"What Happens in the Brain When We Misremember" by Simon Makin is a very interesting article that I have studied. In order to show that our memories aren't nearly as reliable as we think they are, scientists Henry Roediger and Kathleen McDermott set up an experiment in 1995 where they gave subjects a list of words that all related to the word "cold" like freezing, ice, chilly, but the word "cold" was not actually present. When asked later to recall as many words as they could, cold was repeated very often. This experiment shows us that our memories are really just a mixture of what we really saw or experienced and what our minds might associate with those experiences.
I think that this is a very interesting finding. It reminds me of a podcast called The Hidden Brain where they tell us why eye-witnesses are typically quite unreliable. They relate a story about a woman who had been assaulted. When they presented different men before her who were suspects of committing the crime, she chose the wrong person, insisting that it was him who had done it. They found out later that it was not in fact the man that had assaulted her, even though she was totally convinced that she recognized his face. When traumatic things happen to us, or other events that cause our adrenaline to be released, we tend to be much less observant than we usually are. When we are asked about these experiences afterwards, out mind will fill in the blanks with what it thinks should be there.
This is important to society because we need to be conscious of the fact that our minds can trick us. Makin tells that to remember that even though it can be a very good thing that our minds can fill in the blanks for us (what he calls a "gist memory") to help us retrieve true memories, it can also be a very negative thing when we start getting into legal issues. I love studying the way the mind works, because it helps me to understand why I think the way I do, or rather, why I am who I am, and I think that it's important for everybody to understand those things, in order to have a more understanding society.
This is quite interesting. As I read I felt like I could relate to the experiment performed by scientists Roediger and McDermott due to the many conversations I have conducted with other individuals where my memory of what was said was altered, just like who the test patients repeated the word "cold" even though that word wasn't stated. I would be curious to learn more about Makin and his experiments he had to conduct in order to find "gist memory." I also agree that our society (especially politically) would better communicate and understand if we were able to remember more of what was said and done.
ReplyDeleteTL
Why do you think that a more traumatic experience would cause people to tend to forget the details? Is there something in the brain that reacts to block this memory? And would the same thing happen in a very exciting, positive event? I ask these questions because I want to know more about the chemical reactions that happen in our brains naturally, that may be there to protect us.
ReplyDeleteM.E.
This is a really good question. From what I was able to research, memory is not like a movie we hit play to recollect information. Memory works like putting pieces of a puzzle together. In the process of recollecting those pieces, some pieces might be lost or replaced with pieces that never really existed in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIn the case for negative memories, our brains actually tend to suppress details that can be painful or extremely stressful. But there are also extensive studies connecting stress hormones released from adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex epinephrine and cortisol, respectively, with consolidation of memory. Making traumatic experiences be relived such as in PTSD. There are also studies that link the effectiveness of these stress hormones in memory consolidation depends directly on the arousal of the amygdala in the brain. So, for memory consolidation in stressful situations depend on stress hormones released by the adrenal gland and the amygdala. Hope that helps.
Comment posted by SRH.
I find this article and your blog comment very interesting, because it almost sounds like in some aspects, our minds are more in control of us than we are in control of it. This reminds me about a science class that I had, where we learned that there are some people who have experienced extremely traumatic events, and their minds have completely forget the situation as a defense mechanism. The statement that stood out to me the most in the article was “Our minds normally construct memories using a blend of remembered experiences and knowledge about the world”. So even in normal situations, we are, in some ways, we are living through our own realities and versions of the world, even if we are experiencing the exact same things. I also find it interesting that our memory is a blend of what we know and what we retain from an experience. It’s incredible to think that if two people have a completely different idea of what a situation will be like, even if they experience it in exact same way, they will remember it partially based upon what their prior understanding of the situation was.
ReplyDeleteCZ
Very interesting article shedding light on the pathways the brain uses to recollect memory and how unreliable it can be. After reading this article I would be very cautious to take someone's testimony as an eye witness of as key point in determining if someone is guilty or not. SRH
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be quite interesting, just based on the fact that I love crime/police investigation television shows. It is very often that in these types of shows the first thing investigators due is to ask witnesses what they saw and many times this leads to a conviction. I also know that in real life trials that eye-witness accounts are usually very important and can make or break a case. So it makes me wonder how many times a person has gone to jail based mostly or even solely on a "gist memory" rather than actual evidence. It's incredible fascinating to think about.
ReplyDeleteAAH
i was wondering if they don't really trust the victim because of the adrenaline rush, do they still take into consideration what he/she might think? or do they just use the information they are given to try and pin point the actual criminal?
ReplyDeleteRG
DeleteI really enjoyed this review. the article seems to be very intriguing to me because i love learning about how individuals think. this concept of "misremembering" is one that is so important. its so interesting that our brains will fill in the blanks with what it thinks should be there rather than what actually happened. I would like to go more in depth with how it relates to traumatic experiences, or when our adrenaline is released. i can see how this can work against us as a society when we are trying to figure out what had happened in crime scenes and who saw what occur.
ReplyDelete-MM
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started reading your article I thought of eye witness accounts as well. Besides memory I believe interpetation also plays a role in what we remember. In eye witness accounts the angle can impact what is seen as well. Did they conduct more experiements? Did they have any suggestions on strengthening that portion of the brain so that the misremember is less? I find the brain interesting. For example, our brains can read things that are spelled wrong but read them correctly and sometime not even notice the spelling was wrong. We are also able to fill in words that are missing. There is an article in LiveScience that has this statement: S1M1L4RLY, Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17. Do you think the context of misremember is impacted by our brains ability to read words that are jumbled? Our brains seem to automatically do many things without us even thinking about it.
Interesting topic.
Thanks,
RW
It is very interesting that our minds can work in such a way that it seems to “feel in the gaps” of experiences for what it thinks might be the most reasonable thing for a solution or idea. Also the fact that our adrenaline plays a part in our memory is a very curious concept. Could it be that memories gained during moments of adrenaline leave a more vivid imprint in a person’s mind than that of a ‘normal’ memory per say? It is an interesting concept to consider. Our minds do in fact play games… unfortunately.
ReplyDelete-JA
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