tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/forgetting-3964/articlesForgetting – The Conversation2024-02-14T15:20:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232842024-02-14T15:20:06Z2024-02-14T15:20:06ZWhy forgetting is a normal function of memory – and when to worry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575599/original/file-20240214-22-ktb21p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C98%2C8106%2C5359&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/disappointed-forgetful-young-woman-tired-cramming-1887098245">Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forgetting in our day to day lives may feel annoying or, as we get older, a little frightening. But it is an entirely normal part of memory – enabling us to move on or make space for new information. </p>
<p>In fact, our memories <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-memories-reliable-expert-explains-how-they-change-more-than-we-realise-106461">aren’t as reliable</a> as we may think. But what level of forgetting is actually normal? Is it OK to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68257586">mix up the names of countries</a>, as US president Joe Biden recently did? Let’s take a look at the evidence.</p>
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<p>When we <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6853990/">remember something</a>, our brains need to learn it (encode), keep it safe (store) and recover it when needed (retrieve). Forgetting can occur at any point in this process. </p>
<p>When sensory information first comes in to the brain we can’t process it all. We instead <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2718243/">use our attention</a> to filter the information so that what’s important can be identified and processed. That process means that when we are encoding our experiences we are mostly encoding the things we are paying attention to. </p>
<p>If someone introduces themselves at a dinner party at the same time as we’re paying attention to something else, we never encode their name. It’s a failure of memory (forgetting), but it’s entirely <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00841/full">normal and very common</a>. </p>
<p>Habits and structure, such as always putting our keys in the same place so we don’t have to encode their location, can help us get around this problem. </p>
<p>Rehearsal is also important for memory. If we don’t use it, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0033-2909.102.3.403">we lose it</a>. Memories that last the longest are the ones we’ve rehearsed and retold many times (although we often adapt the memory with every retelling, and likely remember the last rehearsal rather than the actual event itself).</p>
<p>In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus <a href="https://www2.open.ac.uk/openlearn/CHIPs/data/accessibility/nodes/231.html">taught people nonsense syllables</a> they had never heard before, and looked at how much they remembered over time. He showed that, without rehearsal, most of our memory fades within a day or two. </p>
<p>However, if people rehearsed the syllables by having them repeated at regular intervals, this drastically increased the number of syllables that could be remembered for more than just a day. </p>
<p>This need for rehearsal can be another cause of every day forgetting, however. When we go to the supermarket we might encode where we park the car, but when we enter the shop we are busy rehearsing other things we need to remember (our shopping list). As a result, we may forget the location of the car. </p>
<p>However, this shows us another feature of forgetting. We can forget specific information, <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2021/memory-details-fade-over-time-with-only-the-main-gist-preserved">but remember the gist</a>. </p>
<p>When we walk out of the shop and realise that we don’t remember where we parked the car, we can probably remember whether it was to the left or right of the shop door, on the edge of the car park or towards the centre though. So rather than having to walk round the entire car park to find it, we can search a relatively defined area. </p>
<h2>The impact of ageing</h2>
<p>As people get older, they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1123445/">worry about their memory more</a>. It’s true that our forgetting becomes more pronounced, but that doesn’t always mean there’s a problem. </p>
<p>The longer we live, the more experiences we have, and the more we have to remember. Not only that, but the experiences have much in common, meaning <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780121025700500100">it can become tricky</a> to separate these events in our memory.</p>
<p>If you’ve only ever experienced a holiday on a beach in Spain once you will remember it with great clarity. However, if you’ve been on many holidays to Spain, in different cities at different times, then remembering whether something happened in the first holiday you took to Barcelona or the second, or whether your brother came with you on the holiday to Majorca or Ibiza, becomes more challenging. </p>
<p>Overlap between memories, or interference, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-memory-clutter-makes-it-harder-to-remember-things-as-we-get-older-176767">gets in the way</a> of retrieving information. Imagine filing documents on your computer. As you start the process, you have a clear filing system where you can easily place each document so you know where to find it. </p>
<p>But as more and more documents come in, it gets hard to decide which of the folders it belongs to. You may also start putting lots of documents in one folder because they all relate to that item. </p>
<p>This means that, over time, it becomes hard to retrieve the right document when you need it either because you can’t work out where you put it, or because you know where it should be but there are lots of other things there to search through. </p>
<p>It can be disruptive to not forget. Post traumatic stress disorder is an example of a situation in which people can not forget. The memory is persistent, doesn’t fade and often interrupts daily life. </p>
<p>There can be similar experiences with persistent memories in grief or depression, conditions which can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518852/">make it harder to forget</a> negative information. Here, forgetting would be extremely useful. </p>
<h2>Forgetting doesn’t always impair decision making</h2>
<p>So forgetting things is common, and as we get older it becomes more common. But forgetting names or dates, as Biden has, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/bidens-memory-issues-draw-attention-neurologists-weigh-rcna138135">doesn’t necessarily impair decision making</a>. Older people can have deep knowledge and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-rational-to-trust-your-gut-feelings-a-neuroscientist-explains-95086">good intuition</a>, which can help counteract such memory lapses.</p>
<p>Of course, at times forgetting can be a sign of a bigger problem and might suggest you need to speak to the doctor. Asking the same questions over and over again is a sign that forgetting is more than just a problem of being distracted when you tried to encode it.</p>
<p>Similarly, forgetting your way round very familiar areas is another sign that you are struggling to use cues in the environment to remind you of how to get around. And while forgetting the name of someone at dinner is normal, forgetting how to use your fork and knife isn’t. </p>
<p>Ultimately, forgetting isn’t something to fear – in ourselves or others. It is usually extreme when it’s a sign things are going wrong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Easton 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>Can’t remember where you put your keys? It’s normal.Alexander Easton, Professor of Psychology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837562022-06-06T14:47:05Z2022-06-06T14:47:05ZWhy it isn’t always your fault when you can’t remember<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466631/original/file-20220601-48489-7hohhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C28%2C3720%2C2663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">That awful feeling when you realise you forgot something important</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-girl-remembered-something-holding-his-276016517">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have experienced the embarrassment of forgetting to do that important thing we promised someone we would do. Sometimes you did everything you could to remember, yet it still slipped your mind. </p>
<p>Our new research could hold the explanation. No matter how hard you try to remember your plans, there is always an element of luck involved.</p>
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<p>In the morning you decide to call your old friend in the evening. During the intervening time, you also decide to buy groceries for dinner, pick up the kids from afterschool club and many other things. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-05591-012">Psychologists</a> say we can’t keep all these intentions active in our working memory all day. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory">Working memory</a> is the type of memory involved when you maintain some information in your mind to solve problems (like subtracting 377 from 527) or to write down a list of names (when the pen and paper is at the other side of the room).</p>
<p>Working memory is limited, both in its capacity and in the duration of time we can hold information. That’s why people need long-term memory to store their intentions. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_memory">Long-term memory</a> is a store of information maintained by the brain outside the conscious mind. </p>
<h2>The intention race</h2>
<p>As we go about our lives, we hold several intentions for the future at the same time. To walk the dog after work, buy a fruit salad for lunch, to take your medicine after dinner, and to call a friend in the evening as promised. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027721002365">We showed</a> in our recent study, that all of these intentions are in a race, competing to get across the finish line in working memory.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027721002365">We built a mathematical model</a> of how our mind selects an intention to remember. Think of each intention in your long-term memory as individual horses in a race. The speed of an “intention horse” is influenced by how well the intention is matched by the environment and how important the intention is to the person. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=268&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=268&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467168/original/file-20220606-20-rlwrg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=268&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">Flow diagram of the race model.</span>
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<p>An intention to take your yellow pill the moment you have swallowed your last bite of dinner can have a stronger match with the environment (yellow pills and swallowing the last bite) than a plan simply to take your medicine. The importance of an intention is how rewarding it will be for you. </p>
<p>Match and importance influence the speed of the intentions in their race towards selection. This happens subconsciously. The intention <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0285(03)00115-4">pops up</a> for the person, often while they are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00382.x">engaged in some other task</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Horses race across a grass race track ridden by jockeys" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466630/original/file-20220601-49336-98wzqc.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">Imagine all your good intentions as horses in a race.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/race-horseing-action-lead-horse-jockey-1530295706">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But an intention’s strong match with the environment and its high importance do not guarantee it is selected. Even if a task is very important to you and will be very rewarding, there is always a possibility you will forget and perform some irrelevant or less important task. And that means chance is always involved in remembering intentions. The best horse doesn’t always win.</p>
<h2>A serious matter</h2>
<p>This has <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-022-00554-6">moral</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802419831529">legal</a> implications.</p>
<p>In some circumstances, suspects in criminal cases have <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/02/11/want-to-shrink-the-prison-population-look-at-parole">their freedom restricted</a>. They may be asked to make a daily phone call or attend an appointment at a police station every day, for an extended period of time. Eventually they may forget one of these sessions, which can be taken as a sign that they do not value their legal obligations. </p>
<p>Are we demanding too much of people’s ability to remember their goals? <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211383">Research</a> has estimated the probability of forgetting an intention is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14640749008401233">3%-10%</a>. A study, which asked participants to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1988.62.1.299">keep a diary</a> of when they realised they forgot something, calculated that more than half of everyday memory failures are remembering intentions. Many factors can influence the risk of forgetting, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2011.629288">age</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.01021">stress</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2014.969276">psychiatric conditions</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2019.05.006">sleep</a>.</p>
<p>You might be embarrassed by forgetting to do that important thing, but it isn’t always carelessness. The best thing you can do is to think of your intention in <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0003-066X.54.7.493">detail</a>, give great value to keeping your promise, and <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-50040-001">set up cues and reminders</a> that help you remember. The rest is up to chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thor Grünbaum receives funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark, grant number 6107–00058, “Intentions, Selection, and Agency”.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Søren Kyllingsbæk receives funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. </span></em></p>Go easy on your friend next time they forget about the plans you made or the favour they promised.Thor Grünbaum, Associate Professor in Philosophy and Psychology, University of CopenhagenSøren Kyllingsbæk, Professor in Cognitive Psychology at the Department of Psychology and at the Department of Computer Science, University of CopenhagenLicensed 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>
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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>
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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/1560302021-03-09T02:56:41Z2021-03-09T02:56:41ZIt’s not just doorways that make us forget what we came for in the next room<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387443/original/file-20210303-13-1tvrzi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1660%2C3224%2C2270&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Lava images </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine you’re in the middle of watching a riveting episode of your favourite TV show. You decide the situation calls for popcorn, so you get up and head to the kitchen.</p>
<p>But when you arrive in the kitchen you suddenly stop and think to yourself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why did I come in here?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perplexed, you walk back into the living room. As soon as you sit down, you remember you wanted to make popcorn. You go back into the kitchen, this time with a newfound determination.</p>
<h2>The doorway effect</h2>
<p>We’ve all experienced a situation like this. Although these lapses in memory might seem entirely random, some researchers have identified the culprit as the actual <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/21/3436001.htm">doorways</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1345747760679686146"}"></div></p>
<p>Many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412451274" title="Across the Event Horizon">studies</a> have investigated how memory might be affected by passing through doorways. </p>
<p>Astoundingly, these studies show doorways cause forgetting, and this effect is so consistent it has come to be known as the “<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/">doorway effect</a>”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-i-sometimes-forget-what-i-was-just-going-to-say-116663">Curious Kids: why do I sometimes forget what I was just going to say?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When we move from one room to another, the doorway represents the boundary between one context (such as the living room) and another (the kitchen). We use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.08.006" title="Event boundaries in memory and cognition">boundaries</a> to help segment our experience into separate events, so we can more easily remember them later. </p>
<p>These “event boundaries” also help define what might be important in one situation from what might be important in another. Hence, when a new event begins, we essentially flush out the information from the previous event because it might not be relevant anymore.</p>
<p>In other words, our desire for popcorn is connected with the event in the living room (the TV show) and that connection is disrupted once we arrive in the kitchen.</p>
<h2>Let’s put this to the test</h2>
<p>If the doorway effect is so powerful, why are these memory lapses at home actually quite rare? We decided to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00536-3" title="Doorways do not always cause forgetting: a multimodal investigation">look into this effect more closely</a>.</p>
<p>We had 29 people wear a virtual reality headset and move through different rooms in a 3D virtual environment (see image below).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshots of the 3D rooms and objects people could see through their headsets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386384/original/file-20210225-15-1kcvpa1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=218&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshots of the virtual environment showing the rooms and various objects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00536-3">Jessica McFadyen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The task was to memorise objects (a yellow cross, a blue cone, and so on) on tables within each room and then move from one table to the next. Crucially, sometimes the next table was in the same room, and at other times people had to move through an automatic sliding door into another room. </p>
<p>To our surprise, we found the doorways had no effect on memory. That is, people very rarely forgot the objects, whether they went through a doorway or not. </p>
<h2>Let’s make the memory test harder</h2>
<p>We decided to repeat the experiment, but this time we had 45 people perform a difficult counting task at the same time, to increase the pressure on the task.</p>
<p>Under these more difficult conditions, this time we confirmed the doorway effect. That is, passing through doorways impaired people’s memory of the various objects. Specifically, people were more likely to mistake a similar object for the one they were supposed to have memorised. </p>
<p>Essentially, the counting task overloaded people’s memory, making it more susceptible to the interference caused by the doorway.</p>
<p>This finding more closely resembles everyday experience, where we most often forget what we came into a room to do when we are distracted and thinking about something else.</p>
<h2>Is the doorway to blame?</h2>
<p>Why is our result so different to the powerful doorway effect reported by previous studies?</p>
<p>We believe it’s because we designed the rooms to be visually identical. There was no change in context, and there was no surprise by how the next room looked. This means it’s not so much the doorway by itself that causes forgetting, but more about the change of environment.</p>
<p>Imagine you are in a shopping centre. Taking the lift from the car park to a retail level should lead to more forgetting than taking the lift simply to move between two retail levels. </p>
<p>So how might we improve our ability to remember what we’re doing as we move about from room to room?</p>
<p>Our results suggest the more we <a href="https://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask">multitask</a>, the more likely our memory will be flushed out by doorways.</p>
<p>We can only hold a certain amount of information in mind at a time. When we’re distracted by thoughts about other things, our working memory can more easily become overloaded.</p>
<p>Also, it’s not only doorways. Our brain engages in “event segmentation” in all facets of life, whether it’s in physical space or in a more abstract sense.</p>
<h2>So what can we do?</h2>
<p>In most cases, our tendency to segment our lives into distinct events is actually advantageous. Our information capacity is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1104666108" title="Neural substrates of cognitive capacity limitations">limited</a> so we can’t remember too much information in one go.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-memories-come-flooding-back-when-you-visit-places-from-your-past-124983">Here's why memories come flooding back when you visit places from your past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Thus, it’s more efficient for us only to retrieve information about the current situation, rather than remembering all the information from everything we’ve recently experienced. </p>
<p>But if we want to escape the enchantment of the doorway, our best chance is to keep a focused mind. So keep thinking about popcorn the next time you want to get some to eat while watching your favourite TV show.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Bauman received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica McFadyen received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.</span></em></p>We’ve all been there: walked into a room and can’t remember what we came for. But how much is the actual doorway to blame for our forgetfulness?Oliver Baumann, Assistant Professor, School of Psychology, Bond UniversityJessica McFadyen, Research fellow, UCLLicensed 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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
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<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>
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</em>
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<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/1258472019-11-08T14:24:06Z2019-11-08T14:24:06ZBerlin Wall: secret police files and the memories of two Germanies<p>Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the <a href="https://www.bstu.de/en/the-agency/future-of-the-stasi-records/">German government has confirmed</a> plans to incorporate the Stasi files into the Federal Archive. Many people whose lives were affected by repression at the hands of the Stasi – the East German secret police – are still alive and the memories of that repression are fresh and painful. </p>
<p>But for another generation, this is history and the way Germany handles the public archive of the Stasi files can provide a valuable object lesson in how to manage memory.</p>
<p>As they mark the anniversary on November 9, Germans will also remember how citizens stormed the offices of the hated State Security Service in 1989 and 1990, demanding “freedom for my file”.</p>
<p>Germany has ensured that victims, researchers and the media have had access to the Stasi files. Government bodies and other large organisations can also use them to check if their representatives or employees worked for the Stasi as informants. This came into action in 1992, following the regulations outlined in the <a href="https://www.bstu.de/en/access-to-records/">Stasi Records Law</a>, which was overseen by the commissioner of the Stasi files. Both the law and the commissioner were the first of their kind internationally. </p>
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<p>Now, the files will be incorporated into the holdings of the Federal Archive as a distinct body. The change will ensure the conservation of the files and allow their digitisation. The physical files will remain at the former headquarters of the Ministry for State Security and in five eastern federal states (Länder). Victims and researchers will also continue to have access to the material and some major institutions will maintain the ability to “check” their employees until at least 2030. </p>
<p>Alongside this, the commissioner for the Stasi files will become the commissioner for victims of the SED Dictatorship. The current post-holder <a href="https://thepearsoninstitute.org/faculty/roland-jahn-0">Roland Jahn</a> – a former journalist and East German dissident – supports the change, arguing that this “trophy of the Revolution” must be secured for the future. However, critics fear a line is being drawn under efforts to work through this part of Germany’s past.</p>
<p>On one side of this argument are those who value the symbolism of an institution conceived in the revolution; on the other, those who see the files principally in terms of a historical source to be passed to the next generation. In this sense, this is a debate about whether it is too soon to start thinking about East Germany as just another part of German history, to be approached simply as another historical exercise.</p>
<p>Some might say it is not soon enough. The history of the GDR has always been highly politicised. The German government spends a large amount of money on public remembrance of the former state (€100m a year, according to the Representative of the Federal Government for Culture, Bernd Neumann, in a <a href="http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/17/17232.pdf">parliamentary plenary discussion</a> in 2013). But, until quite recently, the focus of this activity was on oppression, the Stasi, the Berlin Wall, party leaders or prominent dissidents.</p>
<p>This prevailing narrative has left a large part of the former population of the GDR feeling misrepresented – those who had lived relatively “normal” lives, had not experienced state violence directly and enjoyed the benefits of living outside of the capitalist system. Some reacted with what has been termed an “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027218">identity of defiance</a>”, asserting the validity of their own memories. </p>
<p>Memory has thereby contributed to ongoing divisions between East and West, which can be seen in an <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/18/how-the-attitudes-of-west-and-east-germans-compare-30-years-after-fall-of-berlin-wall/">array of social attitudes and voting behaviour</a> – not least in the success of the anti-immigration and Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland) in the eastern states.</p>
<h2>Pact of forgetting</h2>
<p>While remembrance has proved divisive in Germany, if we turn to other contexts and countries we can see that an absence of memory does not heal divisions. In Spain, the <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/macq13&div=6&id=&page=">1977 Amnesty Law</a> meant that those responsible for crimes committed during the civil war and under Francoism could not be punished. The so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/nov/03/comment.spain">pact of forgetting</a>” meant that public remembrance of victims was limited.</p>
<hr>
<p>Memories were, however, sustained by survivors and relatives of victims. As the amnesty has been challenged legally and politically, these memories have come bursting to the fore. The recent debate around the <a href="https://theconversation.com/exhumation-of-francos-remains-is-a-chance-for-spain-to-rest-in-peace-125762">reburial of Franco’s remains</a> provides clear evidence that Spanish society is not yet reconciled with its past and divisions remain within communities. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhumation-of-francos-remains-is-a-chance-for-spain-to-rest-in-peace-125762">Exhumation of Franco's remains is a chance for Spain to rest in peace</a>
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<h2>False public memory</h2>
<p>It is not only state institutions that can attempt to control the public narrative and collective memory of traumatic events. In April 1989 in Sheffield, England, 96 people were killed in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19545126">Hillsborough disaster</a>. For decades, their relatives fought against the misrepresentation of their loved ones in the media and for the right to know what happened. A degree of justice was achieved in 2016 when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-inquests-jury-says-96-victims-were-unlawfully-killed">an inquest found</a> that the victims had been unlawfully killed and that failures on the part of the police and emergency services had contributed to their deaths. The fans had not been to blame.</p>
<p>The right to speak and give testimony about traumatic experiences can be understood in this way as a form of symbolic justice. Listening to survivors and acknowledging the particular truth of their accounts is a form of social recognition. Societies cannot and should not force survivors to speak, but neither can they insist that they are silent.</p>
<p>German memory culture has provided victims of the East German regime with many opportunities to tell their stories publicly through films, books and in memorials and museums. Access to the Stasi files was, and will continue to be, an important part of allowing victims to reclaim their pasts. But, if that same memory culture cannot also find space for voices who remember things differently – a normal life lived in a different kind of society – the risk is that these “ordinary” citizens will reject this memory culture. If this happens, the stories of victims of the regime will fall on deaf ears.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Jones has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust and Arts and Humanities Research Council for her work on testimony and the history and memory of Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.</span></em></p>The decision to move the Stasi files into the German national archive has sparked debate of how memories of life before reunification should be handled.Sara Jones, Professor of Modern Languages and German Studies, 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>
<figure class="align-center ">
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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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<p>
<em>
<strong>
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/1230722019-09-23T21:55:31Z2019-09-23T21:55:31ZYour preschooler’s forgetfulness isn’t bad behaviour and nagging them won’t help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293273/original/file-20190919-22450-sxc3dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ability to remember to carry out future intentions, known as prospective memory, is still developing in early childhood. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another school year is upon us, and both parents and children have a lot to remember as people are coming and going on new schedules: make and take lunches, bring an item for show-and-tell, carry cups to the table for dinner when asked. </p>
<p>At this time of year, a young child’s forgetfulness can be frustrating for parents. They may be thinking (or saying) things like: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“How could you possibly forget to brush your teeth when I asked you one minute ago!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What do you mean you left your lunch on the school bus?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It might reassure parents to know that the ability to remember to carry out future intentions, known as prospective memory, is still developing in early childhood. </p>
<p>Research in my lab at Brock University has examined <a href="http://www.brockdmclab.com">how this type of memory improves over early childhood</a>. The results are clear: young children are still developing the skill of remembering their future intentions. Young children often forget to carry out their intentions and this is not due to bad behaviour. </p>
<h2>Forgetting for different reasons</h2>
<p>We see this in the lab, where children forget to carry out a simple intention (such as to place a specific card in a box) but seem completely unaware of their mistake. In fact, when asked to report what they should have done, most preschoolers rhyme off what they were supposed to do without any difficulty — despite forgetting to have done it.</p>
<p>Importantly, children at different ages seem to forget for two distinct reasons. Children aged two and three tend to forget the content of their intention: they cannot remember what it is they have to do. In contrast, children over the age of three usually to remember what they have to do, but fail to carry out the intention at the appropriate moment. </p>
<p>For example, while a two- or three-year-old might forget that they even had to feed their goldfish, a child over the age of three would likely remember that they had to feed their goldfish, but would fail to do it at the appropriate time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293289/original/file-20190919-22429-1se3hsk.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">A child over the age of three would likely remember that they had to feed their goldfish but would fail to do it at the appropriate time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although children’s forgetfulness may be frustrating for parents, hopefully there is comfort in the knowledge that forgetting is unintentional and reflects normative development during the preschool years. By the time a child is six or seven, this type of memory is usually much better and it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.07.012">continues to improve during the middle childhood years</a>.</p>
<p>One study showed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2006.08.003">that 66 per cent of two-year-olds could not report what they had to remember to do, whereas by age four the majority of children had no trouble with this</a>
.</p>
<h2>Forgetting intention</h2>
<p>The gap between children’s knowledge of rules and what the child should actually do is called an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(96)90027-1">abulic dissociation, and is well-documented in young children’s thinking</a>. An important question is: What is driving this disconnect between remembering the intention but forgetting to act on it at the correct time? </p>
<p>Much of my recent research has suggested that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2014.08.001">self-regulatory abilities (known as executive functions) are contributing to children’s poor memory performance</a>. Children’s memory for future intentions is related to their ability to regulate their thoughts and actions, especially under demanding conditions. </p>
<p>As children’s self-regulatory capacities and prefrontal regions of the brain develop, so does their ability to carry out their future intentions.</p>
<h2>Visual cues may help</h2>
<p>But what can parents, teachers, and other caregivers do to improve children’s memory for future intentions? <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620802025643">Motivation</a> seems to help three-year-olds. One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1983.10533537">classic study</a> showed that even two-year-olds successfully reminded their mothers of high-interest events (such as buying ice cream). </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293291/original/file-20190919-22425-1lhf17z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=736&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">A study found that even two-year-old children can remind their moms of high-interest events.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It might be most helpful to give children aged two and three strategies to remember what they have to do (for example, making a future intention into a song). For children older than four, you might provide more information about paying attention to cues in the environment that signal the right time to carry out an intention. </p>
<p>Making the relevant cue <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2014.01.006">more noticeable</a> also helps. For example, placing a child’s lunch box right in front of the door will likely result in less forgetting than if you leave it on the kitchen table.</p>
<h2>Verbal cues: not so much</h2>
<p>Nagging, however, does not make a difference. Recent research from my lab shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.06.004">verbal reminders have little effect on children’s ability to remember</a>. Neither reminders of what children should do nor reminders to pay attention boosted memory performance. In fact, the reminder to “keep paying attention” had a negative impact on four-year-olds’ abilities to remember a future intention. </p>
<p>It’s possible that preschoolers don’t benefit from verbal reminders because they are not yet aware that rehearsing what you have to do — for example, the instruction not to forget feeding the goldfish — might reduce forgetting.</p>
<p>As your child and family returns to the fall routines, be patient with your young child’s forgetfulness, know it is a developmental stage and try to focus on enjoying them as they are. </p>
<p>Like many aspects of children’s cognitive development, there is no point fighting over something that is a part of normal development and will change as your child gets older. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Mahy receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science. </span></em></p>As children’s self-regulatory capacities and the prefrontal regions of their brains develop, so does their ability to carry out their future intentions.Caitlin Mahy, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Brock UniversityLicensed 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>
</strong>
</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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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/1162392019-07-25T12:54:46Z2019-07-25T12:54:46ZThe internet is rotting – let’s embrace it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281222/original/file-20190625-81762-17ijgs3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can you forget when the internet won't let you?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/artificial-intelligence-electronic-circuit-microchip-glowing-658232323?src=nlmB8tvXbP1klxqAQzHpsg-1-24&studio=1">vchal/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have just taken an entire website and gigabytes of data offline. It covered a highly successful series of conferences on the data economy. It brought together thought leaders and key decision-makers from around the world for annual retreats – over a decade ago. And now it is gone. </p>
<p>Every year, some thousands of sites – including ones with unique information – <a href="https://firstmonday.org/article/view/5852/4456">go offline</a>. Countless further webpages become inaccessible; instead of information, users encounter error messages. </p>
<p>Where some commentators may lament yet another black hole in the slowly rotting Internet, I actually feel okay. Of course, I, too, dread broken links and dead servers. But I also know: Forgetting is important. </p>
<p>In fact, as I argued in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9436.html">my book, “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age,”</a> all through human history, humans reserved remembering for the things that really mattered to them and forgot the rest. Now the internet is making forgetting a lot harder.</p>
<h2>Built to forget</h2>
<p>Humans are accustomed to a world in which forgetting is the norm, and remembering is the exception.</p>
<p>This isn’t necessarily a bug in human evolution. The mind forgets what is no longer relevant to our present. <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/The-Seven-Sins-of-Memory/9780618219193">Human memory is constantly reconstructed</a> – it isn’t preserved in pristine condition, but becomes altered over time, helping people overcome cognitive dissonances. For example, people may see an awful past as rosier than it was, or devalue memories of past conflict with a person with whom they are close in the present. </p>
<p>Forgetting also helps humans to focus on current issues and to plan for the future. Research shows that those who are too tethered to their past <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/13554790500473680">find it difficult to live and act in the present</a>. Forgetting creates space for something new, enabling people to go beyond what they already know. </p>
<p>Organizations that remember too much ossify in their processes and behavior. Learning something new requires forgetting something old – and that is hard for organizations that remember too much. There’s a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1476127004047620">growing literature</a> on the importance of “unlearning,” or deliberately purging deeply rooted processes or practices from an organization – a fancy way to say that forgetting fulfills a valuable purpose.</p>
<h2>Choosing to remember</h2>
<p>Our human minds developed a rather effective mechanism to balance remembering and forgetting. Humans don’t have to do it consciously. (In fact people very rarely can – or can you forget something I tell you to forget?) The brain does it for us, mainly, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012">during sleep</a>. </p>
<p>This system is far from perfect – yes, I do forget things I wanted to remember, and recall things like phone numbers I no longer need – but it is working sufficiently well to let us think, decide and act in the present.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284366/original/file-20190716-173338-1ru1rxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historians have preserved photographs that they deem important – like this shot of Abraham Lincoln in the main eastern theater of the Civil War, Battle of Antietam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/cwp.4a40254/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because humans have always forgotten so much, we learned about the importance of preserving the things that really matter. We have not preserved every commercial invoice from the 1800s, but kept <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/19th-century-america-photographs/">photos of important or illuminating moments</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, people make mistakes, and recorded memory reflects the choices of those with the power and the means to preserve. But even these biased memories are being constructed and reconstructed all the time, amended, augmented, sometimes even disregarded.</p>
<p>This means that humans are <a href="http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/hawlbachsspace.pdf">constantly defining and redefining</a> what for us as individuals and as a society really matters.</p>
<h2>Digital memories</h2>
<p>The internet is threatening this mental balancing. For the first time in human history, remembering is the default –- simple, easy and seemingly free –- <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7t09g">and forgetting is hard</a>. </p>
<p>Think about your photos, your tweets, your documents. Our digital systems keep them, and you have to take action to get rid of them. I rarely do. It’s too tempting, too easy to just save everything. </p>
<p>What’s more, powerful, ubiquitous search has made this enormous amount of digital memories easily and swiftly accessible. Far more often than before, people now stumble over our collective past as they travel the net or <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8315897/facebook-on-this-day-nostalgia-app-bringing-back-painful-memories">look at their favorite social media</a>. For example, Facebook’s “On This Day” feature caused distress to some users when it unexpectedly surfaced posts about deceased loved ones.</p>
<p>That would be okay if humans had developed mental mechanisms to discount the past when it no longer tells us something relevant to the present. But humans never had to develop ways to forget deliberately. Because forgetting was automatic, when people remembered things, or were reminded of them, they gave them significance and importance -– why would they otherwise remember? </p>
<p>In the internet age, many things are remembered that have long lost their relevance. This strains people’s mental processes, as recall of something they thought they had forgotten suddenly creates questions about what past information is still relevant and what isn’t. People can’t help asking these questions, much like they can’t consciously forget (or at least not in most cases). This increases the chances for errors.</p>
<p>If someone is reminded of a person’s misdoing decades ago, they often can’t help but be shocked. They judge the misconduct in the context of the present. </p>
<p>For example, a Canadian psychotherapist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/us/14bar.html">was banned from entering the U.S.</a>, because an immigration officer checking his ID was searching his name on the internet and discovered that he confessed in a scholarly article to taking drugs many years earlier. A young woman was <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Drunken-Pirate-Learns-Costly/38725">refused a teacher’s certificate</a> because she had posted a photo of her online that showed her with a drink in hand and that photo was discovered by her university.</p>
<p>I fear that comprehensive digital memory may push people toward an unforgiving world, in which we deny each other (and ourselves) the capacity to evolve, to grow and to change. </p>
<p>Losing the ability to forget is not simply an unreserved blessing, but a potential curse. As much as many dread the rotting internet, and may rightly want to preserve the parts that people care about, I think that everyone should consider embracing digital rotting as an opportunity, and the empty spaces it creates as lacunae of hope.</p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263202/original/file-20190311-86690-1as1aac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=128&h=128&fit=crop&dpr=1">
<div>
<header>Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9436.html">Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age</a></p>
<footer>Princeton University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery. Princeton University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>Forgetting is beneficial for the human brain. But the internet has made it harder to let go of painful or problematic memories.Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, University of OxfordLicensed 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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
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<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/775842017-05-16T00:58:02Z2017-05-16T00:58:02ZElectrically stimulating your brain can boost memory – but here’s one reason it doesn’t always work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169165/original/file-20170512-3682-f4tcye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=290%2C0%2C2350%2C1765&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is electrical pulse to the brain your favorite memory enhancer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/airmanmagazine/33376636056">U.S. Air Force photo by J.M. Eddins Jr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first time I heard that shooting electrical currents across your brain can boost learning, I thought it was a joke.</p>
<p>But evidence is mounting. According to a handful of studies, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the poster child of brain stimulation, is a bona fide cognitive booster: By directly tinkering with the brain’s electrical field, some research has found that tDCS <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2012.03.012">enhances creativity</a>, bolsters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4022-x">spatial</a> and <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.045">math learning</a> and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20098">language aquisition</a> – sometimes <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.045">weeks after the initial zap</a>. </p>
<p>For those eager to give their own brains a boost, this is good news. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/tDCS/">Various communities</a> have sprung up to share tips and tricks on how to test the technique on themselves, often using self-rigged stimulators powered by 9-volt batteries. </p>
<p>Scientists and brain enthusiasts aren’t the only people interested. The military has also been <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1164793/darpa-funds-brain-stimulation-research-to-speed-learning/">eager to support</a> projects involving brain stimulation with the hope that the technology could one day be used to help soldiers suffering from combat-induced memory loss.</p>
<p>But here’s the catch: The end results are inconsistent at best. While some people swear by the positive effects anecdotally, others report nothing but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2014.10.015">a nasty scalp burn</a> from the electrodes.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2015.01.400">meta-analysis covering over 20 studies</a>, a team from Australia found no significant effects of tDCS on memory. Similar disparities pop up for <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.06.007">other brain stimulation techniques</a>. It’s not that brain stimulation isn’t doing anything – it just doesn’t seem to be doing something consistently across a diverse population. So what gives? </p>
<p>It looks like timing is everything. </p>
<h2>When the zap comes is crucial</h2>
<p>We all have good days when your brain feels sharp and bad days when the “brain fog” never lifts. This led scientists to wonder: Because electrical stimulation directly regulates the activity of the brain’s neural networks, what if it gives them a boost when they’re faltering, but conversely disrupts their activity when already performing at peak? </p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.028">a new study</a> published in “Current Biology,” researchers tested the idea using the most direct type of brain stimulation – electrodes implanted into the brain. Compared to tDCS, which delivers currents through electrodes on the scalp, implanted ones allow much higher precision in controlling which brain region to target and when.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169021/original/file-20170511-32610-1f9rj3o.jpeg?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">Blue dots indicate overall electrode placement in the new study from the University of Pennsylvania; the yellow dot (top-right corner) is the electrode used to stimulate the subject’s brain to increase memory performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.upenn.edu/news/penn-researchers-show-brain-stimulation-restores-memory-during-lapses">Joel Stein and Youssef Ezzyat</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The team collaborated with a precious resource: epilepsy patients who already have electrodes implanted into their hippocampi and surrounding areas. These brain regions are crucial for memories about sequences, spaces and life events. The electrodes serve a double purpose: They both record brain activity and deliver electrical pulses. </p>
<p>The researchers monitored the overall brain activity of 102 epilepsy patients as they memorized 25 lists of a dozen unrelated words and tried to recall them later on.</p>
<p>For each word, the researchers used the corresponding brain activity pattern to train a type of software called a classifier. In this way, for each patient the classifier eventually learned what types of brain activity preceded successfully remembering a word, and what predicted failed recall. Using this method, the scientist objectively classified a “foggy” brain state as the pattern of brain activity that preceded an inability to remember the word, while the pattern of activity common before successfully recalling is characteristic of being on the ball.</p>
<p>Next, in the quarter of patients for whom the classifier performed above chance, the researchers zapped their brains as they memorized and recalled a new list of words. As a control, they also measured memory performance without any stimulation, and the patients were asked whether they could tell when the electrodes were on (they couldn’t). </p>
<p>Here’s what they found: when the zap came before a low, foggy brain state, the patients scored roughly 12 to 13 percent higher than usual on the recall task. But if they were already in a high-performance state, quite the opposite occurred. Then the electrical pulse impaired performance by 15 to 20 percent and disrupted the brain’s encoding activity – that is, actually making memories.</p>
<h2>Moving beyond random stimulation</h2>
<p>This study is notably different from those before. Rather than indiscriminately zapping the brain, the researchers showed that the brain state at the time of memory encoding determines whether brain stimulation helps or hinders. It’s an invaluable insight for future studies that try to tease apart the effects of brain stimulation on memory.</p>
<p>The next big challenge is to incorporate these findings into brain stimulation trials, preferably using noninvasive technologies. The finding that brain activity can predict recall is promising and builds upon previous research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4039-12.2013">linking brain states to successful learning</a>. These studies may be leveraged to help design “smart” brain stimulators. </p>
<p>For example: Picture a closed-loop system, where a cap embedded with electrodes measures brain activity using EEG or other methods. Then the data go to a control box to determine the brain state. When the controller detects a low functioning state, it signals the tDCS or other stimulator to give a well-timed zap, thus boosting learning without explicit input from the user.</p>
<p>Of course, many questions remain before such a stimulator becomes reality. What are the optimal number and strength of electrical pulses that best bolster learning? Where should we place the electrodes for best effect? And what about unintended consequences? A previous study found that boosting learning may actually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4927-12.2013">impair a person’s ability to automate that skill</a> – quickly and effortlessly perform it – later on. What other hidden costs of brain stimulation are we missing?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ll ever be comfortable with the idea of zapping my brain. But this new study and the many others sure to follow give me more confidence: If I do take the leap into electrical memory enhancement, it’ll be based on data, not on anecdotes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelly Fan 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>Tinkering with the brain’s electrical field shows tantalizing promise for boosting memory, but it doesn’t always work. A new study offers one reason why.Shelly Fan, Postdoctoral Scholar in Neuroscience, University of California, San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/597272016-06-07T10:04:51Z2016-06-07T10:04:51ZWe behave a lot more badly than we remember<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125414/original/image-20160606-13043-1nm51pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why do we forget our dishonest actions?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sclafani/4386592324/in/photolist-7FCr59-aNbsFD-cSDB5-99Wftd-61d2ct-85pA3M-9Gh5SG-5GhQd-dei4BD-a5ia3k-6BZfVV-pXRGG-7gJzX5-xafPC-7dZJtF-dEF2qd-asKYgh-6JqhNP-3KFGXb-egNRs4-iCYJkb-aT6JB2-4FdMfB-3KFFeA-bodcjL-5awETL-bvQRDW-8DEdiz-7t2Mbs-ftLVW-q9t45-ftLXu-pxRq11-egNV7V-oundf8-GBoLse-pc8EM-wj4PDb-9rtvN2-aT6FDF-3KFpJU-5VMLay-3KBdwx-azfTst-ftLWo-egUvUo-egNQ66-egNTRK-egUxf9-egUCaC">Sclafani</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a 1997 <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QrCENRx6klUC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=U.S.+News+and+World+Report+survey+who+will+go+to+heaven+mother+teresa&source=bl&ots=hwkPMol8pi&sig=lEy0tlvPH1tLm2FFTDo_V_Fy5GY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlxILI35PNAhXlxYMKHU3EATEQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=U.S.%20News%20and%20World%20Report%20survey%20who%20will%20go%20to%20heaven%20mother%20teresa&f=false">U.S. News and World Report survey</a>, 1,000 Americans were asked the following question: “Who do you think is most likely to get into heaven?” According to respondents, then-president Bill Clinton had a 52 percent chance; basketball star Michael Jordan had a 65 percent chance; and Mother Teresa had a 79 percent chance. </p>
<p>Guess who topped even Mother Teresa? The people who completed the survey, with a score of 87 percent. Apparently, most of the respondents thought they were better than Mother Teresa in regards to their likelihood of getting into heaven.</p>
<p>As the results of this survey suggest, most of us have a strong desire to view ourselves in a positive light, especially when it comes to honesty. We care very much about being moral. </p>
<p>In fact, psychological <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dcde36e4b0df55a96ab220/t/569fafbbd82d5ea920307b0d/1453305787311/Gino+2015+-+Understanding+Ordinary+Unethical+Behavior.pdf">research</a> on morality shows that we hold an overly optimistic view of our capacity to adhere to ethical standards. We believe that we are <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/08-012.pdf">intrinsically more moral</a> than others, that we will behave more ethically than others in the future and that transgressions committed by others are morally worse than our own. </p>
<p>So, how do these beliefs of our moral selves play out in our day-to-day actions? As researchers who frequently study how people who care about morality often behave dishonestly, we decided to find out.</p>
<h2>Unethical amnesia</h2>
<p>One key result of our <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/22/6166.full">research</a> is that people engage in unethical behavior repeatedly over time because their memory of their dishonest actions gets obfuscated over time. In fact, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/22/6166.full">our research shows</a>, people are more likely to forget the details of their own unethical acts as compared to other incidents – including neutral, negative or positive events, as well as the unethical actions of others. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125415/original/image-20160606-13051-29ah0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What do we forget?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomswift/4457197466/in/photolist-7MSiwb-kV33TM-d36gF-rpdW6H-bQv72Z-3eh4RX-6itRpW-fw2hXg-9kSzg-aLrCpv-6oWsHa-cshAj9-f6RFsR-7f3Jx9-dyVKDa-4pAjgo-be296R-inVQi-ojbsDF-7K9ZyD-5rAkSH-8TkXQR-be1PpF-hL2QhR-az8Wki-egsRxT-8ZNv6Y-n9R76T-oHAqed-6cZb53-5bVgq-7nnDPK-nYb8PY-3AsGGg-ehJNHL-avrPfq-8qbxV2-a3DRhw-9qBouj-LF7j9-qKwCJj-nPgkEV-bKa9hP-6Zib1S-ebYpF3-4FbQ3r-75P3DF-bUhkrM-7hViuZ-6LiCoW">Lew (tomswift) Holzman</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We call this tendency “unethical amnesia”: an impairment that occurs over time in our memory for the details of our past unethical behavior. That is, engaging in unethical behavior produces real changes in memory of an experience over time.</p>
<p>Our desire to behave ethically and see ourselves as moral gives us a strong motivation to forget our misdeeds. By experiencing unethical amnesia, we can cope with the psychological distress and discomfort we experience after behaving unethically. Such discomfort has been demonstrated in <a href="http://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Mazar_Dishonesty_forthcomingJMR.pdf">prior research</a>, including <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dcde36e4b0df55a96ab220/t/55e872c4e4b051470ecd23b3/1441297092685/Psychological+Science-2015-Gino-983-96.pdf">our own</a>.</p>
<h2>How forgetting works</h2>
<p>We found evidence of unethical amnesia in nine experimental studies we conducted on diverse samples with over 2,100 participants, from undergraduate students to working adults. We conducted these studies between January 2013 and March 2016.</p>
<p>We chose a wide range of populations for our studies to provide a more robust test of our hypotheses and show that unethical amnesia affects not only college students but also employed adults. </p>
<p>In our studies, we examined the vividness and level of detail of people’s memories when they recalled unethical acts as compared with other acts.</p>
<p>For instance, in one of our studies, conducted in 2013, we asked 400 people to recall and write about their past experiences: some people recalled and wrote about their past unethical actions, some about their past ethical actions, and others recalled and wrote about other types of actions not related to morality.</p>
<p>We found that, on average, participants remembered fewer details of their actions and had less vivid memories of unethical behaviors as compared to ethical behaviors or positive or negative (but not unethical) actions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125418/original/image-20160606-13045-3xwew9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We have less vivid memories of unethical behavior.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/remember/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=412619059">Brain image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In follow-up studies conducted either in the laboratory at a university in the northeast United States or online in 2014 and 2015, we gave people the opportunity to cheat on a task. A few days later, we asked them to recall the details of the task. </p>
<p>For instance, in one study, we gave 70 participants the opportunity to cheat in a dice-throwing game by misreporting their performance. If they did, they would earn more money. So, they had an incentive to cheat.</p>
<p>When we assessed their memory a few days later, we found that participants who cheated had less clear, less vivid and less detailed memories of their actions than those who did not.</p>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Is having a less vivid memory of our misdeeds such a big problem? As it turns out, it is. </p>
<p>When we experience unethical amnesia, our research further shows, we become more likely to cheat again. In two of the studies we conducted out of the nine included in our <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/22/6166.full">research</a>, we gave over 600 participants an opportunity to cheat and misreport their performance for extra money.</p>
<p>A few days later, we gave them another chance to do so. The initial cheating resulted in unethical amnesia, which drove additional dishonest behavior on the task that participants completed a few days later.</p>
<p>Because we often feel guilty and remorseful about our unethical behavior, we might expect that these negative emotions would stop us from continuing to act unethically. </p>
<p>But we know that is not so. Our experiences and news headlines from across the globe suggest that <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dcde36e4b0df55a96ab220/t/55eef24de4b067774289457d/1441722957978/REVISE+-+R2.pdf">dishonesty is a widespread and common phenomenon</a>.</p>
<p>Our work points to a possible reason for persistent dishonesty: we tend to forget our unethical actions, remembering them less clearly than memories of other types of behaviors.</p>
<p>So, what if people actively pursued scheduled time to reflect on their daily acts? In our research we showed that unethical amnesia most likely happens because people limit the retrieval of unwanted memories about when they engaged in dishonesty. As a result, these memories are obfuscated. </p>
<p>Perhaps creating a habit of self-reflection could help people keep such memories alive and also learn from them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59727/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We come across dishonest acts in our day-to-day lives. Perhaps we commit them as well. But, guess what? Most of us care so much about being moral that we tend to forget our unethical behavior.Francesca Gino, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard UniversityMaryam Kouchaki, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557212016-03-16T15:28:14Z2016-03-16T15:28:14ZRemember: a bad memory is actually good for you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115309/original/image-20160316-30222-5wppob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Memory lane is often better than the real thing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lakeview Images/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not uncommon to hear people wishing that they had a better memory. “If only I weren’t so forgetful”, they complain. “If only I could reliably remember my computer password, and that my neighbour’s name is Sarah, not Sandra.” If this sounds familiar then I know how you feel. As a psychologist who studies the science of remembering, it’s especially embarrassing to me that my memory is frequently dreadful. When asked whether I had a good weekend, I often struggle to immediately recollect enough details to provide an answer.</p>
<p>But it’s precisely because I study remembering that I’m acutely aware of how our memory’s flaws, frustrating and inconvenient though they can be, are among its most important characteristics. Human memory isn’t like a recording device for accurately capturing and preserving the moment, or a computer hard disk for storing the past in bulk. Instead, human memory serves up only the gist of an event, often with a healthy side of ego-flattery, lashings of indulgent wrong-righting, and a painkiller for the next morning.</p>
<p>Consider the sorts of things we are particularly good at failing to remember accurately. In one <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/7/5/265.short">study</a>, university students were asked to recall their high school grades. The students were truthfully informed that the researcher had full access to their official records, so it was clear there was nothing to gain from intentionally distorting the truth. </p>
<p>The students misremembered about a fifth of their grades, but not all grades were misremembered equally. The higher the grade, the more likely the students were to remember it: A-grades were expertly recalled, whereas F-grades were recalled very poorly. Overall, the students were far more likely to recall their grades as being better than they had been, than to recall them as worse than they had been.</p>
<p>Findings such as these illustrate how misremembering can be self-serving, supporting our well-being by pushing us to feel good about ourselves. In other cases, misremembering can help to protect our belief in fairness and justice. </p>
<p>In a Canadian <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109000389">study</a>, participants read about a man named Roger who had won several million dollars on the lottery. Some participants learned that Roger was a man who worked hard and was kind to others: a man who fully deserved his lucky win. Other participants learned that Roger was undeserving: a lazy man who complained a lot, and never smiled. When asked to recall exactly how much money Roger had won, those who believed he was undeserving recalled his prize as, on average, $280,000 lower than the figure recalled by those who believed he was deserving.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115311/original/image-20160316-30227-zu4jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Memory is more like photos, plus Photoshop, than just the images alone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mariia Masich/shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are just two of many examples in which our memory behaves like the good friend who protects us from hearing bad news or cruel gossip about ourselves. When we reliably learn that a serial cheat has been hired by a prestigious law firm, we later misremember that this news <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03193060">came from an unreliable source</a>. When someone gives us critical feedback on our character traits, we <a href="http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/soco.22.1.4.30987">selectively forget many of the less-flattering bits</a>. And by and large, our unhappy memories lose their sting <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658211.2014.884138">long before our happy memories lose their fervour</a>.</p>
<p>The cumulative effect of these small self-deceptions over time is that, just like an over-protective good friend, memory gives us a distorted but altogether rosier perception of the world and of ourselves. And who wouldn’t choose to wear these rose-tinted glasses? </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.1740/abstract">recent study</a>, psychologists asked members of the public whether they would (hypothetically) take a drug that could guarantee to numb the pain of a traumatic memory. Fascinatingly, most (82%) said they would not. There is no doubt that we place a huge value on the (apparent) authenticity of our personal memories, both good and bad, and so it’s clear that the idea of actively interfering with these memories seems wholly unappealing to many of us. </p>
<p>But we should also be sceptical about the desirability of a world in which every past event can be retained perfectly in memory: authentic, objective, unapologetic, and unadulterated. Although flawed memories are often a nuisance and sometimes disastrous, they can also do wonders for maintaining our self-esteem, satisfaction, and well-being. In these respects at least, perhaps we shouldn’t be too critical of our manipulative friend, memory, for pulling the wool over our eyes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55721/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>Memories help you gloss over those ugly bits with minimum fuss.Robert Nash, Lecturer in Psychology, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535262016-02-01T13:00:22Z2016-02-01T13:00:22ZWhy we need to remember how to forget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109486/original/image-20160128-3058-1ui954z.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.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Three US neuroscientists published a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13554790500473680">case study</a> in 2005 detailing how a woman, AJ, was plagued by memories of her own life and of public events such as the dates of death of Elvis and Princess Diana. The discussion of AJ’s memory never mentions it, but it seemed clear to me that her overactive remembering was structured like our digital biographies – personal “moments”, as Twitter like to call them, tagged to Wikipedia facts. The researchers named this case “hyperthymestic syndrome”, from the Greek <em>thymesis</em>, remembering.</p>
<p>AJ’s situation may indeed be remarkable, but it’s clear that we all live in this age of hyperthymesis. Memory has become prosthetic – outsourced to the internet, to external hard drive or cloud storage system. What should we remember? What should be preserved? The paradox of the digital future is the burden of the past that we are constantly archiving.</p>
<p>Theatre offers a particularly pressing case study. Because theatre is a live medium – subject to the vagaries and imperfections of the moment – it is perhaps the art most similar to life. Therefore its particular attitude to archiving and to memory has wider implications. <a href="http://artsdigitalrnd.org.uk">Industry statistics</a> show the increasing importance to theatres of digitally preserving and archiving live content. Some 78% of theatres digitally preserve and archive their productions by capturing their live productions and make them available online. </p>
<p>In this archival process, the word “live” is under some pressure. “Live” streaming of theatrical events into cinemas is morphing towards designing productions specifically for the camera rather than the theatre audience; routine “encore” showings now make clear that those formerly “live” events are in fact recorded; DVD productions advertised as “recorded live” bring out the paradox. “Recorded live” might summarise human existence in the digital age. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109490/original/image-20160128-3039-1mknepc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not quite the same on screen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Padmayogini / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking over a similar revolution in representational technologies, Walter Benjamin observed that “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”. Perhaps theatre is the art form that has most retained what Benjamin calls “aura” – that unique existence within time and space – but the implications of “recorded live” make clear how much that is changing. The availability of recorded theatre online has increased substantially over the past 18 months: it won’t be long before almost all theatre productions are available online. </p>
<p>Writing about a similar process in the area of pop music, Simon Reynolds suggests in his book <a href="http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk">Retromania</a> that contemporary music is clogged up with retromania, the endlessly easy online availability of its past. In his words, “history must have a dustbin, or history will be a dustbin, a gigantic, sprawling garbage heap”. So much of our discussion about the future potential of the digital sphere is how it will better enable us to preserve the past. The paradox is clear: the defining characteristic of being human in the digital age is that of being overwhelmed by the past – and the threat to our creative present and future is that the past becomes too omnipresent for us to move forward. Enter the creative potential of forgetting. </p>
<p>The so-called right to be forgotten is usually discussed as part of the rights of the rehabilitation of offenders. But what I want to suggest here is that the right to be digitally forgotten should be extended. Rather than always looking to record and archive we might want to reinstate the idea that being “live” demands impermanence, ephemerality and forgetting. The best theatrical experiences are the ones we have half-forgotten, where the subjective highlights have crystallised in inauthentic and highly personal tableaux of remembrance. Forgetting – or half-remembering – is the way we collude with art to make it our own. We construct our own “highlights package” that is unique to our own often faulty memories of an experience.</p>
<p>Changes in expectations of the theatrical medium are symptoms of a wider phenomenon: the deadening hand of recording everything for posterity. We don’t have time to watch all this stuff now, so why should the future? It’s not only those things we regret that might have the right to be forgotten. My academic work is on Shakespeare – perhaps it’s because we have allowed ourselves to forget how Shakespeare’s plays looked in the 16th century that we are still able to perform them 400 years later. </p>
<p>Remembering, not forgetting, is the enemy of creative reinvention. Not everything that is live should be recorded.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Smith has held a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship, funded by the University of Oxford, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. </span></em></p>Memory has become prosthetic – outsourced to the internet. But remembering, not forgetting, is the enemy of creative reinvention.Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of OxfordLicensed 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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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>
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<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>
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
</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/408442015-06-01T04:31:19Z2015-06-01T04:31:19ZHealth Check: can your brain be ‘full’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83074/original/image-20150527-4854-1yx94lk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The answer is a resounding no – brains are more sophisticated than that.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirsanov/123015436/">Dmitry Kirsanov/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The brain is truly a marvel. A seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime’s knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity? In other words, can the brain be “full”?</p>
<p>The answer is a resounding no, because, well, brains are more sophisticated than that. A study published in <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v18/n4/full/nn.3973.html">Nature Neuroscience</a> earlier this year shows that instead of just crowding in, old information is sometimes pushed out of the brain for new memories to form. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Anderson18/publication/15268332_Remembering_can_cause_forgetting_retrieval_dynamics_in_long-term_memory/links/00b7d51705ff2d24b9000000.pdf">Previous behavioural studies</a> have shown that learning new information can lead to forgetting. But in this study, researchers used new neuroimaging techniques to demonstrate for the first time how this effect occurs in the brain.</p>
<h2>The experiment</h2>
<p>The paper’s authors set out to investigate what happens in the brain when we try to remember information that’s very similar to what we already know. This is important because similar information is more likely to interfere with existing knowledge, and it’s the stuff that crowds without being useful.</p>
<p>To do this, they examined how brain activity changes when we try to remember a “target” memory, that is, when we try to recall something very specific, at the same time as trying to remember something similar (a “competing” memory). Participants were taught to associate a single word (say, the word sand) with two different images – such as one of Marilyn Monroe and the other of a hat. </p>
<p>They found that as the target memory was recalled more often, brain activity for it increased. Meanwhile, brain activity for the competing memory simultaneously weakened. This change was most prominent in regions near the front of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, rather than key memory structures in the middle of the brain, such as the hippocampus, which is traditionally associated with memory loss. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83072/original/image-20150527-4820-1eyw20o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14414604077/">Allan Ajifo/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The prefrontal cortex is involved in a range of complex cognitive processes, such as planning, decision making, and selective retrieval of memory. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213006362">Extensive research</a> shows this part of the brain works in combination with the hippocampus to retrieve specific memories. </p>
<p>If the hippocampus is the search engine, the prefrontal cortex is the filter determining which memory is the most relevant. This suggests that storing information alone is not enough for a good memory. The brain also needs to be able to access the relevant information without being distracted by similar competing pieces of information.</p>
<h2>Better to forget</h2>
<p>In daily life, forgetting actually has clear advantages. Imagine, for instance, that you lost your bank card. The new card you receive will come with a new personal identification number (PIN). Research in this field suggests that each time you remember the new PIN, you gradually forget the old one. This process improves access to relevant information, without old memories interfering. </p>
<p>And most of us will be able to identify with the frustration of having old memories interfere with new, relevant memories. Consider trying to remember where you parked your car in the same carpark you were at a week earlier. This type of memory (where you are trying to remember new, but similar information) is particularly <a href="http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/14/1-2/47.full.pdf+html">susceptible to interference</a>.</p>
<p>When we acquire new information, the brain automatically tries to incorporate it within existing information by forming associations. And when we retrieve information, both the desired and associated but irrelevant information is recalled. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83073/original/image-20150527-4844-1ly0srn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If the hippocampus is the search engine, the prefrontal cortex is the filter determining which memory is the most relevant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5055255544/">Playing Futures: Applied No/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The majority of previous research has focused on how we learn and remember new information. But current studies are beginning to place greater emphasis on the conditions under which we forget, as its importance begins to be more appreciated. </p>
<h2>The curse of memory</h2>
<p>A very small number of people are able to remember almost every detail of their life in great detail; <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13554790500473680">they have hyperthymestic syndrome</a>. If provided with a date, they are able to tell you where and what they were doing on that particular day. While it may sound like a boon to many, people with this rare condition often find their unusual ability burdensome. </p>
<p>Some report an inability to think about the present or the future, because of the feeling of constantly living in the past, caught in their memories. And this is what we all might experience if our brains didn’t have a mechanism for superseding information that’s no longer relevant and did indeed fill up.</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum is a phenomenon called “accelerated long-term forgetting”, which has been observed in <a href="http://www.jocn-journal.com/article/S0967-5868%2813%2900394-9/abstract">epilepsy</a> and <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00320/abstract">stroke</a> patients. As the name suggests, these people forget newly learnt information at a much faster rate, sometimes within a few hours, compared to what’s considered normal.</p>
<p>It’s believed this represents a failure to “consolidate” or transfer new memories into long-term memory. But the processes and impact of this form of forgetting are still largely unexplored. </p>
<p>What studies in this area are demonstrating is that remembering and forgetting are two sides of the same coin. In a sense, forgetting is our brain’s way of sorting memories, so the most relevant memories are ready for retrieval. Normal forgetting may even be a safety mechanism to ensure our brain doesn’t become too full.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40844/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>The brain is truly a marvel. A seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime’s knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity?Fiona Kumfor, Postdoctoral fellow, Neuroscience Research AustraliaSicong Tu, PhD Candidate, Neuroscience Research AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406072015-04-24T05:08:42Z2015-04-24T05:08:42ZIf you can forgive, it actually makes it easier to forget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78820/original/image-20150421-9051-xlibmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'My huff is without bottom'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/elephant/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=90805409">Photobank Gallery</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At some point in our lives, we have all struggled with the wrongs or perceived wrongs that others have done to us. And being unable to forgive someone is not without its costs. The emotional pain associated with such incidents can severely limit our ability to get on with our lives and plan for the future. </p>
<p>Yet it can be difficult to truly forgive. Our initial response may even be to seek revenge and to retaliate like for like. But <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20053037">according to</a> recent psychological research, the better we are at controlling our thoughts and behaviour and not retaliating, the easier it is to forgive. Crucially, such control enables us to free ourselves of the pain and hurt that can imprison us in our past. </p>
<p>Our own research <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/08/0956797614531602.abstract">has revealed that</a> the act of forgiveness itself can lead us to forget the offence in question. We asked 30 participants to imagine that an individual close to them had hurt them in some way – examples included being cheated on by a partner, accused of stealing by a work colleague, or lied to by a friend. </p>
<p>We trained them to forget these incidents, and found this was easier where the incident had previously been forgiven than if it had either not been forgiven or they had not been given instructions on whether to forgive it. </p>
<h2>Rumination risks</h2>
<p>The idea that memories can be modified and intentionally forgotten is not altogether new. [For example](http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(0201923-X?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS136466130201923X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue) Sigmund Freud alerted us to the possible links between our apparent ability to control or repress upsetting memories and the consequences of doing so for our physical and mental well-being. Subsequent research in this field, however, has failed to provide unequivocal evidence of our ability to repress memory, and the idea is still a controversial one.</p>
<p>What our studies have shown is that it is possible to train people to forget information associated with memories of events that they have personally experienced – many of which are emotional and strongly related to one’s identity. And forgiveness may be an important means of achieving this. </p>
<p>Although the exact relationship between forgiveness and forgetting remains unclear, one possibility is that forgiveness may lower the tendency to ruminate or to constantly think about a particular offence. Rumination typically involves looking inwards and thinking negatively. </p>
<p>Previous research has <a href="http://www.psy.miami.edu/ehblab/Forgiveness%20and%20Revenge%20Papers/forgiveness_as_human_strength.pdf">demonstrated that</a> people ruminate more about offences they deem to be unforgivable. In other words, ruminating may prevent people from being able to forget an incident because the details, motivations and associated emotions are continually being brought to mind. This is <a href="http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Papers/Interpers%20Forgiving_II.pdf">supported by</a> other research which suggests that individuals who tend to ruminate also tend to be more unforgiving and more likely to take revenge. </p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The fact that forgiveness can influence our ability to forget details about an offence is of particular interest in view of the potential associated health benefits. Indeed, a whole new line of enquiry has begun to reveal numerous benefits for a forgiving individual. <a href="http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/VanOyenWitvliet-GrantingForgiveness.pdf">These include</a> reduced risk of heart attack, reduced blood pressure and pain and improved cholesterol and sleep. There <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8916627">are also</a> associations with lower levels of depression, hostility, anger, paranoia and inferiority. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78822/original/image-20150421-17614-13t8m7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forgiveness: research potential.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38463026@N04/3925480958/in/photolist-6YT7Jb-4GCyys-4YusUV-dGnTi6-398f1j-4dfYz4-c5AAhj-e2gmE-akXCE-dzg46c-9i4Bq2-7gdevV-eh6iMm-888QU-9ZdNsh-5tJSTc-5gJ8UQ-dGoxVP-7iS3rx-a3tAGn-nthj7x-34Ydj3-nmpJyF-7CpQZS-4A5kzT-64qbTH-3tEypR-TK2er-6Z8YAK-qvV5cc-93orTC-52x9kv-6d7xkn-3Pi5Wn-5tJXKD-9GcUVL-8wzZnv-bqs71c-6nZsvX-569wMG-8ppR6H-s7r3oL-9LKRY8-2B3CGn-9KW6ax-9UsPwm-4PJi1X-2tkwWA-7dJgqE-diyGJV">Zgrredek</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ability to forget painful memories may provide an effective coping strategy which allows people to move on and not get stuck in the past. We hope that further studies in this new field of research will eventually lead to powerful therapeutic tools. In short, the old adage that we should forgive and forget has far more potential value than we could ever have imagined.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm MacLeod receives funding from The British Academy</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saima Noreen 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>New research suggests that there is a link between the grudges we bear and our memories of the events in questionMalcolm MacLeod, Deputy Principal and Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of StirlingSaima Noreen, Lecturer in Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/362452015-01-18T19:20:05Z2015-01-18T19:20:05ZWhat happens in the brain when you no longer need the information you’ve learnt?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68946/original/image-20150114-28440-1ga94w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do you forget a subject's content as soon as the exam is over? Or forget a language once you've stopped using it? It's not gone, you might just need something to retrieve it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=103291430&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQyMTIyODU1NSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTAzMjkxNDMwIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDEwMzI5MTQzMCIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMDMyOTE0MzAvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJWeG5QaDcyR21PTzRidkxWekZpU2lmRDc3VU0iXQ%2Fshutterstock_103291430.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=redownload_standard&license=standard&src=6SgjjoEFZtQaLbjQCXBrJw-1-28">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout our lives we have multitudes of experiences that shape how we then behave in the world. Some of these lessons are learnt rapidly, such as why we shouldn’t put our hand on a hot pan on the stove. Other, more <a href="http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/memory/types-of-memory/autobiographical-memory">autobiographical</a> experiences can be stored and recalled explicitly as our memories. </p>
<p>These memories can be recalled and described, such as what we did for certain birthdays, or experiences from our holidays. We can also learn to perform certain actions and behaviours that are totally new to us – for example, learning to ride a bike and drive a car. These actions can be thought of as muscle memories, or <a href="http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/memory/types-of-memory/implicit-memory">“non-declarative” memory</a>. </p>
<h2>Forgotten - but not gone</h2>
<p>However, it seems we don’t retain all of our memories and experiences. There are times in your life when you find yourself pondering basic general knowledge questions and wonder where these gaps in information have sprung from. Despite all those hours of study at school, many of us can’t remember how to say “two beers please” in Spanish when we are on holiday, or how to work out a specific angle of a triangle, despite being proficient in these skills some years ago.</p>
<p>Why is it that we lose the information that we have learnt? Is it still there but inaccessible, or is it gone forever? </p>
<p>Memory can be thought of as having two components: storage – the process of <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory1.htm">encoding</a> a memory, and <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory3.htm">retrieval</a> – the process of recalling the memory. Memories are stored in <a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/memory/f/short-term-memory.htm">short-term memory</a> stores and then can be transferred to <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/types_long.html">long-term memory</a>. </p>
<p>Short-term memory has a limited capacity (about seven items) and duration (15-30 seconds). There are two ways in which capacity is tested, one being span, the other being recency effect. Miller’s (1956) <a href="http://www.intropsych.com/ch06_memory/magical_number_seven.html">“magic” number 7</a> (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short-term memory. </p>
<p>Most adults can store between five and nine items in their short-term memory. The duration of short-term memory seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, according to the researchers <a href="http://suppes-corpus.stanford.edu/techreports/IMSSS_173.pdf">Atkinson and Shiffrin</a> (1971). After this time the information decays and fades away unless repeated verbally (rehearsal), which keeps the information in short-term memory. Then information that survives in short-term memory can pass into long-term memory. </p>
<p>So a piece of information can be learnt through practice, making it easy to be recalled in a test a few days later. However, the strength of a memory at the time is misleading when it comes to predicting whether we will remember it in the future.</p>
<h2>‘Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain’ – Homer Simpson</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68951/original/image-20150114-6365-uogth0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">He might not be too wide of the mark, since new memories can block the recall of older memories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This suggests that acquiring new memories interferes with previously stored information, and indicates that the human brain has a limit to how much information can be stored. We do not know the capacity of the brain, or the full capacity of our memory. </p>
<p>Theoretically, the capacity of long-term memory could be unlimited, the main constraint on recall being accessibility rather than availability. The brain contains a vast number of cells that are proposed to work together as a network to encode memories and store them. </p>
<p>There is a theory of forgetting in cognitive psychology that suggests the encoding of new memories can cause interference with recall of memories previously encoded (known as <a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/tp/explanations-for-forgetting.htm">retro-active interference</a>). This interference is proposed to prevent the recall of a specific memory by competing for expression. So a new memory blocks the recall of an older memory.</p>
<h2>Retrieval failure theory</h2>
<p><a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/tp/explanations-for-forgetting.htm">Retrieval failure</a> is where the information is in long-term memory, but cannot be accessed. When we form a memory we also learn about the situation and environment. These can form retrieval cues. </p>
<p>These cues prompt the retrieval of a memory and without them the information may not be accessible. These cues act as a hint or clue that can assist memory retrieval. </p>
<p>Forgetting is greatest when the situation where the information needs to be recalled is very different from when the information was encoded. This can mean that information that we have learnt in a school environment may not be as easily retrieved when in the “real world”. So, if you had learnt the Spanish phrase for “two beers please” in a bar, you would be able to recall it easily when in the same environment again. </p>
<p>These retrieval cues can be important for people suffering with memory impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases such as <a href="https://fightdementia.org.au/about-dementia-and-memory-loss/about-dementia/types-of-dementia/alzheimers-disease">Alzheimer’s disease</a>. </p>
<p>Being unable to recall information is very upsetting. This can, in turn, cause a change in the internal (emotional) state of the person, which makes recalling a memory even more difficult. However, by providing retrieval cues such as old photographs, or returning to a childhood home, a flood of lost memories can be triggered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Reichelt receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Throughout our lives we have multitudes of experiences that shape how we then behave in the world. Some of these lessons are learnt rapidly, such as why we shouldn’t put our hand on a hot pan on the stove…Amy Reichelt, Senior Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107832013-01-28T19:37:08Z2013-01-28T19:37:08ZGoing, going, gone: the where and why of memory erasure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/19471/original/d9grtdp8-1358825756.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are there things you'd rather not remember?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Megyarsh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you could erase your memories, which ones would you choose? </p>
<p>As a neuroscientist, one of my raisons d’etre is to achieve, in a way, some form of memory erasure, especially for individuals that suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety or drug addiction. Each of these situations involves some form of persistent memory that interferes with everyday function.</p>
<p>So what can be done? The most obvious solution is to isolate the brain area that is storing the particular memory, and destroy it using electricity or chemicals. This is exactly how <a href="http://faculty.bri.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=45817">Michael Fanselow</a> and his colleagues <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15084662">showed in 2007</a> that the <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/amygdala.htm">amygdala</a> is a likely candidate for the storage site of fear memories. </p>
<p>In Fanselow’s experiment, when rats were trained to fear a tone, they showed fear to the tone even 16 months after the training episode. Chemical lesioning of the amygdala, however, abolished any fear expression to that tone, erasing the fear memory.</p>
<h2>Decay is the way</h2>
<p>Another option is to accelerate the process of memory decay. According to the <a href="http://www.simplypsychology.org/forgetting.html">trace decay theory</a> of forgetting, memories fade without rehearsals. Consistent with this idea, the neuroscientist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadin_Dudai">Yadin Dudai</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/pubmed?term=dudai%20pkm">hypothesised in 2007</a> that storage of a taste memory requires rehearsal in the form of ongoing chemical (namely, protein <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_kinase_M_zeta/Protein_kinase_C_zeta">kinase M zeta</a> – PKMζ) activity in the brain. </p>
<p>Without this activity, memories may slowly disappear beyond recovery. He attempted to accelerate this process in rats by a single injection of the PKMζ inhibitor “<a href="http://www.painresearchforum.org/news/23452-whats-pkmzeta">ZIP</a>” in the <a href="http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=341">insular cortex</a>, an area of the brain believed to be responsible for our gustatory (taste) memories. </p>
<p>These rats showed an immediate deficit in recalling a taste memory, whereas rats that did not receive ZIP displayed eventual but significantly slower rate of forgetting. Such acceleration of forgetting was claimed to be erasure in this study because the memory couldn’t be recovered in subsequent tests. </p>
<p>Attempting memory erasure via acceleration of forgetting is a familiar concept to most us. In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-forgetting-9109">previous article</a> on forgetting, I mentioned how my colleagues and I <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-02190-005">had identified</a> a neurotransmitter called gamma-amino butyric acid (<a href="http://www.anyvitamins.com/gaba-info.htm">GABA</a>) that is at least partly responsible for forgetting. </p>
<p>Alcohol greatly increases GABA activity, hence it is possible that it accelerates forgetting and even causes erasure. We can assume James Bond’s alcoholism is aimed at erasing memories of a traumatic childhood event …</p>
<h2>Pavlov’s dog</h2>
<p>For those who want memory erasure but would rather not infuse chemicals into the brain or turn to alcoholism, there may be a cognitive-behavioural solution. </p>
<p>Famously, Russian physiologist <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/ivan-petrovich-pavlov-9435332">Ian Pavlov</a>, through an initial interest in the digestive system, noticed over time that his dogs salivated not to the food but to the bell that signaled food delivery minutes earlier. </p>
<p>He coined this reaction “<a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm">conditioned reflexes</a>”, and the process of pairing an initially neutral cue (the bell) with a biologically significant stimulus (the food) is now referred to as “Pavlovian” or “classical” conditioning. Significantly, Pavlov also observed that when he rang the bell repeatedly without any food, the dog’s salivation response to the bell disappeared. </p>
<p>He referred to such reduction in responding as “extinction”, and eventually <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov-bio.html">won the Nobel Prize</a> for his lifetime of work on associative learning.</p>
<p>Extinction is a very important concept because it forms the basis of cue <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy">exposure therapy</a> for treatments of anxiety and addiction in humans. For instance, someone hit by a truck might show extreme nervousness on hearing any loud noise that resembles car honking; a therapist would then present loud noises in a safe setting until that person learns a loud noise does not mean collision with a truck is imminent, and is not afraid to go outside where there are loud noises everywhere.</p>
<h2>Extinction</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, it was later <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16616731">comprehensively shown</a> that extinction does not cause erasure – rather it is a new learning that opposes the original learning. In animals and humans, changing the environment from the one in which extinction occurred was shown to bring back the original fear or addiction behaviour. This explains why an addict can do well in a rehab but relapse as soon as he/she is returned to the real world. </p>
<p>But there is still hope. My <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17324057">colleagues and I showed</a> that when extinction is performed in juvenile rats, changing the environment or giving reminder fear cues does not bring back the fear. Fear is gone, in other words, for good: extinction is erasure in juvenile rats. </p>
<p>We are not saying that the juvenile rat is not even remembering the previous fearful experience – it may well be thinking: “hmm … yes this bad thing happened two days ago …” But the physiological reactions indicative of fear are absent in these animals due to extinction. </p>
<p>Further <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19846065">studies showed</a> that extinction in adult rats relies on an array of chemicals in a variety of brain regions but extinction in juvenile rats do not. Extinction early in life only seems to require opioid activity. </p>
<p>We are now trying to understand better why extinction, a purely non-invasive behavioural treatment, causes erasure early in life. We would like to figure this out so we can reproduce such erasure in adult animals. Then maybe we can also erase some terrible and powerful emotions some people feel.</p>
<p>Maybe one day you will be able to erase memories of an ex-lover like Joel and Clementine in the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/">Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</a>. Dr Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory also may finally wipe his memory of Ben Affleck as Daredevil.</p>
<p>I would like to erase my own memories of the past wrongdoings so I can feel better about myself. But it will probably make me a worse person. Whether memory erasure is ethical or not is outside my scope.</p>
<p>Interestingly, a study <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6065/235">published in Science</a> last year showed that opioid injected into the spine, not the brain, erased memory trace of previous electrical stimulation present in the spine. </p>
<p>This made me think that perhaps to achieve memory erasure we need to go beyond the brain. </p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-to-forget-how-to-erase-unwanted-memories-9717">Remembering to forget: how to erase unwanted memories</a> – Amy Reichelt, The Conversation</li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jee Hyun Kim receives funding from NHMRC and ARC.</span></em></p>If you could erase your memories, which ones would you choose? As a neuroscientist, one of my raisons d’etre is to achieve, in a way, some form of memory erasure, especially for individuals that suffer…Jee Hyun Kim, DECRA Fellow, Behavioural Neuroscience, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97172012-10-01T20:50:11Z2012-10-01T20:50:11ZRemembering to forget: how to erase unwanted memories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15818/original/5km9j687-1348533672.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting rid of negative memories is increasingly within our grasp.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">taylor.a</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render the idea of “normal life” impossible. </p>
<p>So what if there was a therapy that could rapidly diminish the impact such memories have over us? </p>
<p>It sounds like science fiction, or mind control. But in the last decade scientists have investigated the process of <a href="http://www.hfsp.org/frontier-science/awardees-articles/function-memory-reconsolidation-function-time">memory reconsolidation</a> to erase established memories of trauma or signals such as drug paraphernalia or locations associated with compulsive drug taking. </p>
<p>The resultant amnesia is permanent, and typically requires only a single treatment, effectively replacing the dysfunctional memory with a clean slate.</p>
<h2>Are memories set in stone?</h2>
<p>Initially, when <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-memory-9035">a memory is formed</a> it is fragile and susceptible to disruption, similar to memories that fail to form following a night of heavy drinking. </p>
<p>But once a memory becomes stabilised, or consolidated, it is in an established state that can be recollected and mentally re-experienced. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15833/original/798fbmzc-1348537443.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In the laboratory, rats are used as a model allowing the examination of learning and memory formation. Rats quickly learn to fear a sound that is present when a brief electrical shock occurs. </p>
<p>Similarly, rats will perform specific responses when a light is illuminated indicating availability of addictive drugs such as cocaine or heroin, and will prefer an environment associated with addictive drugs compared to a neutral environment. </p>
<p>Previously, <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/45/14993.full">attempts were made</a> to extinguish a maladaptive memory by repeatedly presenting signals associated with fear or drugs with no outcome (such as physical trauma or a “hit” of heroin), a technique known as <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=memory-extinction-technique-relieve-drug-cravings">extinction</a>. But the original memory is not erased; instead, a neutral memory forms in parallel. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15834/original/7xjf7ydx-1348538066.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&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="attribution"><span class="source">cheesechoker</span></span>
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<p>That means the maladaptive memory can return to control behaviour following re-exposure to certain prompts or environments.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/ff_forgettingpill/5/">Researchers</a> using laboratory rats found that consolidated memories are rendered transiently unstable (therefore temporarily susceptible to disruption) following retrieval if the outcome is unexpected – a sound no longer leads to a shock, a light no longer leads to cocaine. </p>
<p>A restabilisation process – known as reconsolidation – allows existing memories to be updated, but this short burst of new information is not salient enough to change the memory completely. </p>
<p>But the destabilised memory becomes susceptible to amnesia-inducing treatments once again. Amnesic agents have been shown to wipe the original memory to the extent that rats will no longer display fearful behaviours to the sound associated with electric shocks, respond for drugs or show preference to drug-associated environments. </p>
<p>The reminder session is crucial: rats treated with amnesic pharmaceuticals in absence of the brief initial memory retrieval session continued to show fear or drug seeking responses.</p>
<h2>From lab rats to clinical trials</h2>
<p>In humans, the distressing memories underpinning <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001923/">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD) can occur following experiences of life-threatening incidents such as military combat, assault, serious accidents or terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>Disruption of memory reconsolidation may provide the “magic bullet” to erase these damaging memories. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.druglib.com/trial/59/NCT01069159.html">Recent clinical trials</a> have been conducted with the drug <a href="http://www.drugs.com/propranolol.html">Propranolol</a>, a beta-blocker commonly used to treat hypertension, anxiety and panic. </p>
<p>The trials have demonstrated that Propranolol administration following the script driven reenactment of traumatic events within a clinical setting to recall the memory diminished the memory’s emotional component in PTSD patients - resulting in an enduring reduction in psycho-physiological responses. Put simply the emotional impact of the traumatic experience was decreased.</p>
<p>The use of certain amnesic agents such as the drug <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizocilpine">MK-801</a> may be limited outside of the laboratory. Preclinical laboratory studies have frequently used amnesia-inducing drugs in rats that can have undesirable side-effects in humans, such as hallucinations.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15831/original/84n4cnv4-1348537283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1061&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="attribution"><span class="source">.void</span></span>
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<p>In a <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6078/241.full?sid=7a0480b2-f39d-4c67-8b2b-6ad51368e18b">recent study</a>, researchers used a novel behavioural procedure that combined the brief reminder session of memories associated with drugs of abuse - destabilising the existing memory, followed by repeated presentation of drug-associated cues in the absence of drug rewards. </p>
<p>This was initially carried out in laboratory rats that were trained to administer heroin. Those that underwent memory retrieval shortly followed by extinction decreased responses to drug-associated signals, whereas responding returned in the rats that only had extinction trials. </p>
<p>This retrieval-extinction procedure was then used in abstinent human heroin addicts with identical results – persistent reductions in responses such as craving when presented with drug cues. </p>
<p>Similarly, a <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6101/1550.long">functional brain imaging study</a> was conducted with human subjects. </p>
<p>Participants were repeatedly exposed to a photo of a neutral
environment containing a lamp that was lit either in red or blue, one of the coloured images led to an electrical shock (i.e. the red lamp), so learnt to associate one image with fear while the other (i.e. the blue lamp) remained neutral. </p>
<p>This study demonstrated diminished neural activity in the <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/amygdala.htm">amygdala</a> - a brain region involved in the encoding and storage of fearful memories - in the group that had the fear memory recalled and then underwent extinction ten minutes later. </p>
<p>The decreased amygdala activity was not observed in subjects where extinction followed recall after a prolonged delay. So the extinction treatment had to occur soon after the memory was recalled, otherwise the treatment had no effect.</p>
<h2>A spotless mind?</h2>
<p>Memory reconsolidation may prove useful in treating drug addiction. Showing an addict a syringe and then extinguishing that memory by not giving the patient access to drugs may break the associative link between the stimulus and the rewarding drug. </p>
<p>Similarly, administering anxiety-decreasing drugs in conjunction with recall of traumatic experiences may persistently disrupt a fear memory and may give PTSD patients genuine remission, allowing an escape from traumatic memories. </p>
<p>Of course, ethical implications underpin the selective removal of memories. In the case of alleviating traumatic memories in PTSD or reducing drug craving it has great benefits, but what if we could simply forget a relationship that ended badly? </p>
<p>Our memories - good or bad - form parts of our identities and simply removing aspects of our character may have serious consequences. </p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-forgetting-9109">Explainer: what is forgetting?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Reichelt receives funding from Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome Trust and Universitas 21. She is affiliated with The University of Birmingham, UK and is a Visiting Fellow at The University of New South Wales, Australia.</span></em></p>Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render the…Amy Reichelt, Research Fellow in Neuroscience, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91092012-09-26T02:43:58Z2012-09-26T02:43:58ZExplainer: what is forgetting?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15524/original/9wyqgfkv-1347847496.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We all know the past disappears</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">FotoRita [Allstar maniac]</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-memory-9035">memory</a> can be defined as “a past that becomes a part of me”, can forgetting be defined as “a past that is no longer a part of me”?</p>
<p>Smokers who have abstained for years may not consciously be able to recall the sensation brought forth by smoking, but can suddenly feel craving upon seeing a smoking-related cue - often a cigarette brand logo - and relapse into smoking again. Tobacco companies know this only too well.</p>
<p>This illustrates a past that may have been forgotten but is not gone. It’s consistent with what’s known as the <a href="http://www.newhallschool.co.uk/assets/media/files/Psychology%20AS%20Work.pdf">cue-dependent theory of forgetting</a>, which states difficulty in recollection when the stimuli present during memory encoding are absent. Upon presentation of such stimuli, recollection becomes easy.</p>
<p>When a memory exists but cannot be recalled, such forgetting represents a retrieval failure. When a memory cannot be recovered in any way it represents a storage failure.</p>
<p>I have experienced such storage failure repeatedly throughout my education. Information I have studied before an exam is usually remembered during the exam. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15525/original/prs5s6x7-1347847612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&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="attribution"><span class="source">stephee</span></span>
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<p>As soon as the exam finishes, the information seems to immediately fade, mostly fading beyond recovery. It’s always made me feel like a faker. </p>
<p>This type of forgetting is consistent with what’s known as the <a href="http://www.simplypsychology.org/forgetting.html">trace decay theory</a> of forgetting. It states that without rehearsal, memory will gradually decay over time, to disappear for ever.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, both psychological theories outlined above are very limited in terms of explaining forgetting. </p>
<p>Cue-dependent theory is criticised because memories can generalise over time, their elements becoming less specific. Trace decay theory fails to explain different fading speeds of different memories.</p>
<h2>Infantile amnsesia</h2>
<p>Neuroscience comes to the rescue at this point. What happens to the brain when something is forgotten? Although there are not many studies, some insight on the neural basis of forgetting has been provided by <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110511074803.htm">infantile amnesia</a> research.</p>
<p>Infantile amnesia commonly refers to the general inability to remember experiences that happened early in life, before three to five years of age. This is a pervasive phenomenon displayed by all humans. </p>
<p>Even Dr Sheldon Cooper of TV’s The Big Bang Theory – who has photographic, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory">eidetic</a>, memory – <a href="http://publishingintransition.wordpress.com/2011/03/">cannot recall events</a> prior to “that drizzly Tuesday” when his mother stopped breastfeeding him.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15520/original/bjppqcpz-1347846898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aspa2006</span></span>
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<p>Importantly, infantile amnesia is not due to an inability to form episodic memories before that age. Children younger than three years have been shown to be able to encode specific episodic memories and even remember them for two years. </p>
<p>Instead, these memories do not persist into later childhood and adulthood, indicating children forget at a more rapid rate than adults. </p>
<p>Amazingly, infantile amnesia is ubiquitous. It is believed to occur in all <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Precocial_and_Altricial.html">altricial</a> species (species that, like us, require parental care after birth), and has been observed even in worms, goldfish, chickens and rats. These species require care-givers to survive into adulthood. </p>
<p>This is in contrast to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precocial">precocial</a> species (species that don’t require parental care) such as guinea pigs, that do not require care-giving to survive.</p>
<h2>Rats!</h2>
<p>In 1962, Byron A Campbell and his wife Enid Campbell <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1963-02678-001">showed that juvenile rats</a> forget considerably faster than adult rats. They trained rats of various ages to avoid the black chamber of a black–white shuttle box. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15521/original/rj4395hv-1347847201.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"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flood</span></span>
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<p>This memory retrieval was measured by the latency to enter the black chamber when placed in the white chamber. When tested immediately after training, rats of all ages were equally able to express avoidance of the black chamber. </p>
<p>But when testing occurred later, infant rats showed nearly complete forgetting after seven days, whereas adult rats showed nearly perfect avoidance of the black chamber even after 42 days. </p>
<p>This finding has since been replicated with different learning paradigms and different species, including humans.</p>
<p>Since that time, infantile amnesia has been placed in a “too hard basket” and has not been studied, although most psychologists believed that it was a very important clue to how our memory works.</p>
<h2>GABA</h2>
<p>In 2006, more than 40 years after the original study, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-02190-005">my colleagues and I showed</a> that a neurotransmitter called <a href="http://www.anyvitamins.com/gaba-info.htm">gamma-aminobutyric acid</a> (GABA) is involved in infantile amnesia. </p>
<p>Reducing GABA allowed juvenile rats to retrieve a forgotten fear memory. In the mammalian brain, GABA is the king of <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v226/n5252/abs/2261222a0.html">inhibitory communication</a>. Removing this inhibition removed whatever was blocking the fear memory from being retrieved. </p>
<p>Freud <a href="http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-is-childhood-amnesia">was right</a>: infantile amnesia involves repression of aversive memories that can recover later in life!</p>
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<p>But this recovery of memory in rats was only possible ten days after the memory was made, and reducing GABA had no effects after 60 days. So sometime between ten to 60 days in these rats, roughly equivalent to a period of between eight months to five years for us, forgetting turned from being a retrieval failure to storage failure.</p>
<p>In the latest follow-up to this study, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21963362">my colleagues and I reported</a> this year that a brain region called the <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/amygdala.htm">amygdala</a>, a very primitive part of the brain responsible for emotion, expressed traces of fear memory that was forgotten by the juvenile rat. </p>
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<p>That trace was in the form of increased activation of a chemical called <a href="http://www.cellsignal.com/reference/pathway/MAPK_Cascades.html">mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)</a> in the neurons, an important kinase (an enzyme involved in the transfer of energy within cells) necessary for gene activation and transcription. </p>
<p>Perhaps this is part of the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engram_(neuropsychology)">engram</a>” (a presumed means by which memory traces are stored as biochemical changes in the brain, allowing retrieval of forgotten memories) scientists have been hunting for decades. </p>
<p>Understanding infantile amnesia may provide a key to unlock the secrets of forgetting that some happy individuals appear to possess. After all, people who develop a post-traumatic stress disorder following a traumatic event suffer from lack of forgetting.</p>
<p>And there are still so many other questions. Is memory erasure possible? What about reconstruction of memories? Will Jason Bourne ever completely recover from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD-uQreIwEk">his amnesia</a> caused by physical trauma? </p>
<p>I will attempt to answer these questions in forthcoming articles.</p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-memory-9035">Explainer: what is memory?</a></p>
<p><br>
<em>See more <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/explainer">Explainer articles</a> on The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jee Hyun Kim receives funding from ARC and NHMRC.</span></em></p>If memory can be defined as “a past that becomes a part of me”, can forgetting be defined as “a past that is no longer a part of me”? Smokers who have abstained for years may not consciously be able to…Jee Hyun Kim, Head of Developmental Psychobiology Lab, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.