False identifications are surprisingly common in staged-crime experiments. The subject of eyewitnesses and memory has roots in assassination literature as well. Often there is a naive belief that witnesses saw what they saw pure and simple. If skepticism is applied to eyewitness accounts, it is only to dissenting witnesses. Yet memory research has shown that memory is not a copy of an event but a reconstruction .
People remember what they want.
People remember what is plausible. People remember a blend of observation and conversation about the observation. Patoski, Joe Nick. Texas Monthly Magazine , November 1998. HSCA Volume VI, pp.