Memory — , and despite the fact that it has been studied for quite some time, there are a number of false — or at least not entirely accurate notions about it.
We will talk about the most popular of them and why it is not so easy to forget everything, what drives us to 'steal' someone else's memory, and how fabricated memories influence our lives.
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Photographic memory is the ability to 'remember everything'
Photographic memory is the concept that a person can, at any moment, take a kind of instant 'snapshot' of the surrounding reality and later 'retrieve' it from the mind intact. Essentially, this myth is based on the (also false) belief that human memory continuously records everything that a person sees around them. This myth is quite persistent and lives on in modern culture — for example, such a process of 'mnemonic recording' led to the emergence of the infamous cursed videotape from Koji Suzuki's 'Ring' series of novels.
In the universe of 'Ring', this may be real — however, in our reality, the existence of 'one hundred percent' photographic memory has not been confirmed in practice. Memory is closely related to the creative processing and understanding of information, with self-awareness and self-identity having a strong impact on our recollections.
Therefore, scientists are skeptical of claims that a particular person can mechanically 'record' or 'photograph' reality. Often, these claims are backed by hours of training and the use of mnemonic techniques. Moreover, the first scientifically described case of 'photographic' memory .
It concerns the work of Charles Stromeyer III. In 1970, he published material in the journal Nature about a certain Elizabeth, a Harvard student, who could memorize pages of poetry in an unfamiliar language at a glance. Even more — by looking at an image made up of 10,000 random dots with one eye, and the next day looking at a second similar image with the other eye, she was able to mentally combine both images and 'see' a three-dimensional autostereogram.
Indeed, other owners of exceptional memory could not replicate her successes. Elizabeth herself also did not retake the tests — and after some time, she married Stromeyer, which intensified the skepticism of scientists about his 'discovery' and motives.
Closest to the myth of photographic memory eidetic imagery — the ability to retain and reproduce visual (and sometimes taste, tactile, auditory, and olfactory) images in detail over a long period. According to some reports, exceptional eidetic memory was possessed by Tesla, Reagan, and Aivazovsky, and popular cultural figures include eidetics like Lisbeth Salander and Doctor Strange. However, eidetics' memory is not mechanical either — even they cannot 'rewind the recording' to any arbitrary moment and review everything in detail. Eidetics, like other people, require emotional involvement, understanding of the subject, and interest in what is happening for memory retention — and in this case, their memory may overlook or adjust certain details.
Amnesia is a complete loss of memory
This myth is also fueled by plots from pop culture — the amnesia victim hero usually completely loses all memory of their past as a result of an incident, but can still communicate freely with those around them and generally thinks well. In reality, amnesia can manifest in various ways, and the scenario described above is far from the most common.
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For example, in retrograde amnesia, a patient may not remember events that occurred before the trauma or illness but typically retains autobiographical memory, especially about childhood and adolescence. In the case of anterograde amnesia, the victim, on the other hand, loses the ability to remember new events but still recalls what occurred before the trauma.
A situation where a character cannot remember anything about their past may pertain to dissociative disorder, such as the state of In this case, a person truly remembers nothing about themselves and their past life; moreover, they may invent a new biography and name. The cause of this type of amnesia is usually not a disease or accidental injury, but rather violent events or severe stress — fortunately, such occurrences in life happen less frequently than in movies.
The outside world does not influence our memory.
This is another misconception that also stems from the idea that our memory accurately and consistently records the events we experience. At first glance, it seems that way: an incident has happened to us. We remember it. Now, when needed, we can 'retrieve' this episode from our memory — and 'play' it back like a video clip.
Perhaps this analogy is appropriate, however, there is one 'but': unlike a real film, this clip will change during 'playback' — depending on our new experiences, the surrounding environment, psychological state, and the character of our conversation partners. It is not about intentional deceit — the person recalling may feel that they are telling the same story each time — as it actually happened.
The thing is that memory is not just a physiological phenomenon but also a social construct. When we remember and recount certain episodes from our lives, we often unconsciously adjust them, considering the interests of our conversation partners. Moreover, we can 'borrow' or 'steal' others' memories — and we have become quite adept at this.
The issue of memory borrowing is studied, in particular, by researchers at Southern Methodist University in the USA. In one of their it was found that this phenomenon is quite widespread — more than half of the respondents (college students) noted that they had encountered situations where someone they knew was recounting their own stories in the first person. Moreover, some of the respondents were convinced that the events being recounted actually happened to them and were not 'overheard'.
Memories can not only be borrowed but also invented — this is called false memory. In this case, a person is completely convinced that they correctly remembered a certain event — usually this pertains to minor details, nuances, or specific facts. For example, you might confidently 'remember' that your new acquaintance introduced himself as Sergey, while in reality, his name is Stas. Or you might 'absolutely remember' putting an umbrella in your bag (when actually you intended to but got distracted).
Sometimes false memory can be not so harmless: it's one thing to 'recall' forgetting to feed the cat, but another to convince yourself that you committed a crime and construct detailed 'memories' about what happened. A group of researchers from the University of Bedfordshire in England studies such kinds of memories.
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In one of their studies, they demonstrated that false memories of supposedly committed crimes not only exist — they can be created under controlled experimental conditions. After three sessions of interviews, 70% of the research participants 'confessed' to committing an assault or theft as teenagers and 'remembered' details of their 'crimes.'
False memories are a relatively new area of interest for scientists, attracting attention not only from neurobiologists and psychologists but also from criminologists. This feature of our memory can shed light on how and why people provide false testimonies and incriminate themselves — often not out of malice.
Memory is related to imagination and social interactions; it can be lost, recreated, stolen, and invented — perhaps the real facts related to our memory turn out to be no less, and sometimes more interesting than the myths and misconceptions about it.
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Source: habr.com
