed a crime (when they hadn’t)? In a bold experiment she showed how students created false memories of criminal events in their teenage years, describing in rich detail how they had assaulted people, when no such events had taken place. What does this mean for a criminal justice system that relies heavily on memory-based evidence? Does it make it more difficult for the victims of crimes to have their voices heard? Victims of sex crimes, in particular. Or can the findings of false memory research be used to prevent miscarriages of justice? Julia talks to Jim Al-Khalili about growing up with her dad’s delusional beliefs and paranoid thoughts and how a profound appreciation that everyone’s reality is different pulled her to the field of false memory research. Producer: Anna Buckley
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, let me ask you, sir, have you heard George's podcast? |
| 0:06.1 | Me and Ben Brick are back with a blast, this time with stories from Africa's past. |
| 0:11.0 | Not too distant, unsolved mysteries, unsung hero's from untold histories, I'm trying |
| 0:16.9 | to make sense of the present day, join me on this journey by pressing play. |
| 0:23.8 | Have you heard George's podcast? |
| 0:25.7 | Chapter 4. |
| 0:27.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.5 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:35.5 | Hello and welcome back to the Life Scientific, the show where I get to talk to some of our |
| 0:39.9 | leading scientists and find out what gets them out of bed in the morning. |
| 0:44.8 | My guest today studies memory and learning about what she's learnt about how and why we |
| 0:50.5 | remember events in our past has left me with a minor existential crisis. |
| 0:56.3 | Our memories make us who we are, but says Julia Shaw, they're not the accurate record |
| 1:01.8 | of the past we'd like to think they are. |
| 1:04.0 | The way we remember events is hopelessly flawed, she says, and may bear little relation |
| 1:09.3 | to independently verifiable events. |
| 1:12.6 | In a bold experiment early in her career, Julia showed how students created false memories |
| 1:18.2 | of events in their teenage years, and we're not talking small details here. |
| 1:22.8 | The students described how they'd assaulted people or had been attacked by an animal, |
| 1:27.8 | when no such thing had actually happened. |
| 1:30.9 | Not surprisingly, the media jumped on her findings, and Julia has been in the media spotlight |
| 1:35.7 | ever since. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.