The funny thing is that his memory of the events which he claims is wrong is actually correct. He's misremembering something else (a study on remembering seeing the impacts on TV). Since he's an expert on false memories, he's primed to trust a memory more if it suggests his memory is wrong.
From the TED talk transcript:
[bunk]Let me ask you to consider the horrific events of 9/11.Think about when you first got the informationabout this catastrophe, how you felt,and more importantly,when was the first time you saw the second trade towerimplode and collapseafter the first trade tower had gone down?If you're like most Americans, myself included,you have a very clear memory that you saw the first towercome down and then you saw the second towerfinally collapse, after the other plane crashed into it,within an hour or two afterwards.I remember vividly where I was.I was down at LAX at the satellite terminalfor American Airlineswaiting to get on an airplanes to fly to San Diego,and of course all the air traffic was ceased.And so I had nothing to do but to sit and watchthe television monitors with all of the news broadcastsover and over and over againof the horrendous events.And I know I saw that second trade tower come downan hour or two after the first.And all of the research we have indicates thatmost Americans too, except for a few people who happento live in certain places in New York, right?
And you know something?That's a totally false memory.It could not be something you experienced.
There was absolutely no media footageof the second trade tower collapsing until over 24 hours after the event.But in fact, you know, intellectually, cognitively,that they did occur fairly close in time,you did know about and see the first one,you did see the second one,but you didn't see it until over a day later at the earliest,but the brain, without you being aware,has pulled them together,and you believe you saw them very close in time.It is a reconstructed memory,not an accurate memory,no matter how vivid, no matter how sure you are.[/bunk]
The paper he's incorrectly remembering which makes him doubt his memory of events:
[Pezdek, Kathy. “Event Memory and Autobiographical Memory for the Events of September 11, 2001.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 17, no. 9 (2003): pp. 1033–1045.]
http://www.cgu.edu/include/Event%20Memory%20and%20Autobiographical%20Memory.pdf
Since the evidence for false memory that he incorrectly remembers is so wonderfully compelling as it illustrates his life's work so perfectly, his brain is seduced into "remembering" it, and unremembering his actual memories.
