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Mon 20 Aug, 2007 08:31 pm
I have a weird memory retrieval system (I'm learning about such things in my learning disabilities class right now). Some psych types have defined the brain's memory system as a filing cabinet. A memory is made, filed in a sensical way and can be recalled at will by going to that sensical place and looking for it. Recently, the analogy ha changed a bit to a more complex web of memory (don't ask me to get into more detail, I can't - if anyone else wants to, feel free).
My memory isn't so bad when I want to recall things (it's not great either). If someone asks me about a conversation we had last year, I am likely able to remember much of it, or at least the gist of it.
The odd thing is that I have memories which I can't identify. Like just now I recalled, seemingly randomly, being in a house with several people having a pleasant fruity (lime) beverage. I know it was a house in the Southwestern united states. I can place it, therefore, somewhere between 1989 and 1994 (when I lived there - including the dig I did in UT). I can see clearly the white walls, some of which were open, the sliding glass doors, the pitcher with the beverage. I can recall knicknacks (tho with little detail) on the half-wall tops and tables. I know someone pointed out a plant. I chatted with someone about an item...... compliments on the beverage. I am even pretty sure it was during the 8 weeks in 1989 that I was on the dig in UT.
But I have no idea who I was with, who's house it was, or where the house was. I can't picture faces there. It's almost feels like a dream, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
Is this normal?
Do you remember the recreational drugs you were taking at the time?
(jes' kiddin')
Heeheee...... just the lime beverage. But, I don't even remember whether it was alcoholic or not.
I think so. Things get a little crowded with so many experiences and events in life vying for space in our memories. Some things we retain better than others, I guess. You might remember bits and pieces of a thing, just as you described.
Sure it's normal.
If, like you said, a memory is made and filed....then it only makes sense that sometimes an item might get mis-filed and is running around loose in your mind without any context.
It's a pain in the butt. But, I'm glad it isn't an important memory.
By the way, the incident of mis-filing, when a high enough rate, is considered a learning disability.
littlek wrote:It's a pain in the butt. But, I'm glad it isn't an important memory.
how do you know? maybe it's the most important memory you SHOULD have. but i guess you'll never know, so who'd miss it.
Here's one. Tell me if you do this too...
When trying to place any particular event in time, I narrow down what year it happened based on which apartment I was living in at the time. That's how most of my memories are filed.
Eoe - I do try to narrow it down. In the above example, I thought about the house itself and its furnishings - definitely SW. SW had to be the summer of 1989 or between december 1990 and august 1994. But in te latter chunk of time, I'm pretty sure I knew no one with such $$$. So, I'm pretty sure it was during the dig. We used to take weekend excursions to sites around the dig site. Sometimes we went with long-time diggers. I'm guessing we stopped at a friend of a long-time digger's. But I STILL don't know the details!
I have had very distinct parts to my life in the places (states and apartments) I've lived. It helps me to figure out where and when stuff happened.
Dasha will tell you she compartmentalizes with music.
Geez - I hope he keeps that memory for life!
Ha! You use what you've got.
littlek wrote:Dasha will tell you she compartmentalizes with music.
Very true. I remember events by what music was playing... Usually when I hear a song for the first time, I'll remember where - that is if it's a memorable enough occasion. Say, when I hear Wilco - Don't Forget the Flowers Sunday - that was arriving into a campground in Bar Harbor. Tom Ze -Fliperama - that was driving up Mount Cadillac.
In fact, I made my ex- The Monster- a tape that had a musical history of our then five years long relationship - from the first time that we met, before we even got together (Big Star - Why Don't You Come On Back from Way Out West) through all sorts of memorable events to breakup, annotated on 4 single spaced pages (linking the songs to our turning points, making it a long musical narrative of what we've been through). He said it was the best gift he have ever gotten from anyone, and I tend to agree, if I may say so myself. It was bloody awesome.
dag, music is a very common way to recall memories. That's why movies use certain songs that can evoke familiar feelings from that time period.
A Bronx Tale was full of 60's music....switching back and forth beween Motown and Hendrix/Doors.
The same with Goodfellas and Forrest Gump.
The songs set the stage that was already built in our memory.
It's called teaching to previous knowledge. Memory is best constructed when you have a nugget already in place onto which you can anchor new knowledge.
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