How reliable is your memory?

You are part of a crowd of people in a park that observes a daylight robbery.  It all happens so fast.  Would you and the other witnesses in the crowd be able to remember enough material to convict anyone? A TV program called 'Test Your Brain' (3 parts), screening Monday nights (final episode 8:30pm Monday Sept 10, 2012), showing how eyewitness accounts are affected by our brain's short term memory.

I really liked this show; it was beautifully presented and fast paced.  The show demonstrated the unreliability of our short term memory and the challenges for anyone ready to take the stand to put the right person behind bars.

Were there 2 or 3 robbers?

What was stolen? A camera or a wallet? What colour was it? Brown or silver?

What did the face of the victim look like? Beared or clean shaven?

Can you remember what any of the robbers looked like?

Often people made mistakes in identifying suspects by transferring a similar looking person in the crowd onto the robber’s identity. 

What colour clothing were they wearing?  Often witnesses mixed up colours and put the right colour with the wrong suspect.

The show cleverly demonstrated how in any given event, witness accounts will vary.  They will recall 2 but not all will recall 3 robbers.  Something was stolen, they all saw that, but some will be adamant it was a camera, while others a wallet. 

So it’s not surprising that in the gospels we find variance in the details.  As many have pointed out in the past, this actually supports the veracity of the accounts as being eyewitness and that collusion hasn’t been allowed in to smooth everything out in the Christian’s favour.

Some of the witnesses were better than others, just because of personality and how they took information in.  Some have a more panoramic view, they don’t just zone in on the centre of the action.  Others are more prone to hyperbole and embellishment.  Some simply want attention and their testimony changes the more they tell it.

The one thing I have always been surprised about with the four gospels was how ‘naked’ they are in re-telling miraculous events.  You would expect more embellishment, but they are so matter of fact and unsensational.  Further they were written at a time when many other witnesses could have challenged their account of events.

The show pointed out, using an FBI cop, that police expect this kind of variance in any event.  However, this doesn’t mean that no felon can go to trial or be convicted because of the variances in accounts.  No, the thing police look for is the thread of truth that runs through all the accounts.  Unfortunately the show didn’t highlight the consistency of the accounts; instead it demonstrated the inconsistencies to show how our mind works and why we struggle to remember more than 5 to 7 things from any given moment.  For example, if we walked to a street corner and I said, take a look around for 10 seconds and try and remember as much as you can…you’d probably only remember 5 to 7 pieces of information. So, to fill in the gaps, sometimes our minds will borrow or transfer information from one place to another or we simply won’t remember and say, ‘I’ don’t know’. 

So with an event like the robbery there’ll be differences in eyewitness accounts, but also much agreement.  All agreed there was a man who was robbed.  All got the victim’s description pretty right.  One witness even was able to have a very close identikit drawing made up of the victim’s face.  All agreed there was a woman speaking in another language arguing with the victim to distract him while the robbery took place.  All agreed there were at least 2 robbers (there was actually 3). 

When we look at the gospels, it’s easy to recognise inconsistencies and critics often point them out.  Some say there were one angel, some two at Jesus’ tomb.  Some say Mary went to the tomb, while others say several women.  The consistent thread of truth is there…all agree Jesus really died on the cross, was buried in a tomb and that 3 days later it was empty and no body could be found.  Three of the four gospels go on and demonstrate how eyewitnesses also saw, touched and heard the resurrected body of Jesus. 

Details of events may not all be remembered correctly, sometimes one’s viewpoint takes in less than others.  But the fundamental axiom points of the gospel narrative that were seen by eyewitnesses remain unchanged.