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Fri 23 Mar, 2007 03:58 pm
In my brain there are snippets of what are seemingly worthless memories (i.e. reading passages in a book/newspaper article that wasn't particularly interesting, certain conversations that weren't all that meaningful or out of the ordinary). All kinds of stuff that doesn't seem relevant to me now nor did it back then. There are certainly things that would seem more "memorable", and have spent more time/thought on that I have forgotten.
I guess my question is, what causes the brain to retain these snippets of seemingly random memories? Why does it filter others out?
*The memories I have in mind are roughly in the range of 5-15 years ago (I'm 19 now).
That's kinda funny, I was just thinking this myself. I can vividly recall a phrase from a letter sent to me when I was probably 14. I am currently 44 years old. Wacky.
When I'm in a priggish mood, I think the phenomenon might be related to "If you don't watch out, your face is going to freeze like that."
Meanwhile, my snippets of trivia usually aren't shared with anyone else.
Re: long-term memory retention
lordofdabu wrote:In my brain there are snippets of what are seemingly worthless memories (i.e. reading passages in a book/newspaper article that wasn't particularly interesting, certain conversations that weren't all that meaningful or out of the ordinary). All kinds of stuff that doesn't seem relevant to me now nor did it back then. There are certainly things that would seem more "memorable", and have spent more time/thought on that I have forgotten.
I guess my question is, what causes the brain to retain these snippets of seemingly random memories? Why does it filter others out?
*The memories I have in mind are roughly in the range of 5-15 years ago (I'm 19 now).
I used to know the answer to that.
I've often wondered the same thing; usually it's some seemingly insignificant moment or incident that I can recall so clearly and I wonder why did that stick in my memory for my whole life??
The writings of G. I Gurdjieff (see Google) talk of memories being linked to "the shining of the torch of attention" which children naturally possess but adults rarely use. Gurdjieff asked adults "whose comments did they remember from a conversational exchange ?". The answer was usually "their own" implying that "attention" was "wrongly" focused.
I have such memories going back much further. I recall a woman calling my house in 1972 when I was 12 and it was a wrong number. Not a very interesting memory. I can also recall an instance when I was walking down the street and nothing happened. Interesting.
"The other day I...........no wait, that wasn't me."
--------Steven Wright
Well memories are stored in a very jumbled fashion, they seemed to be strongly linked through associativity, and in fact I have heard that even individual memories are not stored in localized regions but are reconstructed from bits stored all over the place, so it is not surprising that remembering one thing may job the memory of a similar thing, or completely random new thing. Everything that we do gets stored as a memory, and the ones that don't get positive reinforcement will gradually lose their connections (much before ever being erased) meaning that they are there but not accessible, and so it stands to reason that some completely unimportant memories would continue to receive positive stimulation simply by chance if they are on the pathway to an important memory.
Quote:And suddenly my whole life passed before my eyes. I saw myself as a kid again, in Kansas, going to school, swimming at the swimming hole, and fishing, frying up a mess-o-catfish, going down to the general store, getting a piece of gingham for Emmy-Lou. And I realise it's not my life.
Woody Allen ("Down South")
I had that woody allen bit on a tape I used to listen to on long drives in the car.
Remember bits of it quite well, for what it is or isn't worth.
ty stuh, that makes pretty good sense.
Im sorry lordofdabu? What was that?
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