Several authors have concluded that memory simply encodes the general gist of a scene. For example, memory may code a memory of a person as short, tall, young, fat, thin, old, white, black, rugged, etc. or some combination. Moreover, the witness might well characterize the person as being jolly, since fat people are stereotyped as being jolly. Memory reconstruction often uses general knowledge and expectations to fill in blanks of specific memories. Memory fills in gaps People are not aware that their memory is low resolution and omits much information.
People tend to unconsciously fill in missing information in order to complete the reconstruction.
They may do this by combining two memories into one or by using bias or expectations of what probably was seen. Sometimes they use information gathered after the fact. For example, they may talk to another witness and use information from the conversation to fill in their reconstruction of the events. Again, it should be emphasized that people do this automatically and unconsciously and that it is not necessarily a purposeful attempt to deceive. Memory systematically distorts perception Memory tends to distort perception in systematic ways.