It's... Memory!
Memory is the base on which we build our sense of self and the source on which we draw to develop conscious thinking skills. Without memory, there is no self. Without memory, one would live in an eternal present, like an animal or a newborn. This article describes some new discoveries on how memory works and how it is intricately involved with the sense of self.
I was rather surprised at the ease of false memory implanting. For someone to create a memory of such a traumatic event as discovering her mother’s dead body out of a simple suggestion seems very fantastic, yet a fourth of people are quite susceptible to such. This was quite interesting provided me with food for thought. The idea that the mistakes involved in memory are vital to improvement and that this ability to make mistakes is vital and precious was a new idea to me, and likewise intrigued me; but it did make much sense. If we replicated memory faithfully all the time, we would be no better than robots, like units mechanically going through life.
The homunculus crisis is the mystery behind all the neural connections and activity behind thought and memory – it is uncertain precisely what is doing the remembering and thinking. What stimulates our thoughts and puts certain neural connections into action? It’s a mystery.
Lynch’s experiment wherein subjects had their sleep disturbed during sleep showed that REM sleep had much to do with our consolidation of memory, thereby supporting the information processing theory of the cognitive school of thought on the purpose of dreams.
When one goes through an experience, it arouses some emotion and floods the brain with hormones which have an effect of imprinting certain events into the mind. This is useful as we need to remember past crisis in order to be able to get through future ones. Sometimes however, these memories become imprinted too severely, and get to the point of intruding into everyday life, impairing a person severely.
There is evidence that amnesia and repression are caused by a malfunctioning hippocampus. The hippocampus processes memories of past events before an individual is able to recall those memories in ‘viewable’ form. However, other parts of the brain may be unconsciously remembering things. We can all recall the general meaning of an event. It’s just the details that are lost and perhaps replaced or made up. So memory is more reconstructive than reproductive.
The new paradigm of memory is one in which memory is seen as a mix of reality and imagined details, which are altered and edited through emotion and later memories. Memory shapes our self, and our self shapes the way we remember things.
Reading this article brought me to realize how truly malleable memory is; it is a vastly complex and decidedly un-mechanic process and has much to do with the very fabric of our identities. It is a most interesting phenomenon with much to be discovered about it.
Reconstructive Memory
We conducted an experiment in which we all looked at a list of shapes, 15 seconds per shape. After moving on to learning some other things for 20 minutes, we each got a piece of paper with cues to remembrance written down. the cues were varied, however, and they probably influenced the way people recalled those shapes. Comparing my paper with Mint's, I noticed that the cue 'bottle' caused her to change a stirrup shape into a trapezoid. My cue of the first eyeglassses shape was 'dumbell,' inducing me to draw a longer line between the circles.
I recalled the shapes accurately because I had paid attention to the little details and had formed a mental picture including all of the shapes, so was mislead very much by the cues. The interval between the viewing and the test was not very long, however, so most people accurately recalled all or most of the shapes. Perhaps if we were to be given this test again in a few days, we would be more noticeably influenced by the cues.
It's interesting how we can form new memories based upon what we feel to be likely. We thought that the cues would assist us, since we were not informed that this was a test on reconstructive memory, so probably trusted them, and based our recollections on those cues. I did too, until I encountered 'four' as a cue for 7.
The Rumor Chain
We conducted an experiment wherein one person was told a story and relayed it to another person, who relayed it to another person and so on. Many of the fine detail was lost, but the few details which were retained were emphasized (such as 'Magnum 257'). Some parts were fabricated, as well.
There are three common phenomena which occur in experiments like this one. One is Levelling, or simplifying of the material told. There was a good deal of this in our experiment - the first storyteller left out many details in his retelling, such as the name of a plane or the different characters involved in the story. Also, the part where the pilot pretended to radio back to Bangkok then hit the hijacker was simplified to the pilot just hitting the hijacker with a microphone.
The second phenomenon is Sharpening, higlighting or exaggerating certain details. Like the Magnum 257 or the number 747 (which was part of the plane's name, but got changed to a flight number and then back to the plane).
And then there was Assimilation, the modification of details to fit the teller's background or knowledge [schemas]. In the original story, the hijacker was tied up by angry passengers, but along the chain this was modified to the passengers 'beating up' the hijacker. In some cases of this experiment, a male stewardess and female pilot are switched.
This experiment demonstrates the unreliability of rumour.
Sleep.... or not?
We conducted an experiment wherein Mr.Anthony read out a list of words and we all recalled the list afterwards and wrote down as many as we could remember. We noted an interesting trend as well as a few phenomena related to memory.
The Serial Position Effect was easily noted. The primacy effect, remembering the first parts of a series, took place, with all of the class remembering the first word in the list. The recency effect also took place, with all but one student recalling the last word.
2 students wrote down the word 'sleep.' This word was not part of the list, but all but one word in the list were related to sleep, such
as bed, quilt, dark, clock, and
night. This is an example of Constructive Memory, memory fabricated out of associations.
As previously mentioned, all the words in the list but one were related to sleep. The one word was 'pineapple.' All but 3 of the students remembered that word, because it stood out. This is called Semantic Distinction.
Every student recalled the work 'night.' This word was read out 3 times throughout the entire list, so it was easier to remember. This demonstrates the effectiveness of Rehearsal.
Although the words 'toss' and 'turn' were read out 9th and 11th in a list of 13 words, the recall for these words was substantially better than that of those words around them, with 11 out of 13 students remembering 'toss' and 9 remembering 'turn.' This phenomenon is due to Chunking; because the two words are normally associated with each other, the students grouped the two words in their minds. I chunked those two words as well, and wrote them down together when recalling the list.
Our Memory
Our class conducted an experiment in which Mr. Anthony read out a series of numbers, each with one more digit than the last. I remembered correctly up to the 8-digit number, then started messing up. our classes average was 7 + or - 1 digits. With a larger sample of people, the average would have been 7 + or - 2.
We have a tendency to group numbers together when recalling long series of numbers (e.g. phone numbers)
We also conducted an experiment wherein Mr. Anthony held up sheets of paper with a word and either the letter A or B, and we would write down the number of syllables for the A words and positive or negative
for the B words. Properly carried out, the experiment would have shown that words processed on the level of meaning, the B list, would have been more easily remembered, but as the class knew by now that we would be asked to recall those words, many tried to remember those words, making associations for both lists.
Words are easier to recall when we recall them based on their meanings rather than their sound or shape.
A chart of memories
Our class made up a rough chart of our first memories and the ages we experienced them in. They all had an emotional content and with some exceptions, most of the memories were placed around 4 or 5 years of age.
We came to the conclusion that memories are formed when an event is memorable. We have also learned that the earliest memories, before 4 years of age, are quite probably false memories formed out of stories we've heard and photos we've seen. Those memories which are real tend to be a mixture of fact and fiction.
First memory
I'm not entirely sure which is my first memory out of these:
- I'm staring at the top of a glass counter and trying to reach it. I am very short. I might be in kindergarten or therebouts.
- I'm lost in a department store. I am wondering around crying, hoping somebody will tell me what to do and how to find mommy. I think I was around 5.
- I'm playing in a playground. I look at a window, which has blue curtains on it. I know it's nice and cold inside. I am in kindergarten, around 5.
- My dad has come home. He's carrying me on one shoulder and my brother on the other. we play around, wrestle and stuff in mom and dad's room. we also play a game in which me and my brother each hang on to one of dad's legs and he walks and then we tumble off, laughing. i was maybe around 6 or 7.
Learned optimism
I was a little surprised at my score of -6, very pessimistic, because I normally think of myself as a very optimistic person. But then again, I only consider myself an optimist because I am rather adept at getting over bad things. So the criteria for optimism was different, and the test itself was designed for western adults, so perhaps there was a cultural factor as well that affected the score. And then again, I tend to brace myself for the worst in many situations based on the principle that if it happens, then I get the satisfaction of knowing I was right and if a better scenario occurs, then I'm pleasantly surprised. So maybe I am really pessimistic.
My worst scores where my pervasiveness good score and personalization good score. I think this is mainly because I don't really work very much for anything, so I tend to put good things down to luck or natural talent or other people's efforts. On the other hand, I get a sense of fulfillment from completing a difficult project in the first place, and I tend to dissociate the grade from my work because the grade arrives quite some time from when I hand it in.
I'm 'moderately hopeless.' But then again, I'm not in despair. I just have a very foggy view of the future.
