Human memory doesn’t work like a video camera, simply recording a scene as it happens. But researchers know how to help children recall information accurately.
People are puzzled when they learn they share the same false memories with others. That’s partly because they assume that what they remember and forget ought to be based only on personal experience.
A side-effect of pandemic response measures has been the impact on our mental health. But memory problems are a natural response to the environments created by the lockdowns.
Wolf Gruner, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Holocaust scholars long relied on documents and survivor testimonies to help reconstruct the history of that tragic event. Now, they’re turning to wordless witnesses to learn more: pictures.
Ex-pats continually reconstruct mental simulations of scenes, smells, sounds and sights from those places – sometimes causing stressful feelings and anxiety.
Psychologists know babies can form memories soon after birth. So why can’t people remember anything that happened to them before around age 2? A child development expert describes possible reasons.
Researchers used a test designed for babies to show that rhesus monkeys can sense their own heartbeats. The finding opens up important paths of research into consciousness and mental health issues.