Memory

Does "dirt" appear on the list?

You might be surprised to learn that "dirt" was not on the original list of words. Approximately 75% of people include "dirt" in their list of recalled words even though it wasn't on the list.

Why? You noticed that all of the words had something to do with farming and growing things. Dirt is probably the most important ingredient in farming. The organization of our memory is such that you might have assumed that "dirt" had to be on the list, especially after reading synonyms for "dirt" (soil, earth, mud, and dust).

In what other ways might memory organization operate to create memories for events that did not happen? Can we have memories for "non-events" because we believe that they should have happened?