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Memory

Memory is essential for knowing what we have experienced in the past. The document discusses childhood amnesia and theories for why early memories are not retained. It also examines the reliability of memory and how false memories can be implanted through suggestion. Memory is influenced by language and is important for identity and cultural knowledge. New technologies now allow the study of memory through brain imaging.

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29K views

Memory

Memory is essential for knowing what we have experienced in the past. The document discusses childhood amnesia and theories for why early memories are not retained. It also examines the reliability of memory and how false memories can be implanted through suggestion. Memory is influenced by language and is important for identity and cultural knowledge. New technologies now allow the study of memory through brain imaging.

Uploaded by

api-202268486
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Memory

Where would we be without


memory?

How do we know without memory?

Is
memor
ya
WOK?

The importance of memory


can be highlighted by
imagining the challenges that
would be presented by losing
our memory.
DISCUSSION: What do you do to remember things? Does your memory
of these events change because of the souvenirs you create?
What do you remember well? What do you tend to forget easily?

l
a
r
u
d
e
c
Pro
e
g
d
e
l
w
o
kn

And if we forget?
TASK: think of your most distant childhood memory

Childhood amnesia

General inability of
people to remember
specific events from
the early years of
their lives

The average age of the


earliest memory reported is
about 3.5 years old. Yet,
women tend to be able to
go back a bit further.

Freud explained childhood amnesia


(and almost everything else) by
sexual repression
Some theories suggest that
childrens brains are not
equipped to store
memories because there
are not enough connections
between the brain cells and
the memory storage areas
are immature.
Some theories suggest that because
cognition is influenced by language,
we dont remember this pre-linguistic
stage. Maybe the memories are stored
in a form we cant access anymore.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/29/chimp-intelligence-aymu-matsuzawa-kyoto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkNV0rSndJ0
"We've concluded through the cognitive tests that chimps have
extraordinary memories," Matsuzawa says. "They can grasp things at a
glance. As a human, you can do things to improve your memory, but
you will never be a match for Ayumu."

The answer lies inevolution, says Matsuzawa. As humans


evolved and acquired new skills notably the ability to use
language to communicate and collaborate they lost others
they once shared with their common simian ancestors. "Our
ancestors may have also had photographic memories, but
we lost that during evolution so that we could acquire new
skills," he says. "To get something, we had to lose
something.
For the chimps, the ability to memorise the location of
objects is critical to their survival in the wild, where they
compete for food with other, often aggressive, ape
communities. To thrive, an individual chimp must be able to
Visual
memory
versus
other
typesnote
of the
look up
at, say,
asprawling
fig tree
and quickly
location of the ripe fruit. memory.
DISCUSSION: What is the link between language and
memory?

How reliable is our memory?

Elizabeth Loftus at TED (the fiction of


memory):

Contamination of memory
through misinformation

The misinformation
effect

Language
and
memory
We can change each others memory
(Loftus)

FALSE MEMORIES

DISCUSSION: Have you ever had a false memory (which you are
aware of)? Do you think you may have had a false memory
planted into your head at some stage?

Do you
sometimes
have a
memory of
yourself which
includes the
visual image
of yourself as
if you were
seen by
someone
else?
Do you
reconstruct
the memory of
your life
story?

My own (false)
photographic story

Facebook: what will


it do with your
memory?
Better
looking
?
more
popular
?

More
excitin
g?
funnier
?

Suggestion in(bad)
psychotherapy

False memories were planted by psychiatrist


on Cool (1986)

Success rate for


planting false
memories

Nearly
drowned:
50%

Attacked
by a
dog:50%

Lost in
shopping
mall: 25 %

You witnessed
demonic
possession

How false memories


change your behaviours

Disgust

Or appetite?
Discussion: what are the ethical implications of
such memory
experiments?
Would you implant false memories in your children to make them
eat vegetables?
Is there any situation in which we could justify planting false
memories?
Could we justify planting false memories from a utilitarian point of

The abuse of memory in the


world
Pre-Raphaelite art

The Aryan Myth

Our memory of
colonisation

Link
to
AOK

See Curtiss
The Living
Dead
epsiode 1
(website)

Discussion: can you find other


real-life examples where memory
is/has been abused around the
world?

CIA interest in leading memory psychologists


during the Cold War era.

CASE STUDY: Tabula Rasa therapies by therapist


Cameron
For full documentary: See Adam Curtis: The living
dead, episode 2, 19.25mins 23mins.
website: www.sohowdoweknow.weebly.com)

Memory and sense perception


(WOK)
Proust: A la recherche du temps perdu.

Emotions and memory


(WOK)
Emotional
events are often
memorable

Emotions from the past may


influence your judgements
today

Discussion: can you find


examples of your own life
of such memories?

Flashbulb
memories
(what you did
on 09/11)

Science, technology and memory


(AOK)
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/jmb86/memory.pdf

Neuroscience and
psychobiological
research on the
mechanics of memory

Memory research through


technology
The field is a fertile frontier where modern
toolscomputers and functional magnetic
resonance imagingopen new windows.
Using fMRI, one group of researchers found
that thought patterns used to recall the past
are strikingly similar to those used to
imagine the future.
In another, researchers scanned the brains
of people who had watched short films
repeatedly, until the memories were fully
encoded, or stored, in the brain. A computer
analyzed the scans as the participants
recalled
the
films.
Not
only
could
researchers predict which movie was being
recalled, but they found that the patterns of
brain activity among different participants
were incredibly consistent. (University of
Virginia)

Memory and our sense of


self
Memory and identity
Who we are, where we came from
Memory and cultural identity

DISCUSSION TASK: Which


knowledge questions could you
come up with based on this
lecture?

PLENARY

Memory, and particularly habit, has a strong link to


procedural knowledge and remembering how to
perform actions. In contrast to perception, memory
refers to things which are not currently happening.
And in contrast to imagination, memory refers to
things which we believe really happened. Some
would argue that memory is not itself a source of
knowledge, but instead is a process which we use to
recall knowledge gained in the past.
However, although memory refers to knowledge
gained in the past, it can be argued that even new
knowledge is dependent on and influenced by
memory. For example, how we interpret new
situations can be heavily influenced by experience
and previous events. In this way, apart from being a
storage unit for existing knowledge, memory can
also be a mechanism that allows us to process new
and unique situations.

Many discussions of knowledge tend to


focus on how beliefs and knowledge are
formed rather than on how they are
remembered by the individual.
However, most of the knowledge that
individuals have is in the form of memory
and therefore how we retain information
and how past events and experiences are
reconstructed is an important aspect of
how personal knowledge is formed.

Because so much of our personal


knowledge is in the form of memory,
issues surrounding the reliability of
memory are also crucial.
Memory retrieval is often regarded as
unreliable, for example, because it is
seen to be subjective or heavily
influenced by emotion.
See documentary: The mystery of memory
(scientific explanation, the effects of emotion on memory)

Memory
Can we know things which are beyond
our personal present experience?
Is eyewitness testimony a reliable
source of evidence?
Can our beliefs contaminate our
memory?

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