Kimaya Khurana - Week 12 - The Power of a Memory
Memories are honestly what we base everything on.
Whether it's answering questions on a test, recalling facts for an interview, thinking about what to say after doing research, or even having those “remember when” conversations with a friend, we always rely on one thing: our memory.
But they may not be as reliable as we think, and may be much more biased than we initially thought.
Our brain doesn't actually store memories the way some of us think that it does, every single “i dotted and t crossed.” Instead, it stores pieces of information, such as emotions, sounds, and images, to shape the memories we recall.
After we remember it, it will get stored again based on that perception, and may even change a little again. This process is reconsolidation. Especially as we learn more, this can distort it even further.
To explain in simpler terms, each time we recall something, we're just recalling how we remembered it the previous time, so when it gets modified, we don't notice.
Such influences can include the passage of time, retelling the story, our current mood, and other people's versions. This is also why we may think someone's version of the story is much more exaggerated than it actually is.
This doesn't apply to everything, since the core memory can remain stable, but its details can shift. Even if someone were to be highly confident, this doesn't actually mean that it's gonna be accurate––it can still be wrong.
Memories are more based on feelings than on facts, which might be a stretch, but it might explain why we remember things we are so much more interested in, like song lyrics, compared to facts for my APUSH tests.
Image Credit: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/forget
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhy hello there, Kimaya. I found your blog intriguing, and I'm sure Mrs. Angeliri, my infamous AP Psych teacher, would be very glad to read your blog, although not more than I was. I found your discussion about reconsolidation particularly interesting. Although I am familiar with the concept myself, I found your interpretation of this psychological phenomenon more appealing. The fact that our brain rewires memories and our personal interpretations of them is incredibly shocking to me. I always wonder, could this be what causes emotional growth? As our opinions change, and once comforting memories turn sour, could reconsolidation be the reason for this continuous emotional evolution? Perhaps, I would certainly like to think it is. If every time we recall something and reshape it, are we actively reconstructing or altering who we are? Are we changing our beliefs? It also makes me wonder about perspective. Could this concept be why all of us have such unique outlooks on life and our past experiences? If two people can experience the same event, but walk away with different memories, maybe the truth lies less in perfect detail and more in emotional significance. Through all my countless hours spent studying, I have learned the brain prioritizes comfort and meaning over accuracy, which explains why human perspectives lie on such a vast spectrum. Your point about accuracy not equaling accuracy was also something else I found very interesting. It’s unsettling how you can be completely certain and incredibly wrong. I have dealt with this multiple times, and I find the experience rather violating, to be honest. Mostly with MCQs like the ones I’m sure you battle in APUSh. My take aside, I appreciate your blog, and the epiphanies it gave me, or as AP Psych would call it, Insight learning! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteKimaya, this is a very interesting topic that, funnily enough, I learned about this year in psychology. It is extremely true that our lives are reliant on our memories. I often feel that school tests us on our ability to memorize, rather than understand, content. Building relationships with people often relies on how well you remember previous conversations. Our sensory memory is also worth speaking about because humans are able to remember sounds and smells. This year, we learned about how certain smells can trigger memories because our brains associate those smells with certain thoughts or feelings. The most interesting one, to me, is our ability to memorize faces. It truly astonishes me that we have such a vast bank of faces that allow us to recognize people so quickly. The idea that our memories are not very reliable is a bit of a scary thought. The fact that the picture I have of my childhood is not entirely accurate is one that is disappointing. This also got me thinking about how if everyone present for an event has a slightly modified memory of it, the true events are gone forever; there is no way to reliably know what happened. I do, however, like the idea of remembering a feeling rather than remembering a fact. Feelings are much more personal aspects of our lives so it is cool that our recollection of our happiest memories remain accurate in how we felt. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Kimaya! Like Oviya, I remember learning about how memory is actually stored in AP Psychology. I remember thinking it was so ironic that even though I was trying to study and memorize the ways in which memory gets stored, I wasn’t able to apply that knowledge to make myself learn the content easier.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that you mention the fact that a certain memory gets reshaped every time that we recall it, because it makes me question how much that impacts our sense of self. That is, if we claim that our past experiences and memories shape us, are they really shaping us, or is our identity shifting in a way because of those changes to our memory?
Also, your blog reminds me of the end-of-year research project I did for English 9H, which was on the topic of false memories and their impact in court. The idea I was investigating in that project was how false memories, or distorted recollections of events/recollections of events that never actually happened, play a role in legal situations. Eyewitness testimony in particular is dependent on the memories of victims, but false memories can cause people to be wrongly convicted. Relating that to the idea in your blog, if someone can be completely certain about their memory and still be wrong, that challenges how much weight we should be placing on memory in situations with serious consequences. Thank you for sharing!