tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/remembering-16360/articlesRemembering – The Conversation2022-06-08T12:32:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1827362022-06-08T12:32:43Z2022-06-08T12:32:43ZWhy can’t you remember being born, learning to walk or saying your first words? What scientists know about ‘infantile amnesia’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467580/original/file-20220607-40973-et6p7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=457%2C12%2C7786%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will either sibling remember this momentous meeting?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/little-boy-meeting-his-cute-baby-sister-royalty-free-image/1367706938">ArtMarie/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever I teach about memory <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wGGw7JQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">in my child development class</a> at Rutgers University, I open by asking my students to recall their very first memories. Some students talk about their first day of pre-K; others talk about a time when they got hurt or upset; some cite the day their younger sibling was born. </p>
<p>Despite vast differences in the details, these memories do have a couple of things in common: They’re all <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_memory">autobiographical</a>, or memories of significant experiences in a person’s life, and they typically didn’t happen before the age of 2 or 3. In fact, most people can’t remember events from the first few years of their lives – a phenomenon researchers have dubbed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012370877-9.00007-4">infantile amnesia</a>. But why can’t we remember the things that happened to us when we were infants? Does memory start to work only at a certain age?</p>
<p>Here’s what researchers know about babies and memory.</p>
<h2>Infants can form memories</h2>
<p>Despite the fact that people can’t remember much before the age of 2 or 3, research suggests that infants can form memories – just not the kinds of memories you tell about yourself. Within the first few days of life, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1989.tb00784.x">infants can recall their own mother’s face</a> and distinguish it from the face of a stranger. A few months later, infants can demonstrate that they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.5.642">remember lots of familiar faces</a> by smiling most at the ones they see most often.</p>
<p>In fact, there are lots of <a href="https://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/memory/types-of-memory/">different kinds of memories</a> besides those that are autobiographical. There are semantic memories, or memories of facts, like the names for different varieties of apples, or the capital of your home state. There are also procedural memories, or memories for how to perform an action, like opening your front door or driving a car. </p>
<p>Research from <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/news/carolyn-rovee-collier-pioneer-whose-research-proved-infants-can-learn-dies-72">psychologist Carolyn Rovee-Collier’s</a> lab in the 1980s and 1990s famously showed that infants can form some of these other kinds of memories from an early age. Of course, infants can’t exactly tell you what they remember. So the key to Rovee-Collier’s research was devising a task that was sensitive to babies’ rapidly changing bodies and abilities in order to assess their memories over a long period.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="baby lying on back in crib looking up at mobile suspended from above" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467578/original/file-20220607-15930-ust6na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mobile in motion can keep a baby entertained.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/asian-newborn-baby-feeling-joyful-and-happy-with-royalty-free-image/1372675707">Nattakorn Maneerat/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In the version for 2- to 6-month-old infants, researchers place an infant in a crib with a mobile hanging overhead. They measure how much the baby kicks to get an idea of their natural propensity to move their legs. Next, they tie a string from the baby’s leg to the end of the mobile, so that whenever the baby kicks, the mobile moves. As you might imagine, infants quickly learn that they’re in control – they like seeing the mobile move and so they kick more than before the string was attached to their leg, showing they’ve learned that kicking makes the mobile move.</p>
<p>The version for 6- to 18-month-old infants is similar. But instead of lying in a crib – which this age group just won’t do for very long – the infant sits on their parent’s lap with their hands on a lever that will eventually make a train move around a track. At first, the lever doesn’t work, and the experimenters measure how much a baby naturally presses down. Next, they turn the lever on. Now every time the infant presses on it, the train will move around its track. Infants again learn the game quickly, and press on the lever significantly more when it makes the train move. </p>
<p>What does this have to do with memory? The cleverest part of this research is that after training infants on one of these tasks for a couple of days, Rovee-Collier later tested whether they remembered it. When infants came back into the lab, researchers simply showed them the mobile or train and measured if they still kicked and pressed the lever. </p>
<p>Using this method, Rovee-Collier and colleagues found that at 6 months, if infants are trained for one minute, they can remember an event a day later. The older infants were, the longer they remembered. She also found that you can <a href="https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PPP243/%CE%A5%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C%202021/Rovee-Collier1999.pdf">get infants to remember events for longer</a> by training them for longer periods of time, and by giving them reminders – for example, by showing them the mobile moving very briefly on its own.</p>
<h2>Why not autobiographical memories?</h2>
<p>If infants can form memories in their first few months, why don’t people remember things from that earliest stage of life? It still isn’t clear whether people experience infantile amnesia because we can’t form autobiographical memories, or whether we just have no way to retrieve them. No one knows for sure what’s going on, but scientists have a few guesses.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="excited toddler sits in an airplane window seat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467577/original/file-20220607-24-histdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A lot of development needs to happen for him to remember an exciting experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/inspecting-my-private-jet-an-excited-child-playing-royalty-free-image/1062132748">FroggyFrogg/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>One is that autobiographical memories require you to have some sense of self. You need to be able to think about your behavior with respect to how it relates to others. Researchers have tested this ability in the past using a mirror recognition task called the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1995-97661-006">rouge test</a>. It involves marking a baby’s nose with a spot of red lipstick or blush – or “rouge” as they said in the 1970s when the task was created.</p>
<p>Then researchers place the infant in front of a mirror. Infants younger than 18 months just smile at the cute baby in the reflection, not showing any evidence that they recognize themselves or the red mark on their face. Between 18 and 24 months, toddlers touch their own nose, even looking embarrassed, suggesting that they connect the red dot in the mirror with their own face – they have some sense of self. </p>
<p>Another possible explanation for infantile amnesia is that because infants don’t have language until later in the <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/speech-and-language">second year of life</a>, they can’t form narratives about their own lives that they can later recall.</p>
<p>Finally, the hippocampus, which is the region of the brain that’s largely responsible for memory, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.08.009">isn’t fully developed in the infancy period</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists will continue to investigate how each of these factors might contribute to why you can’t remember much, if anything, about your life before the age of 2.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa LoBue does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Psychologists know babies can form memories soon after birth. So why can’t people remember anything that happened to them before around age 2? A child development expert describes possible reasons.Vanessa LoBue, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1660892021-11-19T13:07:43Z2021-11-19T13:07:43ZMisremembering might actually be a sign your memory is working optimally<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432496/original/file-20211117-17-1hnxfzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=975%2C754%2C6156%2C4181&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You don't really need to remember what you ordered at the bakery a couple weeks ago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/couple-buying-bread-at-the-bakery-royalty-free-image/590149084">andresr/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When asked the other day about a bakery near my home, I responded that I’d recently eaten its mouth-watering chocolate chip cookies. My wife corrected me, noting that the cookies I ate were actually oatmeal raisin. </p>
<p>Why did I make this memory error? Is this an early sign of impending dementia? Should I call my doctor?</p>
<p>Or is forgetting the details of a dessert a good thing, given that everyday life is filled with an enormous number of details, too many for a finite human brain to remember accurately?</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www2.bcs.rochester.edu/sites/jacobslab/people.html">cognitive scientist</a> and have been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Fl7EBc8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studying human perception and cognition</a> for more than 30 years. My colleagues and I have been developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414529144">new theoretical and experimental ways</a> to explore this kind of error. Are these memory mistakes a bad thing, resulting from faulty mental processing? Or, counterintuitively, could they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1167/19.2.11">be a good thing</a>, a desirable side effect of a cognitive system with limited capacity working efficiently? We’re leaning toward the latter – that memory errors may actually indicate a way in which the human <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029856">cognitive system is “optimal” or “rational.”</a> </p>
<h2>Are people rational?</h2>
<p>For decades, cognitive scientists have thought about whether human cognition is strictly rational. Starting in the 1960s, psychologists <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman">Daniel Kahneman</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tversky">Amos Tversky</a> conducted <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557/thinking-fast-and-slow">pioneering research on this topic</a>. They concluded that <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-use-mental-shortcuts-to-make-difficult-decisions-even-highly-trained-doctors-delivering-babies-168711">people often use</a> “quick and dirty” mental strategies, also known as <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/heuristics/">heuristics</a>.</p>
<p>For example, when asked whether the English language has more words starting with the letter “k” or with “k” as the third letter, most people say there are more words starting with “k.” Kahneman and Tversky argued that people reach this conclusion by quickly thinking of words that start with “k” and with “k” in the third position, and noticing that they can think of more words with that initial “k.” Kahneman and Tversky referred to this strategy as the “<a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/availability-heuristic/">availability heuristic</a>” – what comes most easily to mind influences your conclusion.</p>
<p>Although heuristics often yield good results, they sometimes do not. Therefore, Kahneman and Tversky argued that, no, human cognition is not optimal. Indeed, the English language has many more words with “k” in the third position than words starting with “k.”</p>
<h2>Suboptimal or the best it can be?</h2>
<p>In the 1980s, however, research started appearing in the scientific literature suggesting that human perception and cognition might often be optimal. For instance, several studies found that people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.002">combine information from multiple senses</a> – such as vision and hearing, or vision and touch – in a manner that is statistically optimal, despite noise in the sensory signals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="baseball in foreground, pitcher in distance" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432497/original/file-20211117-23-8db7cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">How well can you gauge the speed of this ball coming at you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fastball-royalty-free-image/127753874">tdubphoto/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Perhaps most important, research showed that at least some instances of seemingly suboptimal behavior are actually the opposite. For example, it was well known that people sometimes underestimate the speed of a moving object. So scientists hypothesized that human visual motion perception is suboptimal.</p>
<p>But more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0602-858">recent research showed</a> that the statistically optimal sensory interpretation or percept is one that combines visual information about the speed of an object with general knowledge that most objects in the world tend to be stationary or slow moving. Moreover, this optimal interpretation underestimates the speed of an object when visual information is noisy or low quality.</p>
<p>Because the theoretically optimal interpretation and people’s actual interpretation make similar errors in similar circumstances, it may be that these errors are inevitable when visual information is imperfect, and that people are actually perceiving motion speeds as well as they can be perceived.</p>
<p>Scientists found related results when studying human cognition. People often make errors when remembering, reasoning, deciding, planning or acting, especially in situations when information is ambiguous or uncertain. As in the perceptual example on visual speed estimation, the statistically optimal strategy when performing cognitive tasks is to combine information from data, such as things one has observed or experienced, with general knowledge about how the world typically works. Researchers found that the errors made by optimal strategies – inevitable errors due to ambiguity and uncertainty – resemble the errors people really make, suggesting that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01780.x">people may be performing cognitive tasks as well as they can be performed</a>.</p>
<p>Evidence has been mounting that errors are inevitable when perceiving and reasoning with ambiguous inputs and uncertain information. If so, then errors are not necessarily indicators of faulty mental processing. In fact, people’s perceptual and cognitive systems may actually be working quite well.</p>
<h2>Your brain, under constraints</h2>
<p>There are often constraints on human mental behavior. Some constraints are internal: People have limited capacity for paying attention – you can’t attend to everything simultaneously. And people have limited memory capacity – you can’t remember everything in full detail. Other constraints are external, such as the need to decide and act in a timely manner. Given these constraints, it may be that people cannot always perform optimal perception or cognition. </p>
<p>But – and this is the key point – although your perception and cognition might not be as good as they could be if there were no constraints, they might be as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.02.015">good as they could be given the presence of these constraints</a>.</p>
<p>Consider a problem whose solution requires you to think simultaneously about many factors. If, because of capacity limits on attention, you cannot think about all factors at once, then you will not be able to think of the optimal solution. But if you think about as many factors as you can hold in your mind at the same time, and if these are the most informative factors for the problem, then you’ll be able to think of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53238-1.00004-1">solution that is as good as possible given</a> your limited attention.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="open filing cabinet drawer with folders" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432499/original/file-20211117-21-klnvte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Like a filing cabinet drawer, one human brain has a limit to how much it can store.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/open-file-cabinet-with-papers-spread-out-on-the-royalty-free-image/172182617">Stephanie phillips/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>The limits of memory</h2>
<p>This approach, emphasizing “constrained optimality,” is sometimes known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X1900061X">resource-rational</a>” approach. My colleagues and I have developed a resource-rational approach to human memory. Our framework thinks of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029856">memory as a type of communication channel</a>.</p>
<p>When you place an item in memory, it’s as if you’re sending a message to your future self. However, this channel has limited capacity, and thus it cannot transmit all details of a message. Consequently, a message retrieved from memory at a later time may not be the same as the message placed into memory at the earlier time. That is why memory errors occur.</p>
<p>If your memory store cannot faithfully maintain all details of stored items because of its limited capacity, then it would be wise to make sure that whatever details it can maintain are the important ones. That is, memory should be the best it can be within limited circumstances.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 140,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p>
<p>Indeed, researchers have found that people tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(97)00116-8">remember task-relevant details and to forget task-irrelevant details</a>. In addition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000197">people tend to remember the general gist</a> of an item placed in memory, while forgetting its fine details. When this occurs, people tend to mentally “fill in” the missing details with the most frequent or commonplace properties. In a sense, the use of commonplace properties when details are missing is a type of heuristic – it is a quick-and-dirty strategy that will often work well but sometimes fail.</p>
<p>Why did I recall eating chocolate chip cookies when, in fact, I had eaten oatmeal raisin cookies? Because I remembered the gist of my experience – eating cookies – but I forgot the fine details, and thus filled in these details with the most common properties, namely cookies with chocolate chips. In other words, this error demonstrates that my memory is working as well as possible under its constraints. And that’s a good thing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Jacobs receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Errors don’t necessarily mean your mind is faulty. They may actually be a sign of a cognitive system with limited capacity working efficiently.Robert Jacobs, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of RochesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651462021-08-19T13:55:16Z2021-08-19T13:55:16ZThat ‘tip-of-the-tongue’ feeling when a memory is elusive is more likely to happen in groups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415921/original/file-20210812-17-1xej81i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C1197%2C760&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The feeling that something is "on the tip of your tongue" but you can't quite remember it may be more indicative of a good memory than a bad one. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the baby lion’s name in Disney’s <em>The Lion King</em>? If you feel sure that you know it, and it is on the verge of coming back to you but you can’t quite remember it right now, then you’re experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue feeling. </p>
<p>Tip-of-the-tongue feelings can also occur when people try to remember things together. For instance, a group of friends may simultaneously have the name of a movie’s main actress on the tip of their tongues. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, social aspects of tip-of-the-tongue feelings have been largely neglected by researchers. I recently led a study that found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704433">tip-of-the-tongue feelings are more likely to occur when people remember together</a> rather than alone.</p>
<h2>I am sure I know it, but …</h2>
<p>On the surface, a tip-of-the-tongue feeling reflects a memory failure — a breakdown happening when searching for a word. But beneath the surface, if you are quite sure you know it, that is because the word is just waiting there … somewhere in your mind. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.08.013">Some researchers say</a> a tip-of-the-tongue reflects a <em>good</em> memory, not a bad one. </p>
<p>Research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(66)80040-3">when struggling with a word on the tip of their tongue</a>, people are quite good at pinpointing the word’s first letter, at spotting the number of syllables in it or at coming up with sound-alike words.</p>
<h2>Clues informing a guess</h2>
<p>According to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-010-0066-8">leading theory</a>, at the heart of a tip-of-the-tongue feeling is an informed guess, an inference you make about the likelihood of the sought-for word being available in your memory. And to inform your guess, you rely on clues, just as crime scene investigators do. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l8UFnc85-xM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The youthful song of the baby lion in Disney’s <em>The Lion King</em> was <em>I Just Can’t Wait to be King</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among relevant clues are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1996.2471">information related</a> to the elusive word, for instance (in the baby lion’s case): His best friend and future mate is named Nala; his youthful song was <em>I Just Can’t Wait to be King</em>. The more clues fuel your guess that the word is available in your memory, the closer you feel it is on the verge of coming back to you, giving rise to a tip-of-the-tongue feeling.</p>
<h2>‘Socially shared’ tip-of-the-tongues</h2>
<p>In the lab, tip-of-the-tongues are elicited by using general knowledge questions or definitions of rare words. But since 1966, all tip-of-the-tongue studies have involved individuals remembering alone. According to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704433">a survey</a> conducted on Laurentian University campus, 96 per cent of the participants had encountered at least one occasion where two or more people shared a tip-of-the-tongue experience in a small group over the past six months.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704433">our recently published study</a> “Socially Shared Feelings of Imminent Recall: More Tip-of-the-Tongue States Are Experienced in Small Groups,” my research team presented groups of four people with 80 general knowledge questions (for example, “Which planet is the closest to the sun?”). Participants were prevented from telling others when they were having a tip-of-the-tongue feeling. Each group member independently filled out a response sheet, indicating one of three responses:</p>
<ul>
<li>I know it, here’s the answer; </li>
<li>I don’t know it; or </li>
<li>I have a tip-of-the-tongue. </li>
</ul>
<p>We presented the same set of questions to individuals remembering alone. Remarkably, we found that each group member independently reported, on average, six tip-of-the-tongues, while individuals remembering alone reported, on average, two tip-of-the-tongues. How can we explain this finding?</p>
<h2>Social contagion or informed guess?</h2>
<p>A peculiar feeling may arise when one is experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue next to someone else experiencing one. It is the feeling of having “caught” the tip-of-the-tongue, as if the feeling were contagious. Social contagion of tip-of-the-tongue feelings may arise, for instance, when hearing somebody say, “Oh wait, I know it!” or “What was the name of that movie?”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four people who all appear to trying to remember something." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415926/original/file-20210812-25200-wo059i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tip-of-the-tongue feeling can sometimes seem contagious.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there’s another, alternative explanation for shared tip-of-the-tongues in a group. There are more instances of remembering in several heads than in one. Because of this, people remembering together may entertain the guess that the target word will be easier to remember by a group of people than by a single person. Such a guess may drive a stronger feeling of closeness with the target word, triggering a tip-of-the-tongue feeling in one (or more) people in the group.</p>
<p>A closer look at our results is revealing. Evidence for tip-of-the-tongue contagion is obtained when two or more group members experience a tip-of-the-tongue for the same question (common tip-of-the-tongues), or when group members exchange words. Yet, after removing both common tip-of-the-tongues and those following words (45 per cent of all tip-of-the-tongues), there were still more in group members than in single individuals. </p>
<p>Therefore, even if social contagion is a plausible explanation, it seems that a more powerful one is the informed guess that the word is available there … in somebody’s memory (“If I can’t remember it, they will!”).</p>
<p>Tip-of-the-tongue feelings are highly private personal experiences, but we begin to gain an understanding of their social dynamics. Both possible causes of shared tip-of-the-tongues — social contagion and the “several-heads-are-better-than-one” informed guess — are currently under investigation. </p>
<p>And just for the record, the baby lion’s name is Simba.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luc Rousseau receives funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.</span></em></p>That feeling of ‘I-know-it-but-can’t-quite-remember-it’ has been studied for decades, but there’s a new twist: It’s more common in groups.Luc Rousseau, PhD, professeur agrégé de psychologie et chercheur au Laboratoire de recherche en santé cognitive, Laurentian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1511682020-12-04T13:28:41Z2020-12-04T13:28:41ZThis DIY contact tracing app helps people exposed to COVID-19 remember who they met<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372928/original/file-20201203-13-12sn39w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C470%2C4127%2C2840&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Designed by psychologists, the free and anonymous web-based app can help you remember who you came in contact with.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/people-in-medical-face-masks-royalty-free-illustration/1211719449">Ani Ka via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine you begin to feel ill on Thursday, a few days after returning from a trip. You’re afraid it’s COVID-19, so you get tested on Friday. Even under good circumstances, it will probably be at least Monday before a contact tracer calls from the health department. And then some phone tag may ensue before you speak with anyone – if you <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/26/biden-plan-contact-tracing-440784">get a call at all</a>.</p>
<p>Once a contact tracer does reach you, you will be asked to remember all the people you were in close contact with, starting two days before you began feeling symptoms. That means recalling all the places you went and the people you saw over the past week. </p>
<p>It isn’t easy. As time passes, memories fade. Unfortunately, your contacts, unaware they were exposed to the coronavirus, may have already infected others.</p>
<p>Concerned about those delays, three of us and our colleague <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02806548">Ronald Fisher</a>, all <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wR9V8s8AAAAJ&hl=en">psychology</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=STmVsAgAAAAJ&hl=en">professors</a> with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jXLWoU4AAAAJ&hl=en">expertise in memory</a>, developed a way for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 to effectively trace their recent contacts on their own. </p>
<p>Self-driven contact tracing shouldn’t replace health department efforts. Professional teams of trained contact tracers are critical for locating the people you came in contact with but don’t know, such as at a restaurant or on an airplane, and then tracing the next ring of contacts. However, jump-starting the effort on your own can improve your chances of remembering and allow you to warn your contacts sooner.</p>
<p><iframe id="q6J6O" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/q6J6O/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Notifying contacts faster</h2>
<p>Contact tracing, along with testing and isolating people who are infected, is considered crucial for controlling the coronavirus’s spread until a vaccine becomes widely available.</p>
<p>Health department contact tracers try to notify and interview anyone who was within <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/contact-tracing.html">6 feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more</a>. Studies show that, to be effective, that notification needs to happen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30157-2">within a few days</a> of the person’s symptoms appearing. But case numbers have gotten so high, it’s become impossible for many states and counties to keep up. Some, including in <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/11/23/state-urges-covid-positive-alaskans-to-personally-notify-close-contacts-as-surge-strains-public-health-staffing/">Alaska</a>, <a href="https://www.kmov.com/news/patients-tasked-with-doing-their-own-contact-tracing-as-surge-in-cases-overwhelm-health-departments/article_e445266a-22d1-11eb-a89c-33c5cc02c740.html">Missouri</a> and <a href="https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02803.pdf">Wisconsin</a>, have urged residents to start notifying contacts on their own.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372876/original/file-20201203-21-123ialg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The time spent waiting in line for COVID-19 testing could be used to start your own contact tracing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakFlorida/595bf9abf12f4688813eba5c811e0f44/photo">AP Photo/Marta Lavandier</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We created <a href="https://cogtracer.wixsite.com/cogtracer">CogTracer</a> as a free online tool to help people start tracing those contacts using <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037%2Fa0020518">best-practice interviewing methods</a>.</p>
<p>With DIY contact tracing, the timetable changes. For example, while you’re waiting for your test, you can be given the link to the website and start walking yourself through a contact tracing interview.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-corona-important">The Conversation’s most important coronavirus headlines, weekly in a new science newsletter</a>.</em>]</p>
<h2>How psychology can help jog your memory</h2>
<p><a href="https://cogtracer.wixsite.com/cogtracer">CogTracer</a> uses prompts, in words and photos, to spark your memory for as many contacts and locations visited as possible. It urges you to look back at places that might have evidence of your movements that week, such as social media posts and credit card records, and it provides scientifically supported interviewing techniques to reduce the chances of forgetting a contact. Research in investigative interviewing shows that people can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3753">effectively remember events on their own</a> when they have scientifically supported methods.</p>
<p>One technique for remembering is known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196157">context reinstatement</a>. It involves putting yourself back in a specific time and place. </p>
<p>For example, if you attended a family gathering over the holidays, you might mentally recreate the event. You could think back on how you arrived and departed, what you wore, who was there, what you ate, what you heard and what you saw. The technique encourages closing your eyes during this process to help you concentrate. </p>
<p>“Reliving” this experience should make it easier to remember your close contacts at the event. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Contact tracers at work in Harris County, Texas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372879/original/file-20201203-13-dszqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Counties have hired more contact tracers trained to conduct interviews, but the rising case numbers and amount of time required for each case have overwhelmed them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakTexas/3aae3a4921754845853c750868fa0768/photo">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another important way to improve memory is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1232">varied retrieval</a>. When you search your memory only once, or in the same way over and over, it is likely that something will be forgotten. What you recall depends on how you cue your memory. If you prompt your memory in different ways, you’ll recall different things. </p>
<p>CogTracer takes advantage of repeated and varied recall by including broad category cues, such as “people you interact with in homes” or words such as “babysitter,” that may trigger memories of nonroutine activities that may otherwise be forgotten. </p>
<p>Applying these proven methods should result in more complete recall of those who could be at risk for contracting COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Online tools can overcome other barriers, too</h2>
<p>This DIY approach can also help overcome other barriers to effective and timely contact tracing. </p>
<p>Because many people put a high premium on privacy, some are resistant to providing information to contact tracers. CogTracer is anonymous and private – you don’t enter any information, and you make your own lists. This provides a way for those who otherwise would not engage in the process to contribute to contact tracing efforts on their own terms. Additionally, non-English speakers may require an interpreter, further delaying the contact tracing process. Online interviews can more quickly bridge these language gaps.</p>
<p>As the pandemic rages, public health workers are engaged in Herculean efforts to fight this disease. By reimagining contact tracing and applying the science of memory, we can leverage the power of individuals to attack the problem from as many fronts as possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline R. Evans receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Meissner receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Goldfarb receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Jason Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With new US COVID-19 cases topping 200,000 a day, contact tracers are overwhelmed. Here’s how infected people can start tracing and notifying contacts themselves.Jacqueline R. Evans, Associate Professor of Psychology, Florida International UniversityChristian Meissner, Professor of Psychology, Iowa State UniversityDeborah Goldfarb, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Florida International UniversityIan Jason Lee, Doctoral Student, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1420862020-08-02T19:55:02Z2020-08-02T19:55:02ZDon’t know what day it is or who said what at the last meeting? Blame the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349497/original/file-20200727-35-1osi5r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=637%2C0%2C3794%2C2263&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/pathdoc</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We are all living through a major historical event, a once-in-a-century pandemic that has radically changed how we work, learn, travel, socialise and spend our free time. </p>
<p>But for many of us juggling working from home, schooling at home and Friday night Zoom drinks, this is a period likely marked by memory failures. We forget who said what, who was at which meeting, what tasks and appointments we have, and even <a href="https://people.com/human-interest/americans-forgetting-what-day-it-is-during-coronavirus-pandemic-survey/">what day it is</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1286574847020081153"}"></div></p>
<p>Why doesn’t our memory serve us well in this pandemic? Anxiety <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/us/quarantine-mental-health-gender.html">may be one explanation</a>, but another reason comes from the way our memory works. </p>
<h2>How we remember things</h2>
<p>Recalling specific details from particular past events – such as who was at last Friday’s drinks, and who was there the week before that – is a complex mental feat.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lockdown-relax-repeat-how-cities-across-the-globe-are-going-back-to-coronavirus-restrictions-142425">Lockdown, relax, repeat: how cities across the globe are going back to coronavirus restrictions</a>
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<p>To do it, our memory relies on distinctive cues, both to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8881324" title="Accessing the particular from the general: the power of distinctiveness in the context of organization">recall past events accurately</a> and to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09658219308258223" title="The importance of cue familiarity and cue distinctiveness in prospective memory">remember to perform future actions</a>. </p>
<p>Distinctive cues for a particular event might include the physical surroundings, people, tastes, sounds, smells, or the weather.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People sitting outside at a cafe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349520/original/file-20200727-33-16x8vbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cues from the location can help you remember who you met there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/4054491783/">Flickr/Alex Proimos</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We remember which friend was at drinks because we recall details of the location – the bar we were at, where each person was sitting, what we were eating, and so on. This context helps us place the right person in that situation when we recall it later. </p>
<p>We remember who said what in a work meeting because we can visualise where they were sitting. We remember what day it is because we have landmarks in the week that remind us: karate lessons, choir practice, Friday afternoon traffic.</p>
<h2>Same, same, same</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the pandemic has erased many of these cues. Many of us have instead been spending time sitting at our computer when ordinarily we might be at work or elsewhere. And this could leave us less able to distinguish events from one another.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man on his laptop in a video hookup with work colleagues." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349523/original/file-20200727-31-9wx89r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When home becomes the workplace everything tends to blur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Kate Kultsevych</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our memories are designed to focus on things that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.03.005" title="Transition Theory: A Minimalist Perspective on the Organization of Autobiographical Memory">new or distinctive</a>. This means we are more likely to remember events when they are accompanied by a change in our environment, such as an overseas vacation. Conversely, we tend to merge events that are broadly similar. </p>
<p>This is useful as it helps us <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.08.004" title="Memory distortion: an adaptive perspective">keep track of events</a> in a systematic and useful way, without needing to perfectly record all the details of every event.</p>
<p>But in lockdown we don’t have physical transitions to differentiate one event from the next. We no longer walk between meetings or commute from the office to home. Many different events now share the same context (staying at home), which means your memory tends to blur them together.</p>
<h2>What can we do about it?</h2>
<p>Once we understand that our memories are going to find the current circumstances challenging, there are things we can do to improve the situation.</p>
<p>One way is to make an effort to create distinctive cues where possible. Can we all wear silly hats for our Friday night drinks (or board meetings)? Can we hold work meetings for different projects in different rooms of our house?</p>
<p>Ask someone different each time to chair recurring meetings? Going for a walk during meetings where we only need to listen can create a new set of physical cues to associate with what is being said.</p>
<p>Another way is to rely more heavily on our external memory systems: diaries, calendars, notes and records. Accepting that our internal memory might fall short means we can compensate by deliberately using tools and resources to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002" title="Cognitive Offloading">store the information on our behalf</a>. </p>
<p>These systems can later act as contextual memory cues too. For example, we can add a screenshot to our video meeting notes to record who was there and their location on the screen.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A written note to remind you to take a photo each day" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349536/original/file-20200727-37-es20ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot or a photo can help create a reminder of an event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/comedynose/49999068333/">Flickr/Pete</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These kinds of recommendations are often given to people who experience memory failures for other reasons, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/02699052.2014.1002109" title="Smartphone technology: Gentle reminders of everyday tasks for those with prospective memory difficulties post-brain injury">brain injury</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-about-working-from-home-long-term-3-ways-it-could-be-good-or-bad-for-your-health-141374">Thinking about working from home long-term? 3 ways it could be good or bad for your health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But similar principles might help all of us whose internal memory resources are not designed for spending our time almost exclusively in one place.</p>
<p>When embracing external memory systems, it is important to ensure they are readily accessible and always accurate, so we can trust them completely and be sure of getting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698010376027" title="Memories, memory studies and my iPhone: Editorial">reminders we need</a>.</p>
<p>Working from home is the new normal for many of us. Developing new strategies that support our memory performance might help reduce the number of things we forget, and stop our recollection of the COVID-19 times turning into an amorphous mush.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1287370126791188481"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celia Harris has received research funding from the Australian Research Council and Dementia Australia Research Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine J. Stevens has received funding from the Australian Research Council and Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration. She is a member of the National Committee for Brain & Mind.</span></em></p>When home and work life look the same, events tend to blur into a single unmemorable blob. And that’s when we start to forget things.Celia Harris, Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityCatherine J. Stevens, Director, MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1367212020-04-30T20:07:14Z2020-04-30T20:07:14ZFriday essay: grief and things of stone, wood and wool<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330605/original/file-20200427-145553-1ftb5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C224%2C1994%2C2173&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1472666260353-23210544cdf1?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1545&q=80">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the death of her elderly father, a close friend of mine recently asked if I would read a poem by Goethe at his funeral. </p>
<p>I didn’t know the man well. In fact, I had met him only once, seated in my friend’s car on a Fitzroy street on a sunny day several years ago. What struck me about him at the time was the mischievous smile he wore and the youthful sparkle in his eyes. I felt honoured to be invited to share in the celebration of his life. </p>
<p>Although my friend is near a generation younger than me, we are very close. I have known her since she was a shy but determined young person. She has since become an advocate for the rights of Indigenous people in Australia and the South Pacific. She is thoughtful and kind and fierce whenever the situation requires a “warrior woman”.</p>
<p>The funeral service took place at a community hall in the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne. Family and friends of the man who had passed spoke, sang and prayed (in their own way) about the remarkable life of a person who had survived the ravages of war-torn Europe, the loss of loved ones, separation from family and an eventual migration to Australia, where he fell in love, raised a family and continued his lifelong passion for the natural world. </p>
<p>Before I left home for the funeral service, my wife, Sara, asked me, “Will you be okay?” My younger brother had died suddenly only weeks earlier, and I remained grief-stricken by the experience of finding him in the small government flat where he’d lived for two decades. I answered Sara’s question with a dismissive, “I’ll be fine”.</p>
<h2>Of stone</h2>
<p>And I was fine. Following the death of a person you love dearly, a person you yearn to see just once more, a person you want to say just one more goodbye to, isolation can become a tempting companion. You feel that nobody understands the depth of your grief. </p>
<p>Appointments, work, conversations with friends – they all make little sense. Mundane tasks become even more meaningless. My retreat into self-imposed isolation had become debilitating. Attending a funeral in the mountains was, if nothing else, an escape from my solitary confinement. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330601/original/file-20200427-145518-177ylhd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cover image: Anna Di Mezza, Memory’s Persistence 2016</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A few hours later I found myself in a room crackling with the energy of those who had gathered, along with the man who had bought us together for the day, who was resting in a wicker coffin at the front of the room. As I read the poem for him and his family, I thought again about my own brother and felt comforted, for the first time in weeks, that I was not alone. I was sharing a valued life among the living.</p>
<p>Following the burial at a local cemetery, we were invited back to the community hall, where we enjoyed food and stories about the life of my friend’s father. I noticed a wooden table where a range of items had been placed: books, hand tools, photographs and other secondhand objects you might find at a garage sale. My friend took me over to the table and explained that each of the items had belonged to her father and held particular significance for him and his family. I was invited to choose an object and take it home with me as an act of commemoration. I hesitated. It didn’t seem right that I should take something personal belonging to a man I’d hardly known.</p>
<p>My friend gently nudged me. “Go on, pick something,” she said.</p>
<p>My eye was drawn to an egg-shaped, ivory-coloured stone, speckled with an earthy pigment. I picked up the stone. It sat full and heavy in the palm of my right hand. I turned it over. Its centre was smudged with a dark stain. It appeared that someone may have held the stone in their hand and rubbed it (and rubbed it) with the back of a thumb.</p>
<p>“Can I have this?” I asked my friend.</p>
<p>“Of course,” she answered. “It’s a good choice for you.”</p>
<p>The stone now sits on my writing desk. I often hold it in my hand when I’m thinking about the words I want to write (as I’m doing now). I have thought with the stone about life and death and my love for my friend, who misses her father so deeply. The stone has affected my thoughts on climate justice, which is a key area of my academic and community research. </p>
<p>What I have come to understand about the stone is that it is stronger than me – and you. It is also patient and thoughtful to an extent that human society appears to be incapable of. If we manage to destroy ourselves in the future, and destroy non-human species and vital ecological systems in the process, it will be because we don’t possess the humility and wisdom of the stone. Unfortunately, many in positions of power and influence appear most ill-equipped to recognise this. The stone has invited me to reflect on love, and on death, including my own. The stone also reminds me that seemingly inanimate and soulless objects have guided me throughout my life, particularly when I am reaching for understanding.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330604/original/file-20200427-145553-10ivm11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The stone has invited me to reflect on love, and on death, including my own.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1494861895304-fb272971c078?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=3300&q=80">Scott Webb/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Foraging</h2>
<p>If I wasn’t born to forage, I was taught to from a very young age. Growing up in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in the early 1960s, we were very poor. (As poor as a Monty Python shoebox.) We were always a gleaning family, out of necessity. The open fire in our two-room terrace was fed with scraps of wood we gathered from the streets, empty houses and vacant blocks. </p>
<p>Coming home from school of an afternoon, if my older sister and I spotted an eight-foot long plank of wood, we’d pick it up, cart it home and add it to the woodpile in the yard. My brother and I collected scrap metal – lead, copper and brass – and sold it to a dealer who had a yard behind a pub on Brunswick Street. </p>
<p>I later came to cherish the narrative power of found objects through my grandmother, Alma, who introduced me to op shop fever, an ailment I continue to live with 60 years later. From the age of around four or five, hand-in-hand with my Nan, I’d walk from Fitzroy to the Salvation Army’s “Anchorage” in Abbotsford, around a mile and half in the imperial measurement of the time. The Salvos’ secondhand business could not be described as a “shop” or “store”, but a series of rusting corrugated-iron sheds on the bank of the Birrarung. </p>
<p>Each shed was dedicated to particular items: ornaments, household furniture, books and comics, and children’s clothing. Nan and I would move from shed to shed, with the rule that I could buy one book, one comic and one item of clothing. She liked to spend her time in the ornaments shed, searching for a vase, or a gravy dish perhaps, that she could add to the mirror-backed, glass-fronted cabinet in the front room of her Fitzroy house. Once an item went into the cabinet, it stayed there, never used and rarely touched – any item put into the cabinet was for “show”.</p>
<p>I loved my books and comics, but most of all I sought out a t-shirt or jumper, especially a warm woollen jumper, largely for practical purposes. Winters in our house and on our street were cold. A jumper provided warmth. A jumper purchased secondhand was my jumper, not one that had been handed down to me by my older brother. And when I put a thick woollen jumper over my head as a small child, my body felt protected, emotionally and physically. Woollen jumpers became my security blanket, and that desire for fabric has never left me. </p>
<p>I have a cupboard full of woollen jumpers at home. Some have been collected from the op shops I continue to visit each week. Others, bought new, are quite expensive. Any time I become particularly anxious, or feel the desire for “comfort clothes”, I put on one of my jumpers. (Summer is not my favourite season.) Recently, while experiencing a near emotional collapse, a crafted woollen object rescued me.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330606/original/file-20200427-145513-1u92emk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One man’s trash, another’s treasure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-march-03-2020-600w-1661855323.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In Booktown</h2>
<p>I was in a Victorian country town on an autumn morning as a guest of the Clunes Booktown Festival, which I’d been invited to some months previously. My younger brother had died a few weeks before the festival. I had begun to write about him, as it was my only means of understanding, if at all, what I was experiencing. I have since written about his death several times, with each essay building on the previous one, including conscious repetition (which I am doing now). The essays focus on walking country, travelling and remembering, with my brother at my side. Perhaps I am not repeating myself, but rather engaging in the act of reiteration as a means of paying my respect to his life?</p>
<p>Immediately after my brother’s death I cancelled several commitments, took weeks away from work and spent as much time as I could with my grieving mother. I had simply forgotten to cancel Clunes and felt obliged to attend when I was reminded about the festival only days before it was to begin. I drove there with Sara. </p>
<p>Clunes is a gold rush town in north-west Victoria and proudly carries the title of Booktown. On arrival, we parked the car alongside a bluestone church above the town. It was a cool and clear morning. Walking down the hill towards the festival, I suffered what I could only explain as an anxiety attack. I needed to sit down. I enjoy writing-and-reading festivals and I love the warmth of audiences. But, sitting on a bench in the main street of Clunes, I suddenly realised that I would be incapable of performing at all. I wanted to go home and hide. Sara suggested that a coffee might pick me up, although she was also ready to leave and drive me home if that was what I decided.</p>
<p>We went for a walk and I bought a café latte, an object of right-wing disdain. I took a sip and felt a little better. We spotted a craft stall selling woollen products: scarves, gloves and beanies. My eye was drawn to a naturally dyed beanie, chocolate and (sort of) aqua coloured, with a chocolate pompom on top. I picked the beanie up and held it in my hands. The wool was soft, the texture rich. With the permission of the woman standing behind the stall, I put the beanie on. It wrapped itself gently around my head. Feeling immediately comforted and secure, I smiled at Sara and said, “Let’s go.” We walked back up the hill, into the Clunes Town Hall, where we were met by a room crowded with generous people.</p>
<h2>Gathering through the years</h2>
<p>As we grow older, some of us begin to dispose of our possessions. Others continue to hoard. Thinking back to the table of objects at the funeral I attended, I experienced it as a generous and communal gesture, yet another act of reciprocity and energy. </p>
<p>My stone continues to teach me about the contrasts between humility and arrogance, between the world we are wilfully attacking and our self-destructive stupidity. The stone has also sharply focused my attention on the deep value of my relationships with other people. My friend who lost her father has been in a state of grief since his passing. When I hold the stone, or glance at it sitting on my desk, I think of my friend and I am reminded that she is in my care, as I am in hers. The thought strengthens me and gently reminds me to remain aware of my obligation to her. For this, I can thank the stone and the man who first picked it up and held it in his hand.</p>
<p>As I write this I am 62 years of age. (That’s old for an Aboriginal man!) I have five children, two grandchildren and a loving partner. </p>
<p>On July 4 1996, my grandmother, Alma, was in St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy, dying of renal failure. Although I was a grown man, about to turn 40, I sat by the window of her room on the tenth floor, a child again, looking over the streets of our shared life. She passed away that night. My mother decided that our first task after her death was to empty out her Housing Commission flat and scrub it clean. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330602/original/file-20200427-145518-ncoowp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Op shop foraging can become circular as buyers grow older and leave their finds behind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1514988081842-feeaeac260e3?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=3300&q=80">Julien-Pier Belanger/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>My grandmother’s flat was crowded with the objects she’d collected from op shops over 60 years. The family gathered at the door of my grandmother’s flat and my mother said, “Each of you pick something of love. The rest we pack up in boxes and drop at St Vincent de Paul’s in Collingwood”. </p>
<p>My initial thought was that it was reckless of my mother to sweep away Nan’s possessions so soon, and my older sister felt the same, whispering to me, “Shit. Nan’s not even cold yet”. </p>
<p>Our feelings shifted to acceptance, and subsequently deep satisfaction once each of us had chosen our love pieces. I picked a ceramic teapot mat, an ancient stone hot water bottle and a squat glass jar that my nan would fill with tomato sauce so that we could sit around her kitchen table and dip our hot chips into it. </p>
<p>A week later, I walked into the local op-shop and noticed a young woman pick up an orange flower vase that had belonged to my grandmother. She held it up admiringly. Light passed through the vase and the woman’s face glowed with happiness. She paid for the vase and took it home.</p>
<h2>What’s left behind</h2>
<p>When my brother died died last year, my two sisters performed the same ritual in his government flat. Whatever else might be said about a working-class Aboriginal-Irish family, we’re fucking spotlessly clean! </p>
<p>We took the goods we’d each decided to keep around the corner to my mother’s house. There were three guitars, two crucifixes and several books, including a copy of my short story collection <a href="https://www.wheelercentre.com/broadcasts/tony-birch-common-people">Common People</a>, which was sitting on the side table next to his bed on the morning I found him dead. </p>
<p>My sisters allowed me to take his acoustic guitar home as long as I promised that I would learn to play it. I walked home with the guitar under my arm, wondering what would happen to my own stuff when I died. </p>
<p>The books will continue to be treasured and read, I’m sure. I’m concerned for the bowls of collected pine cones scattered around the house. </p>
<p>My grandson, Archie, is 14 months old. Recently, I introduced him to the pine cones, naming them individually, hoping for attachment on his part. I took him on his first pine cone forage in Carlton Gardens. My motivation, of course, is that when I die and they come to sweep my life away, Archie will intervene, say, “Not so soon” and rescue my pine cones.</p>
<p>I don’t know what will happen to my woollen jumpers, scarves and beanies. If I was able to choreograph my own wake (as my mother has done in a lengthy list), or if this was a short story I was writing for you rather than nonfiction, I would die during a cold winter and my family would be gathered around a fire reminiscing about my life. My children, Erin, Siobhan, Drew, Grace and Nina, would each be wearing a “Tony Birch find” (as I refer to the jumpers); my grandkids, Isobel and Archie, would be each be wrapped in one of the many brightly coloured scarves I’ve collected; and Sara would be wearing the precious striped beanie that saved me on a beautiful morning in Clunes.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited extract republished with permission from <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/">GriffithReview68: Getting On</a> (Text), ed Ashley Hay</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Birch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The objects we gather around us - from op shops, from roadsides, from the intimate spaces of lost loved ones - are far from inanimate. They carry wisdom, comfort and guidance.Tony Birch, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1253612019-10-22T13:01:28Z2019-10-22T13:01:28ZHow memories are formed and retrieved by the brain revealed in a new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298130/original/file-20191022-120690-1w2m4bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C7200%2C4085&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forming and recalling memories is a complex system of synchronisation and desynchronisation in different parts the brain. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/female-hippocampus-brain-anatomy-blue-concept-235279540?src=JAsCDJKdiU1-klypVDEVDQ-1-8">decade3s- anatomy online/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Try to remember that last dinner you went out for. Perhaps you can remember the taste of that delicious pasta, the sounds of the jazz pianist in the corner, or that boisterous laugh from the portly gentleman three tables over. What you probably can’t remember is putting any effort into remembering any of these little details. </p>
<p>Somehow, your brain has rapidly processed the experience and turned it into a robust, long-term memory without any serious effort from yourself. And, as you reflect on that meal today, your brain has generated a high-definition movie of the meal from memory, for your mental viewing pleasure, in a matter of seconds. </p>
<p>Undoubtedly, our ability to create and retrieve long-term memories is a fundamental part of the human experience – but we still have lots to learn about the process. For instance, we lack a clear understanding of how different brain regions interact in order to form and retrieve memories. But <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/10/08/1914180116">our recent study</a> sheds new light on this phenomenon by showing how neural activity in two distinct brain regions interact during memory retrieval. </p>
<p>The hippocampus, a structure located deep within the brain, has long been seen as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2335">a hub for memory</a>. The hippocampus helps “glue” parts of the memory together (the “where” with the “when”) by ensuring that neurons fire together. This is often referred to as “neural synchronisation”. When the neurons that code for the “where” synchronise with the neurons that code for the “when”, these details become associated through a phenomenon known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebbian_theory">Hebbian learning</a>”. </p>
<p>But the hippocampus is simply too small to store every little detail of a memory. This has lead researchers to theorise that the hippocampus <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/neocortex.htm">calls upon the neocortex</a> – a region which processes complex sensory details such as sound and sight – to help fill in the details of a memory. </p>
<p>The neocortex does this by doing the exact opposite of what the hippocampus does – it ensures that neurons do not fire together. This is often referred to as “neural desynchronisation”. Imagine asking an audience of 100 people for their names. If they synchronise their response (that is, they all scream out at the same time), you’re probably not going to understand anything. But if they desynchronise their response (that is, they take turns speaking their names), you’re probably going to gather a lot more information from them. The same is true for neocortical neurons – if they synchronise, they struggle to get their message across, but if they desynchronise, the information comes across easily.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/10/08/1914180116">Our research found</a> that the hippocampus and neocortex do in fact work together when recalling a memory. This happens when the hippocampus synchronises its activity to glue parts of the memory together, and later help to recall the memory. Meanwhile, the neocortex desynchronises its activity to help process information about the event and later help process information about the memory. </p>
<h2>Of cats and bicycles</h2>
<p>We tested 12 epilepsy patients between 24 and 53 years of age. All had electrodes place directly within the brain tissue of their hippocampus and neocortex as part of the treatment for their epilepsy. During the experiment, patients learned associations between different stimuli (such as words, sounds and videos), and later recalled these associations. For example, a patient may be shown the word “cat” followed by a video of a bike cycling down a street. </p>
<p>The patient would then try and create a vivid link between the two (perhaps the cat riding the bike) to help them remember the association between the two items. Later, they would be presented with one of the items and asked to recall the other. The researchers then examined how the hippocampus interacted with the neocortex when the patients were learning and recalling these associations. </p>
<p>During learning, neural activity in the neocortex desynchronised and then, around 150 milliseconds later, neural activity in the hippocampus synchronised. Seemingly, information about the sensory details of the stimuli was first being processed by the neocortex, before being passed to the hippocampus to be glued together. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298120/original/file-20191022-120690-q0f223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">We found that the hippocampus and neocortex work closely together when forming and retrieving memories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elderly-woman-hands-holding-missing-white-1136971007?src=EnukGUS8iTS2LSW7lGH6dg-1-4">Orawan Pattarawimonchai/ Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Fascinatingly, this pattern reversed during retrieval – neural activity in the hippocampus first synchronised and then, around 250 milliseconds later, neural activity in the neocortex desynchronised. This time, it appeared that the hippocampus first recalled a gist of the memory and then began to ask the neocortex for the specifics.</p>
<p>Our findings support <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166223615002593">a recent theory</a> which suggests that a desynchronised neocortex and synchronised hippocampus need to interact to form and recall memories.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-memories-reliable-expert-explains-how-they-change-more-than-we-realise-106461">Are memories reliable? Expert explains how they change more than we realise</a>
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<p>While brain stimulation has become a promising method for boosting our cognitive facilities, it has proved difficult to stimulate the hippocampus to improve long-term memory. The key problem has been that the hippocampus is located deep within the brain and is difficult to reach with brain stimulation that is applied from the scalp. But the findings from this study present a new possibility. By stimulating the regions in the neocortex that communicate with the hippocampus, perhaps the hippocampus can be indirectly pushed to create new memories or recall old ones.</p>
<p>Understanding more about the way the hippocampus and neocortex work together when forming and recalling memories could be important for further developing new technologies that could help improve memory for those suffering from cognitive impairments such as dementia, as well as boosting memory in the population at large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin J. Griffiths receives funding from European Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:s.hanslmayr@bham.ac.uk">s.hanslmayr@bham.ac.uk</a> receives funding from the European Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Royal Society and Wolfson Society. </span></em></p>Researchers have discovered that the hippocampus and neocortex work together.Benjamin J. Griffiths, Doctoral Researcher, University of BirminghamSimon Hanslmayr, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1231082019-10-02T13:00:05Z2019-10-02T13:00:05ZThe forgotten benefits of a ‘bad’ memory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294557/original/file-20190927-185394-ppiej0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-man-forgetful-793633621?src=o6jf08jGrjKyDiSRQ498Zg-1-93">Shutterstock/FOTOKITA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Memory is the essence of our psychological functioning, essential for every move we make – getting dressed, having breakfast, driving to work, doing a crossword, making a cup of tea. Nothing we do in our conscious daily lives does not require memory. </p>
<p>So, given our reliance on it, why is it that memory sometimes – or often – lets us down? And is this something to be concerned about, or might it actually be healthy?</p>
<p>Consider some of the many ways in which our memories feel like they’re not working properly. There’s the name you’re told on meeting someone new which you forget within seconds; the act of going upstairs to get something and then forgetting what you went there for; or blissfully remembering a foreign holiday several years ago without any memory of the incident at the airport that upset the family.</p>
<p>It’s probably true that everyone can relate to each of these memory “failures” – and indeed they are failures. But it may be that we should not be overly concerned about them.</p>
<p>The various types of forgetting involve different issues. For example, sometimes it’s clear that we simply haven’t set a proper memory down in our mind in the first place, like when we forget why we went upstairs. </p>
<p>In other cases there is clearly a memory there, but it’s just not retrievable – such as when a name you know is on the tip of your tongue. Or perhaps the memory has been altered in some regard along the way, when you’re convinced something happened on a Thursday, yet all the facts point to it being a Tuesday.</p>
<p>So what is memory for, and why is forgetfulness such a prevalent experience? Memory serves to give us a record of our lives, to situate us in the present and to plan for the future. It is essential to a sense of self. And while memory lapses can be frustrating, there are ways around them, which can sometimes be beneficial to that sense of self. </p>
<p>If I am constantly forgetting where I put my keys, I develop a routine to deal with the situation. It’s a simple but effective solution which requires practice (and remembering to enact): always put your keys in the same place. </p>
<p>Or, if I want to remember someone’s name, I ensure that on meeting them, I make an extra effort to register their face, say their name aloud, and perhaps try to associate it with someone else of the same name. (Apparently one of former US president Bill Clinton’s strengths as a charismatic politician was that he <a href="https://www.oprah.com/omagazine/oprah-interviews-president-bill-clinton/2">always remembered people’s names</a> – but this certainly wouldn’t have come without a level of deliberate concentration.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295202/original/file-20191002-49346-pwbpy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Right where you left them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-keys-inserted-into-mortise-lock-1473658121?src=tQqaSNOg6apTtdq-ObadZA-2-32">Shutterstock/ROMSVETNIK</a></span>
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<p>And if I remember a totally happy holiday and repress the negative incident at the airport, this actually helps me feel better about myself and my experience. I have subconsciously edited out the negative aspect to create a more positive recollection. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sleep-makes-the-brain-forget-things-new-research-on-mice-123636">How sleep makes the brain forget things – new research on mice</a>
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<p>Another interesting example of this kind of beneficial “self-editing” is where long-term couples will say to their other half: “I love you more today than yesterday.” When psychologists examined this concept, they found it not to be entirely true. Instead, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-00166-004">they found</a> that long-term couples have a commitment to each other that is important for their own personal well being. So if I feel I love you more than yesterday, it is ultimately beneficial to feeling positive about myself – even if it is not objectively true.</p>
<h2>Remember to forget</h2>
<p>Most people’s memories fail them regularly, and this is because our minds have a limited ability to process all the information in our environment. It simply is not feasible to remember everything we experience.</p>
<p>That said, there are rare cases of people who claim to have “super memories”. They can remember what the weather was like on March 6 2016, for example, or what they had for lunch on the September 15 2004. One of those “super mnemonists” <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-26/edition-10/interview-would-you-want-super-memory">has described</a> the ability as “a curse [which] plays over and over in my mind”. </p>
<p>The reality of remembering everything would be an overwhelming experience. So for most of us, forgetting things is not just normal – but desirable. </p>
<p>Regular memory failures can often be deliberately and methodically overcome, while changes in memory over time are often due to people maintaining a positive sense of self. And that’s worth remembering.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catriona Morrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your memory may be unreliable – but that can be an advantage.Catriona Morrison, Professor of Psychology, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1166632019-08-08T20:06:35Z2019-08-08T20:06:35ZCurious Kids: why do I sometimes forget what I was just going to say?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286868/original/file-20190805-117861-1tte4c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6211%2C4147&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Everyone forgets things sometimes. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-little-asian-boy-feel-strain-784533127?src=sW4Ng_XroqbHx9blIK7FZw-1-18&studio=1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.</em> </p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why do I sometimes forget to say something mere moments before I say it? - Labib, aged 12, Irvine, CA.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>That’s an interesting question, Labib.</p>
<p>Forgetting to do or to say things happens to all of us sometimes. </p>
<p>Have you ever walked into a room and realised you can’t remember what you were looking for? We tend to do this more when we are thinking of a few things at once or doing two things at the same time.</p>
<p>Some people call this “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-task_paradigm">dual-tasking</a>”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-adults-think-video-games-are-bad-76699">Curious Kids: Why do adults think video games are bad?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Have you ever crossed the road while chatting to a friend at the same time, or walked across a room while tapping away on a tablet or phone? That’s dual-tasking.</p>
<p>Everyone does it and we <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40279-015-0369-9">tend to get better</a> at it as we get older and learn new skills.</p>
<p>But while our brain is a truly amazing computer – more powerful than any real computer – it can only use so much mental energy at one time. </p>
<h2>Your brain is a power station</h2>
<p>Think of your brain as a power station, providing electricity to a number of cities. </p>
<p>If some cities cry out for a lot of energy (by having all their light switches on), other cities would have less power to work with. There’s only so much electricity to go around. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286864/original/file-20190805-117866-aoy5et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our brain is like a power station, providing energy to lots of different tasks we might be trying to do.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/artificial-intelligence-concept-electric-brain-people-1135626104?studio=1">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In the same way, your brain only has so much energy to share around at any one time. Younger kids have small brains and have less mental energy available than older kids. In the same way, a teenager’s brain is less mature than an adult brain. </p>
<p>Now, this brings us back to the question of forgetting things. </p>
<p>An older (and more experienced) brain means more mental energy to share between tasks. </p>
<p>For young kids, dual-tasking is possible. However, some studies suggest that it can be a little more <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40279-015-0369-9">difficult for younger kids</a> compared with older kids.</p>
<p>Why? The power station in their brain is a little smaller and is not producing quite the same amount of energy as older kids. </p>
<h2>Practise makes perfect</h2>
<p>The more we practise our skills (like riding a bike, playing a sport, or baking a cake), the better we are at doing another task at the same time.</p>
<p>For a very skilled sportsperson (like a footballer), juggling a football while having a chat with a friend would be easy. </p>
<p>Their football skills are so automatic that they don’t need much mental energy to do it, leaving more for other things.</p>
<p>However, for someone who is just learning, juggling a ball may require a lot of mental energy just by itself. There is not much leftover for holding a conversation.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/S7EOVjt13qKJcatWqG/source.gif"></p>
<h2>So, why do I sometimes forget to say something before I say it?</h2>
<p>The answer is you are likely to have been “dual-tasking” just before speaking. </p>
<p>It might have been because you were thinking about the words you wanted to say and something else at the same time. Or maybe you were concentrating on listening while trying to think of what to say.</p>
<p>Sometimes, your brain just can’t do two complicated things at once. You might not have enough mental energy in that moment. </p>
<p>Forgetting things is normal for everyone and can happen when you are doing too many things at once.</p>
<p>When it happens to you, take a deep breath and relax! </p>
<p>Perhaps those words will come back to you later when you clear your head and re-energise.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-much-does-a-brain-weigh-112000">Curious Kids: how much does a brain weigh?</a>
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</em>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Wilson receives funding from The Australian Research Council (ARC). </span></em></p>Have you ever walked into a room and realised you can’t remember what you were looking for? We tend to do this more when we are thinking of a few things at once or doing two things at the same time.Peter Wilson, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1043272018-12-27T19:03:59Z2018-12-27T19:03:59ZWhy two people see the same thing but have different memories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246822/original/file-20181122-182044-z5yjhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Photographee.eu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does it ever strike you as odd that you and a friend can experience the same event at the same time, but come away with different memories of what happened? So why is it that people can recall the same thing so differently?</p>
<p>We all know memory isn’t perfect, and most memory differences are relatively trivial. But sometimes they can have serious consequences.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/witnesses-are-forgetting-clues-to-the-boston-bombings-quickly-12935">Imagine if you both witnessed a crime</a>. What factors lead to memory differences and whom should we trust?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/you-cant-erase-bad-memories-but-you-can-learn-ways-to-cope-with-them-103161">You can't 'erase' bad memories, but you can learn ways to cope with them</a>
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<p>There are three important aspects to memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>encoding</strong> is how we get information into the brain</p></li>
<li><p><strong>storage</strong> is how we retain information over time</p></li>
<li><p><strong>retrieval</strong> is how we get information out of the brain.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Differences in each or a combination of these aspects might help explain why memories differ from one person to another.</p>
<h2>How different people encode memories</h2>
<p>Memory encoding starts with perception — the organisation and interpretation of sensory information from the environment.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/salience">salience</a> of sensory information (for example, how bright a light is or loud a sound) is important – but perception does not rely on salience alone.</p>
<p>Rather, perception is strongly affected by what we have experienced in the past and our expectations of what we might experience in the future. These effects are called top-down processes, and have a big impact on whether we successfully encode a memory.</p>
<p>One of the most important top-down processes is attention — our ability to focus selectively on parts of the world, to the exclusion of other parts.</p>
<p>While certain visual items can be <a href="https://www.cibf.edu.au/without-attention">perceived</a> or <a href="https://www.cibf.edu.au/you-can-memorise-faces-in-a-single-glance-without-trying">encoded</a> into memory with little or possibly no attention, attending to items is hugely beneficial for perception and memory.</p>
<p>How different people focus their attention on an event will affect what they remember. </p>
<p>For example, your preference for a particular sporting team can bias your attention and memory. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/metacognition-and-the-mind/201406/selective-perception-and-attention-the-world-cup">A study</a> of American football found that sports fans tended to remember rough play instigated by their opponent, rather than their own side.</p>
<p>Age also contributes to differences in memory, because our ability to encode the context of memories <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393216301178">diminishes as we get older</a>.</p>
<p>Context is an important feature of memory. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-017-0692-5">Studies show</a> that if we attend to both an item and its context, we remember the item better than if we attend to the item alone. </p>
<p>For example, we are more inclined to encode the location of our car keys if we focus on both the keys and how we have placed them in a room, rather than just focusing on the keys alone.</p>
<h2>How different people store memories</h2>
<p>Memories are first encoded into a temporary memory store called short-term memory. Short-term memories decay quickly and only have a capacity of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11515286">three or four bits at a time</a>.</p>
<p>But we can group larger bits of information into manageable chunks to fit into memory. For instance, consider the challenging letter sequence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>C, I, A, A, B, C, F, B, I</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This can be chunked into the easily memorised:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>CIA, ABC, FBI</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Information in short-term memory is held in a highly accessible state so we can bind features together. Techniques such as verbal rehearsal (repeating words aloud or in our head) allow us to consolidate our short-term memories into long-term memories.</p>
<p>Long-term memory has an enormous capacity. We can remember at least 10,000 pictures, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14640747308400340">a study</a> from the 1970s.</p>
<p>Memories can differ between people on the basis of how we consolidate them. Many studies have investigated how memory consolidation can be improved. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04286">Sleep</a> is a well-known example.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3623">study</a> found that long-term memory can also be enhanced by taking caffeine immediately after learning. The study used caffeine tablets to carefully control dosage, but this builds on growing evidence for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-or-four-cups-of-coffee-a-day-does-you-more-good-than-harm-our-new-study-suggests-87870">benefits of moderate coffee consumption</a>. </p>
<h2>How different people retrieve memories</h2>
<p>Retrieving episodic memories, our memory of events, is a complex process because we must combine objects, places and people into a single meaningful event.</p>
<p>The complexity of memory retrieval is exemplified by tip-of-the-tongue states — the common and frustrating experience that we hold something in long-term memory but we cannot retrieve it right now.</p>
<p>The emergence of brain imaging has meant we have identified many brain areas that are important for memory retrieval, but the full picture of how retrieval works remains mysterious.</p>
<p>There are many reasons that memory retrieval can differ from one person to another. Our ability to retrieve memories can be affected by our health. </p>
<p>For example, memory retrieval is impaired if we have a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304395901004882">headache</a> or are <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/11/2977.short">stressed</a>.</p>
<p>Retrieval is also affected by the outside world; even the wording of questions can change how we recall an event. <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html">A study</a> instructed people to view films of car accidents and then asked them to judge the speed the cars were moving. If people were asked how fast the cars were moving when they “crashed” or “smashed” into each other they judged the cars as moving faster than if the words “contacted” or “hit” were used.</p>
<p>Memory retrieval can also be affected by the presence of other people. When groups of people work together they often experience <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9293627">collaborative inhibition</a> — a deficit in overall memory performance when compared to the same group if they work separately and their memories are pooled after each individual has recounted their version.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-so-easy-to-gain-the-true-measure-of-things-92741">It's not so easy to gain the true measure of things</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Effects such as collaborative inhibition highlight why memory differences occur but also why eyewitness testimony is so problematic.</p>
<p>Thankfully, the proliferation of smartphones has lead to the development of innovative apps, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-made-iwitnessed-an-app-to-collect-evidence-94107">iWitnessed</a>, that are designed to help witnesses and victims preserve and protect their memories.</p>
<p>Technology such as this and knowledge of memory encoding, storage, and retrieval can help us determine whom to trust when differences in memory occur.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Matthews does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We all know memory isn’t perfect but how different people focus their attention on an event will affect what they remember.Julian Matthews, Postdoctoral Research Officer – Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1064612018-12-17T10:49:18Z2018-12-17T10:49:18ZAre memories reliable? Expert explains how they change more than we realise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250919/original/file-20181217-185258-1gc7soo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tiny mistakes can appear in our memories every time we recall past events. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-head-erased-by-pencil-eraser-1015037953?src=EnukGUS8iTS2LSW7lGH6dg-4-44">Quick Shot/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Your memory probably isn’t as good as you think it is. We rely on our memories not only for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/741938207">sharing stories</a> with friends or learning from our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/741938208">past experiences</a>, but we also use it for crucial things like creating a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/741938210">sense of personal identity</a>. Yet evidence shows that our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09658211.2013.866683">memory isn’t as consistent</a> as we’d like to believe. What’s worse, we’re often guilty of changing the facts and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-false-memories-49454">adding false details</a> to our memories without even realising. </p>
<p>To understand a bit about how remembering works, consider the <a href="https://icebreakerideas.com/telephone-game/">“telephone game”</a> (also known as “Chinese whispers”). In the game, one person quietly whispers a message to the person beside them, who then passes it on to the next person in line, and so on. Each time the message is relayed, some parts might be misheard or misunderstood, others might get innocently altered, improved, or forgotten. Over time the message can become very different from the original. </p>
<p>The same can happen to our memories. There are countless reasons why tiny mistakes or embellishments might happen each time we recall past events, ranging from what we believe is true or wish were true, to what someone else told us about the past event, or what we want that person to think. And whenever these flaws happen, they can have long-term effects on how we’ll recall that memory in the future.</p>
<p>Take storytelling for example. When we describe our memories to other people, we use artistic license to tell the story differently depending on who’s listening. We might ask ourselves whether it’s vital to get the facts straight, or whether we only want to make the listener laugh. And we might change the story’s details depending on the listener’s attitudes or political leaning. Research shows that when we describe our memories differently to different audiences it isn’t only the message that changes, but sometimes it’s also the memory itself. This is known as the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-13299-001">“audience-tuning effect”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250920/original/file-20181217-185240-thdxkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We often describe our memories differently depending on who’s listening.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-pretty-woman-telling-fascinating-story-267211376?src=vqPoURB5AUqX4ZG8bppukw-1-20">ESB Professional/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-9335.40.3.138">In one study</a> on the audience-tuning effect, participants watched a video of a bar fight. In the video, two intoxicated men get into a physical confrontation after one man has argued with his friend, and the other has seen his favourite football team lose a match. Afterwards, participants were asked to tell a stranger what they had seen.</p>
<p>The study’s participants were split into two groups. One group was told that the stranger disliked one of the two fighters in the video. The other group was told that the stranger liked this same fighter. Unsurprisingly, this extra information shaped how people described the video to the stranger. Participants gave more negative accounts of the behaviour of the fighter if they believed the stranger disliked him. </p>
<p>More importantly though, the way people told their story later affected the way they remembered the fighter’s behaviour. When participants later tried to remember the fight in a neutral, unbiased way, the two groups still gave somewhat differing accounts of what had happened, mirroring the attitude of their original audience. To an extent, these participants’ stories had become their memories.</p>
<p>Results like these show us how our memories can change spontaneously over time, as a product of how, when, and why we access them. In fact, sometimes simply the act of rehearsing a memory can be exactly what makes it susceptible to change. This is known as “retrieval-enhanced suggestibility”.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368117300724">typical study of this effect</a>, participants watched a short film, then took a memory test a few days later. But during the days between watching the film and taking the final test, two other things happened. First, half of the participants took a practice memory test. Second, all of the participants were given a description of the film to read, which contained some false details. </p>
<p>The aim of these studies was to see how many of the false details people would eventually reproduce in the final memory test. <a href="http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/12/4/361.short">Hundreds of studies already show</a> that people will unwittingly add false details like these to their memories. But these studies found something even more fascinating. Participants who took a practice memory test shortly before reading the false information were more likely to reproduce this false information in the final memory test. In this case, practice makes imperfect. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-you-is-a-myth-we-constantly-create-false-memories-to-achieve-the-identity-we-want-103253">The 'real you' is a myth – we constantly create false memories to achieve the identity we want</a>
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<p>Why might this be? <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S107474271630404X">One theory</a> is that rehearsing our memories of past events can temporarily make those memories malleable. In other words, retrieving a memory might be a bit like taking ice-cream out of the freezer and leaving it in direct sunlight for a while. By the time our memory goes back into the freezer, it might have naturally become a little misshapen, especially if someone has meddled with it in the meantime.</p>
<p>These findings teach us a lot about how our memories are formed and stored. And they might lead us to wonder how much our most treasured memories have changed since the very first time we remembered them.</p>
<p>Or perhaps not. After all, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658211.2016.1214280">my research with other colleagues shows that</a> people are generally pretty unwilling to invest time and effort in checking the accuracy of their memories. But whether or not you ever actually discover any small or large changes that have occurred, it’s unlikely that your treasured memory is 100% accurate. Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all. And our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Nash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even our most treasured memories can gradually change over time.Robert Nash, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1034942018-09-19T12:52:32Z2018-09-19T12:52:32ZHow often do people forget things about one another? We decided to find out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237082/original/file-20180919-158243-1ntrwve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Married, you say?'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/someone-erasing-drawing-human-brain-conceptual-101520898?src=K0aoIw2zwl9QYGeaK8iQfQ-1-1">anetlanda</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new acquaintance needs to be reminded of your name while you are having a conversation. A colleague forgets your plan to meet for coffee and schedules a conflicting meeting. A friend books a table for the two of you at a restaurant but it slips her mind that you don’t like sushi. </p>
<p>We have all been on the receiving end of another person’s memory failure, and have forgotten important things about people ourselves. Until recently, however, we haven’t been able to understand these experiences and their consequences with much beyond anecdotes. My research group decided to change that. </p>
<p>We undertook a <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-39692-001">systematic study</a> of the experience of being forgotten. We wanted to find out what a typical experience looks like – who is involved, what gets forgotten, and how often it happens to people. We also wondered how people were affected and whether there was any measurable impact on the relationship afterwards. </p>
<p>To find out, we used a combination of methods. In one strand, we asked about 50 people to keep a daily diary over two weeks. They had to record all occasions in which they were forgotten and give some details about the experience when it happened. </p>
<p>In another strand, we constructed social interactions in our laboratory in which another 50 participants discovered that someone else had forgotten most of the details of a previous conversation. We then recorded how it made them feel. Finally, we showed several hundred people stories in which someone was forgotten or remembered. We asked for their reaction and what they thought of the people involved. </p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>One of our most surprising discoveries was how frequently things about people were forgotten. On average, our diary keepers reported being forgotten about seven times over a two week period – once every other day. And it wasn’t only people who had just met one another; people were forgotten with similar frequency by acquaintances, co-workers, classmates, flatmates and friends. </p>
<p>The type of memory failure did depend on who was doing the forgetting. Complete failures of recognition were relatively rare (9%), and limited mainly to new or casual types of relationships. Personal details were forgotten most often (48%), especially in less close types of relationships such as acquaintances. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237079/original/file-20180919-158237-olgsj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eraserhead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/someone-erasing-drawing-human-brain-conceptual-101520898?src=K0aoIw2zwl9QYGeaK8iQfQ-1-1">Andreas Danti</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In closer relationships such as friendships, people most often forgot something about past interactions or shared experiences (26% of all the memory failures). For example, one participant recorded a close friend telling her a story about a party that the participant had also attended. Closer relationships also provided the most examples of people forgetting obligations or promises (“I had a ‘date’ on Skype today with my boyfriend but he forgot”). This type of forgetting was relatively rare overall (8%), however. </p>
<p>Another surprise was that people tended to be very understanding about memory lapses. They usually made an excuse for the forgetter – “She met too many people in the last couple of days.” Only in about one in five instances did a person explicitly link the memory failure to a lack of investment in them or the information, such as saying “I don’t think she found the place where I am from to be interesting or worth remembering.”</p>
<h2>What it means</h2>
<p>So do you need to worry about forgetting during social interaction? In the minority of cases where people explain memory failure through a lack of investment, the answer is obviously yes. As you might expect, these instances made people feel substantially less important and less close to the person who forgot them. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237083/original/file-20180919-146148-16224d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Um.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vitualis/137230731">Michael Tam</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet even in the majority of cases where people excused the forgetter, there was still some negative effect on the relationship. Despite providing excuses, people tended to feel a little less important and close to the person as a result. In short, people are usually very understanding about memory failures, but they do still hurt a bit. </p>
<p>So might it improve our relationships if we made more effort to remember things about people? We think it probably would. In preliminary follow-up work, we have found that prompting participants to make clear that they remember the details of a past social interaction improved their ability to communicate that they care about others. We can’t yet say with certainty how effective bolstering memory might be for improving social interaction, but it is definitely better than forgetting people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devin Ray receives funding from the ESRC. </span></em></p>People kept diaries for two weeks recording how often things about them were forgotten. The results turned out to be surprising.Devin Ray, Lecturer in Psychology, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/920332018-02-25T19:18:29Z2018-02-25T19:18:29ZStars for sale, but no, you can’t really buy an official star name to remember someone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207212/original/file-20180221-161917-d8wyux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2144%2C1187&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">So many stars above an Australian cemetery.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/indigoskies/7357237080/">Flickr/Indigo Skies Photography</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>About once a week, I receive an email like this (note that any identifying details have been removed):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was wondering if you could help me. We are coming to Canberra for 2 nights with our friends whose little girl passed away (a few) months ago from (some) syndrome. We purchased a star in her name (…) and need help locating this star. We have the coordinates. Would somebody be able to help us it would mean the world to us and to her mum and dad as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And about once a week, I’m the one to gently explain that the star name they bought is not officially recognised; that the star they want to look at in someone else’s honour is not actually named in that person’s honour.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be that person anymore.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-stories-behind-aboriginal-star-names-now-recognised-by-the-worlds-astronomical-body-87617">The stories behind Aboriginal star names now recognised by the world's astronomical body</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Billions and billions of stars</h2>
<p>The great thing about our galaxy, the Milky Way, is that it is home to about <a href="https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/">300 billion stars</a>. All of those stars mean a nearly endless supply of merchandise for companies to sell.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207415/original/file-20180222-132642-u8jqvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Milky Way.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0932a/">ESO/S. Brunier</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are several companies offering to sell you a star name, and at many different prices.</p>
<p>One company says it has “<a href="https://starregistry.com.au/two-million-stars-named.html">named two million stars</a>” since 1979, and its current package for a single star name <a href="https://starregistry.com.au/the-gift-package.html">starts at A$110</a>. It does say that any name purchased is “<a href="https://starregistry.com.au/about-us.html">not scientific but symbolic</a>”.</p>
<p>If you read the fine print of many other companies they usually say that astronomers do not officially recognise the name of the star you just purchased.</p>
<p>But that’s not the only issue I’ve encountered. </p>
<p>Remember, there are many companies selling star names. In the span of one month, two entirely unrelated people contacted us to look at a star that they purchased. It was the same star. These two people had each paid to name the same star.</p>
<h2>The official way to name objects in space</h2>
<p>The International Astronomical Union (<a href="https://www.iau.org/">IAU</a>) is the official international body of astronomy, and is the only official authority to <a href="https://www.iau.org/public_press/themes/naming/">name objects in space</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, the IAU approved new names for <a href="https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1707/">86 stars</a> used by other cultures besides the traditional Arabic, Greek, or Latin names, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-stories-behind-aboriginal-star-names-now-recognised-by-the-worlds-astronomical-body-87617">four stars</a> that now officially bear names based on their Aboriginal Australian names.</p>
<p>Besides naming, the IAU serves a number of other roles such as <a href="https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/">science and classification of various objects</a>. The IAU is potentially most recently famous for its 2006 determination that <a href="https://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly-controversial-definition.html">Pluto is not a planet, but a dwarf planet</a></p>
<p>Every type of object has a different set of rules for naming. For example, asteroids have a set of different rules to comets. For some objects, the discoverer can name it something they’d like. Asteroid <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=FredWatson;">5691 Fredwatson</a> is named after the famous Australian astronomer <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/fred-watson-2960">Fred Watson</a>, and discovered by his friend, the Scottish-born Australian astronomer Robert McNaught.</p>
<p>An object like a <a href="http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/cometnameg.html">comet</a> can be named after the person who discovered it, as is the case of Comet McNaught – this time named after McNaught himself. If that person finds multiple comets, all must have that name so there are more than 50 Comet McNaughts!</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207420/original/file-20180222-132642-qxwvjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comet McNaught over the Pacific Ocean, taken from the Paranal Observatory in Chile in January 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.eso.org/public/images/mc_naught34/">S. Deiries/ESO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes, an object is important enough that the public are given their say. Discoverers can open up the name to a vote, such as <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/help-nickname-new-horizons-next-flyby-target">2014 MU 69</a> in Kuiper Belt, the next target for the <a href="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/0124-new-horizons-prepares-for-2014mu69.html">New Horizon’s probe</a>.</p>
<h2>Official star names</h2>
<p>Even stars have a way of officially being named or designated. Some bright stars – ones that have been visible to humans through history – have proper names such as the new ones mentioned above. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_stars/">Other names</a> that have been around for some time include <a href="http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/betelgeuse-will-explode-someday">Betelgeuse</a> in Orion, or <a href="http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/sirius-the-brightest-star">Sirius</a>, “the Dog Star” in Canis Major. </p>
<p>But most have alphanumeric names or designations. These numbers, while sounding boring, belong to one of two naming schemes. </p>
<p>Some follow an alphabetic order based on brightness and the constellation they are in. For instance, Betelgeuse is also designated Alpha Orionis, and Sirius is Alpha Canis Majoris.</p>
<p>Alpha is always the brightest star in the constellation followed by the constellation name. So there is a Beta Orionis, Delta Orioinis and so on, and also an Alpha Crux, Beta Crux, etc. in the Southern Cross. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207428/original/file-20180222-132663-23clo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Southern Cross constellation photographed from the Northern Territory over a two minute exposure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eddiextcteam/28022078720/">Flickr/Eddie Yip</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207427/original/file-20180222-132667-phlx2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stars of the Southern Cross given their official designation by astronomers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.iau.org/public/images/detail/cru/">IAU and Sky & Telescope</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other method is actually the star’s coordinates in space, <a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/what-are-celestial-coordinates/">their space latitude and longitude</a>, or an officially recognised catalogue number. For instance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oldest-star-discovery-tells-much-about-the-early-universe-22944">the oldest known star</a>, SMSS J031300.36-670839.3, has a name based on the initials of the SkyMapper Southern Survey (SMSS), followed by the right ascension (or space longitude) and declination (or space latitude).</p>
<p>This means it is easy for another astronomer to look up and locate an object, without having to look up a database of the object’s name, and then find its position via a telescope.</p>
<p>You may not agree with this naming convention. Various astronomers may or may not agree with this. But that’s the way it works.</p>
<p>The IAU has <a href="https://www.iau.org/public/themes/buying_star_names/">this advice</a> for anyone looking to buy a star name:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As an international scientific organization, the IAU dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of “selling” fictitious star names, surface feature names, or real estate on other planets or moons in the Solar System.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Remembering your loved ones</h2>
<p>I appreciate your desire to remember your loved ones. (I have my own ways that I do it.)</p>
<p>If you are happy to buy a star from one of these companies, and know it won’t be recognised but it means something to you, then please go ahead. I completely respect that.</p>
<p>But you can also choose your own star, perhaps one that you looked at together, to think of a person. Then you can go out and observe the beauty of the night sky for free, and remember them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207426/original/file-20180222-132650-io2xbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stargazing together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/walakazoo/14791110756/">Flickr/William Prost</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can even use one of our large telescopes, <a href="http://skymapper.anu.edu.au">SkyMapper</a>, and get an <a href="http://skymapper.anu.edu.au/image-cutout/">image of that star</a> for free.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-stars-twinkle-81188">Curious Kids: Why do stars twinkle?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A few years ago, we saw in the newspaper the wishes of a young child with a life-threatening illness. One of them was to have a star named after them.</p>
<p>Realising the issues with this, we contacted the family and instead named one of the asteroids that the <a href="http://rsaa.anu.edu.au/observatories/siding-spring-observatory">Siding Spring Survey</a> had discovered. Their name was accepted by the IAU as an official asteroid name in recognition of their achievements despite their young age.</p>
<p>I realise that these options may not be open to everyone, but there are many ways to remember someone, to cherish someone, to love someone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad E Tucker receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>On a clear night you can see thousands of stars in the night sky, and there are billions more in our galaxy alone. But are the official star names really up for sale?Brad E Tucker, Astrophysicist and Outreach Astronomer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/895442018-02-12T10:20:26Z2018-02-12T10:20:26ZThe ‘Mandela Effect’ and how your mind is playing tricks on you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205142/original/file-20180206-88764-1cctixe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=VLDaNBXMqayf0v-5VDgGJw-1-3">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever been convinced that something is a particular way only to discover you’ve remembered it all wrong? If so, it sounds like you’ve experienced the phenomenon known as the <a href="http://mandelaeffect.com/about/">Mandela Effect</a>. </p>
<p>This form of collective <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mandela-effect-and-the-science-of-false-memories-114226">misremembering</a> of common events or details first emerged in 2010, when countless people on the internet falsely remembered Nelson Mandela was dead. It was widely believed he had died in prison during the 1980s. In reality, Mandela was actually freed in 1990 and passed away in 2013 – despite some people’s claims they remember <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherhudspeth/crazy-examples-of-the-mandela-effect-that-will-make-you-ques?utm_term=.loLxA7Bap#.knwOMPK3p">clips of his funeral on TV</a>.</p>
<p>Paranormal consultant Fiona Broome coined the term “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/mandela-effect-49471">Mandela Effect</a>” to explain this collective misremembering, and then other examples started popping up all over the internet. For instance, it was wrongly recalled that <a href="https://steemit.com/mandelaeffect/@moneybags73/the-mandela-effect-do-you-remember-c3po-with-a-silver-leg-i-don-t">C-3PO from Star Wars</a> was gold, actually one of his legs is silver. Likewise, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherhudspeth/crazy-examples-of-the-mandela-effect-that-will-make-you-ques?utm_term=.gko9pb3P2#.svkJDn074">people often wrongly believe</a> that the Queen in Snow White says, “Mirror, mirror on the wall”. The correct phrase is “magic mirror on the wall”. </p>
<p>Broome explains the Mandela Effect via pseudoscientific theories. She claims that differences arise from <a href="https://www.space.com/18811-multiple-universes-5-theories.html">movement between parallel realities</a> (the multiverse). This is based on the theory that within each universe alternative versions of events and objects exist. </p>
<p>Broome also draws comparisons between existence and the <a href="http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Holodeck">holodeck of the USS Enterprise</a> from Star Trek. The holodeck was a virtual reality system, which created recreational experiences. By her explanation, memory errors are software glitches. This is explained as being similar to the film The Matrix. </p>
<p>Other theories propose that the Mandela Effect evidences changes in history caused by time travellers. Then there are the claims that distortions result from spiritual attacks linked to Satan, black magic or witchcraft. But although appealing to many, <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/new-perspective-is-our-reality-what-we-think-it-is">these theories</a> are not scientifically testable. </p>
<h2>Where’s the science?</h2>
<p>Psychologists explain the Mandela Effect via memory and social effects – particularly false memory. This involves mistakenly recalling events or experiences that have not occurred, or distortion of existing memories. The unconscious manufacture of fabricated or misinterpreted memories is called confabulation. In everyday life <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Confabulation">confabulation is relatively common</a>. </p>
<p>False memories occur in a number of ways. For instance, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkzaDIM9sF8">Deese-Roediger and McDermott paradigm</a> demonstrates how learning a list of words that contain closely related items – such as “bed” and “pillow” – produces false recognition of related, but non presented words – such as “sleep”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205144/original/file-20180206-88799-zjmccm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s a theory online that nuclear research experiments caused the world to shift into an alternate reality where Donald Trump became president.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=VLDaNBXMqayf0v-5VDgGJw-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Memory inaccuracy can also arise from what’s known as “source monitoring errors”. These are instances where people fail to distinguish between <a href="http://www.eruptingmind.com/can-you-trust-your-memory-when-remembering-lists-of-words/">real and imagined even</a>. US professor of psychology, Jim Coan, demonstrated how easily this can happen using the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_mall_technique">Lost in the Mall</a>” procedure. </p>
<p>This saw Coan give his family members short narratives describing childhood events. One, about his brother getting lost in a shopping mall, was invented. Not only did Coan’s brother believe the event occurred, he also added additional detail. When cognitive psychologist and expert on human memory, Elizabeth Loftus, applied the technique to larger samples, 25% of participants <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTF7FUAoGWw">failed to recognise the event was false</a>.</p>
<h2>Incorrect recall</h2>
<p>When it comes to the Mandela Effect, many examples are attributable to so called “schema driven errors”. Schemas are organised “packets” of knowledge that direct memory. In this way, schemas facilitate understanding of material, but can produce distortion. </p>
<p>Frederic Bartlett outlined this process in his 1932 book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Remembering.html?id=WG5ZcHGTrm4C">Remembering</a>. Barlett read the Canadian Indian folktale “War of the Ghosts” to participants. He found that listeners omitted unfamiliar details and transformed information to make it more understandable. </p>
<p>This process is called “effort after meaning” and occurs in real world situations too. For instance, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f8n47">research has previously shown</a> how when participants’ recall the contents of a psychologist’s office they tend to remember the consistent items such as bookshelves, and omit the inconsistent items – like a picnic basket.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205148/original/file-20180206-88803-1sowiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pseudoscientific belief puts differences between memories and the real world down to glitches caused by time travel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/sky-lights-space-dark-2154/">Pexels</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Schema theory explains why <a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/%7Esvs1/1005/everydaymem.html">previous research</a> shows that when the majority of participants are asked to draw a clock face from memory, they mistakenly draw IV rather than IIII. Clocks often use IIII because it is more attractive. </p>
<p>Other examples of the Mandela Effect are the mistaken belief that Uncle Pennybags (Monopoly man) wears a monocle, and that the product title “KitKat” contains a hyphen (“Kit-Kat”). But this is simply explained by <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherhudspeth/crazy-examples-of-the-mandela-effect-that-will-make-you-ques?utm_term=.auqZvOzbW#.dt2nrXZ27">over-generalisation of spelling knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>Back to reality</h2>
<p>Frequently reported errors can then become part of collective reality. And the internet can reinforce this process by circulating false information. For example, simulations of the 1997 Princess Diana car crash are regularly mistaken for real footage. </p>
<p>In this way then, the majority of Mandela Effects are attributable to memory errors and social misinformation. The fact that a lot of the inaccuracies are trivial, suggests they result from selective attention or faulty inference. </p>
<p>This is not to say that the Mandela Effect is not explicable in terms of the multiverse. Indeed, the notion of parallel universes is consistent with <a href="https://www.space.com/32728-parallel-universes.html">the work of quantum physicists</a>. But until the existence of alternative realities is established, psychological theories appear much more plausible.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More on articles about <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/memory-162?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement">memory</a>, written by researchers:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-strange-science-of-odour-memory-74403?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement">The strange science of odour memory</a></em></li>
<li><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-training-your-working-memory-make-you-smarter-we-reviewed-the-evidence-74322?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement">Can training your working memory make you smarter? We reviewed the evidence</a></em></li>
<li><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-become-more-forgetful-with-age-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-70102?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement">Why we become more forgetful with age – and what you can do about it</a></em></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Proof of time travel, false memories or a parallel universe? A look at the wacky world of the ‘Mandela Effect’.Neil Dagnall, Reader in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityKen Drinkwater, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/776532017-05-31T02:04:57Z2017-05-31T02:04:57ZSome graduation gifts really are better than others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171370/original/file-20170529-25210-142npvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/179666825?src=fJ3ZM9Glc-IXFw6g8xTFXw-1-85&size=huge_jpg">'Gift' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Graduation season is upon us, and for many graduates, it’s a moment they’ll want to remember for the rest of their lives. </p>
<p>Yet families often wonder about the best way to mark this special occasion. The graduation gift, of course, is one way. But then comes the tough part: deciding on the gift.</p>
<p>I recently faced a (somewhat) similar predicament. I’d been promoted, and I wanted to treat myself. There was this ring I’d been coveting; but after a quick Google search for the best way to treat yourself, the recommendations were unanimous: Splurge on an experience – a trip or a retreat. </p>
<p>Just to make sure, I decided to approach my colleague <a href="https://fisher.osu.edu/people/goodman.425">Joseph Goodman</a>, who has researched the relationship between purchases and happiness. He, too, suggested that I take a vacation to add another experience to my store of memories. After all, <a href="https://u.osu.edu/goodman/files/2016/10/Happiness-for-Sale-2agwhbm.pdf">he</a> and <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.546.6920&rep=rep1&type=pdf">others</a> have convincingly shown that experiences – rather than material goods – are more closely related to happiness.</p>
<p>Still, I had the nagging feeling that I’d be better off buying the ring. Was I just trying to find an excuse to buy something I’d wanted for a while? Or is there something else at play when we choose gifts, whether it’s for ourselves or others?</p>
<h2>Keeping positive memories alive</h2>
<p>I teamed up with Goodman and our graduate student <a href="https://olin.wustl.edu/EN-US/academic-programs/PhD/Pages/PhdDetail.aspx?username=stephenson">Brittney Stephenson</a> to conduct <a href="https://u.osu.edu/goodman/files/2016/12/celebrate-JACR-Goodman-et-al-2016-2eyw9vk.pdf">a series of studies</a> to explore the best way to mark a special occasion like a graduation.</p>
<p>In one, we asked participants to recall their most recent and significant graduation, and what they did to celebrate or commemorate the event (e.g., going on a trip, throwing a party or buying a ring for themselves). </p>
<p>Then we asked everyone a series of questions tied to the positive emotions they associated with the graduation and the connection they felt toward it. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, we found that people felt less connected to the accomplishment as more years passed by. What was surprising, however, was that those who had bought something material to celebrate the event – a keychain, a ring or a laptop – felt a stronger connection to the accomplishment over time. These people were also more likely to feel pride or joy about graduating. </p>
<p>Why might this be the case?</p>
<p><a href="https://u.osu.edu/goodman/files/2016/12/celebrate-JACR-Goodman-et-al-2016-2eyw9vk.pdf">Our research</a> suggests that the answer lies in understanding the relationship between memory and purchases. Memories of an ephemeral experience – whether it’s a party or a vacation – fade over time, and likely lose their connection to the achievement. While we may think back to a vacation and reminisce about it, we probably won’t connect it to the accomplishment itself. </p>
<p>On the other hand, material purchases are more likely to be permanent. When we see them – and interact with them – we get transported back to the event. The positive emotions associated with the accomplishment become recharged. </p>
<h2>Emphasizing permanence</h2>
<p>So do the consumers know that it’s probably better to buy material goods to mark a special event like a graduation? Based on our research, the answer was unequivocal: no. </p>
<p>In our studies, the participants were able to correctly intuit that memories and emotions fade over time. But they didn’t realize that material objects would actually help them avert this. When we gave college seniors a choice between a material purchase and an experiential one to mark their graduation, 79 percent of them preferred the experience. </p>
<p>It appears that consumers tend to choose experiences over material items because they’re focused on the here and now, and they don’t really take into account the long-term impact of the purchase. </p>
<p>To test this idea, we ran two other studies. In one, we asked college students to look at ads for four potential purchases: two material (a ring and a watch) and two experiential (golf lessons and a cruise). For half of the participants we created a version that used taglines highlighting permanence (“a diamond is forever,” “stand the test of time,” “learn a skill that will last a lifetime” and “memories that last forever”). The other half of participants saw ads with neutral taglines (“a diamond is sincere,” “learn something new”). </p>
<p>After examining the ads, they made a choice between an experience and a material item to mark their graduation. As expected, we found that those who had looked at the ads emphasizing permanence were more likely to choose the material items to honor their graduation. It appears that gently nudging consumers to think about permanence is enough to for them to consider how they’ll feel in the future when they make their purchase. </p>
<p>So if you or a loved one is graduating, try buying a memento – something that’s likely to last. This doesn’t mean that you should skip celebrations; rather, objects simply do a better job keeping the memory of the accomplishment alive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77653/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Selin Malkoc does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If it came down to buying a trip or a keepsake, which should you choose?Selin Malkoc, Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/517152015-12-04T11:11:05Z2015-12-04T11:11:05ZTotal recall sounds great, but some things should be forgotten<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104320/original/image-20151203-30781-7ygnvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">External enhancements of memory may soon go high-tech.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/86886338@N00/2404069584">*Nom & Malc</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine never again forgetting where you parked your car, or that last item you had on your grocery list, or why you walked into this room anyway. If you trust <a href="http://qz.com/551468/the-us-government-is-working-on-making-implantable-memory-chips-so-we-dont-forget-anything-again/">media stories</a> about research <a href="http://www.darpa.mil/program/restoring-active-memory">currently under way at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)</a> to build an implantable device to restore memory, you might not have to worry about these memory lapses in the future.</p>
<p>Many neuroscientists share the dream of neuroprosthetic technology that could help damaged brains function. <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514491/how-to-make-a-cognitive-neuroprosthetic/">Many such devices</a> are in <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41324/title/Neuroprosthetics/">various stages of experimentation</a>. Beyond helping those with impaired memories, the next step could conceivably be implantable “brain chips” that would improve the memories of the rest of us, ensuring that in the future we never forget anything.</p>
<p>But what would it really mean if we were able to remember every single thing?</p>
<h2>How brains remember</h2>
<p>Since the early neurological work on memory in the 1950s and 1960s, studies have demonstrated that <a href="http://www.human%20memory.net/types_long.html">memories</a> are not stored in just one part of the <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/brain.html">brain</a>. They’re widely <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10901/">distributed across the whole brain</a>, particularly in an area called the cortex.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104321/original/image-20151203-22448-260hbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brain structures involved in memory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NIA_human_brain_drawing.jpg">National Institute for Aging</a></span>
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<p>Contrary to the popular notion, our memories are not stored in our brains like books on shelves in specific categories. They’re actively reconstructed from elements scattered throughout various areas of the cortex by a process called encoding.</p>
<p>As we experience the world through our eyes, ears and so on, various groups of <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html">neurons</a> in the cortex fire together to form a neural pathway from each of these senses and encode these patterns into memories. That’s why the aroma of cornbread may trigger a Thanksgiving dinner memory at grandmother’s house many years ago, or the sound of a car backfiring may trigger a panic attack in a war veteran.</p>
<p>A structure called the hippocampus, located within the cerebral cortex, plays a vital role in memory. We find the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.2010711">hippocampus is damaged</a> in conditions that affect memory <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2165/11586390-000000000-00000">such as Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>Forgetting, then, is an inability (either temporary or permanent) to <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/processes_recall.html">retrieve</a> part of the neural pathway that’s been encoded in the brain. Increasing forgetfulness is a normal part of the aging process, as the <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html">neurons</a> start to lose their connections and pathways start to wither off. Ultimately the brain shrinks and becomes less effective at remembering. The hippocampus is one of the first areas of the brain to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhg081">deteriorate with age</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104324/original/image-20151203-22480-ujkqrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">If an elephant never forgets, is that necessarily good?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vincrosbie/6385296587">Vin Crosbie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Some things are better left forgotten</h2>
<p>I believe that forgetting is almost as critical as remembering.</p>
<p>I study the brain and examine how language, communication and hence memory are represented in the brain and the influence disorders such as stroke and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have on it. While human memory is dynamic and flexible, it’s also susceptible to distortions arising from aging and pathological processes.</p>
<p>But forgetting isn’t just a loss that comes with age. It’s a normal part of the memory process. We don’t need to remember a lot of what happens to us – what we made for dinner two years ago, where we left the car the last five times we parked in this lot. Those are examples of things that aren’t useful to remember anymore.</p>
<p>There’s also the question of memories that are actively hindering our lives. Research suggests, and my work with memory-related conditions corroborates, that some people have an inability to forget traumatic events. This characteristic is partially responsible for conditions <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.2.285">including depression</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory/understand/post_traumatic_stress_disorder.shtml">PTSD</a>.</p>
<p>When memories of terrible events don’t fade naturally, can we move on with our lives?</p>
<p>A patient diagnosed with PTSD-related depression in one of my studies wanted to suppress all memories of his combat experience. He lost two friends in a particular battle and has had difficulty getting past that experience. It appears that we cannot willfully eliminate memories.</p>
<p>He tells me that yes, he would like to recall where he put his car keys and would like to remember his children’s birthdays, but would rather eliminate the traumatic memories of his combat experience.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104325/original/image-20151203-22448-ijar6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">What did I tie that there for again?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/_flood_/6732863457">Flood G</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Developing technology for total recall may sound wonderful and time-saving for improving daily living. Never forget an appointment, never spend precious minutes looking for misplaced keys, perhaps never even need a calendar to remember important events. And, of course, an implantable brain chip would be a huge boon for those whose memories have been destroyed by disease or injury. But there’s a hitch to total recall that doesn’t allow us as individuals and as a society to forget.</p>
<p>Perfect memory engenders stasis – the legacy of any failures (personal or in others) won’t be allowed to fade and therefore we cannot move past them. Forgetting allows for new beginnings and for personal and societal healing and forgiveness. It is critical for a war veteran to advance past a traumatizing event from the battlefield, or a spouse with hurt feelings to be able to let go of that experience to repair a relationship. We all need to let some memories go; it’s part of the process that allows us to appreciate the proverbial forest of our existence while not getting too bogged down with the trees of our daily lives.</p>
<p>For better or worse, technology for not ever forgetting may be here sometime soon. Whatever form this imagined external memory enhancement takes, it will be interesting to see how a new way of remembering changes us in return.</p>
<p>Perhaps some of us may have to add one more thing to our list – remember to forget.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jyutika Mehta has no potential conflict of interest.</span></em></p>Could the not-too-distant future hold “brain chip” technologies that we could all use to enhance our memories to the point of perfection? Not so fast: there are big benefits to forgetting.Jyutika Mehta, Associate Professor of Communication Science and Disorders, Texas Woman's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404712015-04-30T20:48:09Z2015-04-30T20:48:09ZHere’s how to get kids to remember times tables<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79051/original/image-20150423-3136-uu2cl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's hard for kids to remember a string of arbitrary numbers</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lots of kids have trouble remembering their times tables. Learning them by rote can mean a child can accurately recite the times tables, but has no idea what the numbers actually mean or how to apply this knowledge in a maths problem. </p>
<p>Practice is essential to effective learning, but it is important to keep a balance between practice and application.</p>
<h2>Children need to know why they need to learn times tables</h2>
<p>The number system underlying the times tables can often seem fairly arbitrary. A child can be forgiven for thinking it’s just a complex system of numbers that they have to learn because the teacher says so. </p>
<p>If you have no idea why you are required to learn something, it is very difficult to develop sufficient motivation to persist with the practice that is often necessary to master the material.</p>
<p>One way to demonstrate the usefulness of the times tables is to engage a child in a counting task. The task could be timed, such that determining the number of elements quickly will mean something for the ultimate result (for example, beating a time limit results in a positive outcome, failing to beat the limit means the task starts again). </p>
<p>The multiplication facts in the times tables can then be demonstrated as short cuts in the counting process (if you can arrange the elements into four groups of eight, then knowing the answer to “4 x 8 = ?” will result in faster performance than having to rely on counting all of the 32 elements). </p>
<p>Many computer games and apps (like <a href="http://www.ixl.com/">IXL Maths</a>) possess this feature. They also involve many other features designed to maintain the interest of a child, which can help keep them motivated enough to persist with the task. Ultimately, the more practice, the better the knowledge.</p>
<h2>Get to know the sums individually, not as a song lyric</h2>
<p>Memory can often be a good reflection of what we do. If we regularly sing along to a favourite song, each line tends to remind us of the next line. However, if we then try to sing the song by ourselves, without the aid of an accompanying recording, we often find that forgetting one line means subsequent lines also can’t be recalled. </p>
<p>A similar thing can happen if we engage in rote recitation of the times tables. This method is only useful if we want to have a method to fall back upon when all other methods fail. Basically this method can only produce the equivalent of a song lyric where, remembering what “4 8s” are is only possible if you can remember “4 6s are 24” and “4 7s are 28”.</p>
<p>A better form of knowledge is one where a child knows the answer to each multiplication problem as soon as they see it, much like being able to read a word as soon as you see it. </p>
<p>Knowing the answer to each problem is then independent of knowing the answer to other times table problems. This type of knowledge can be gained only by practice at producing the answer. </p>
<p>One method for undertaking this type of practice is something like the old flash-card method. Write a problem on one side of a card (4 x 8 = ?), and the answer on the other side. With a shuffled deck of cards representing all of the problems in the times tables, a child can practise producing the answer to each problem, and then check their response by turning over the card. </p>
<p>Occasionally an adult can ask the child to do this out loud to ensure they are doing the task correctly. Initially the child may have to guess the correct answer, or work it out with their fingers or some other method. But they always have the benefit of immediate feedback by turning over the card. </p>
<p>Eventually, with enough practice, the constant association of the problem with the correct answer will begin to stick in their memory. A similar method can be easily programmed on to a computer or tablet. Plenty of <a href="http://www.bigbrainz.com">commercial apps</a> are available that will mimic this procedure.</p>
<h2>Apply the times tables knowledge</h2>
<p>Knowledge of the times tables is not useful by itself. A child must learn to apply the knowledge in a mathematical context. </p>
<p>It is important, though, that a child’s knowledge of the times tables is not allowed to remain as a list of independent facts. A child needs to engage in activities that demonstrate the connections between the multiplication facts in the times tables. It is important to see how 4 x 8 and 8 x 4 are connected. </p>
<p>Ultimately they will also need to see how 4 x 8 = ? and 32 ÷ 8 = ? are connected. To achieve this the child should be provided with activities that require the application of their arithmetic knowledge in a way that can demonstrate and lead the child to uncover these connections. </p>
<p>Practice with this sort of material can help kids develop a knowledge base that results in reliable retrieval of facts and the sort of flexible application of this knowledge that is required in higher-order problems, such as solving for x in 2x + 3 = 11. If you struggle to come up with an answer to this problem, I would not suggest relying on a times tables song to help you out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Speelman receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Edith Cowan University, the WA Department of Education, the Association of Independent Schools WA, and the Collier Charitable Fund.</span></em></p>Lots of kids have trouble remembering their times tables. Learning them by rote can mean a child knows the numbers but not what they mean.Craig Speelman, Professor of Psychology, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.