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This seemed unrelated to short term memory but maybe I am misreading. "There are no images flashing through my head reminding me of the first time I ate a hamb

This seemed unrelated to short term memory but maybe I am misreading. "There are no images flashing through my head reminding me of the first time I ate a hamburger, or all the barbecues I’ve attended, or the time after marching in the Rose Parade that I ate Burger King because Burger King gave out free burgers to participants at the end of the route. No. There is just blank space. There is chewing. Swallowing. The end of hunger." I think they may have forgotten how people eat burgers. I don't think anyone has flashbacks of their previous burgers while eating their current one. That sounds really odd in general.

Jtsummers 10y ago
People won't generally have flashbacks to "normal" instances of eating or doing something, but may to something that's particularly emotionally charged. When eating a grilled chicken sandwich with a particular flavor combination, I have strong specific recollections of a first date with a woman who I really wanted it to work out with. But I won't have any sort of recollection (without effort and searching on my part) of other instances of eating grilled chicken sandwiches. Not just with foods, either. Performing certain actions, like swinging a sledge hammer or axe, brings me back to certain specific moments in my life of performing manual labor with people I cared about (really good friends at the time) that I haven't seen or heard from in years (pre-Facebook, several major moves for all of us and we just got disconnected). It doesn't happen every time, but it happens.
VLM 10y ago
If you're cooking, Kaizen is the only path. If you're not cooking, you're probably just too young. I can distinctly remember a couple burgers right before or after "major life events" often when the local population increased or decreased by one. I wouldn't recommend fast food as a significant fraction of a diet, but a good excuse for using the drive thru is returning home from the delivery room or a funeral too tired or not in the mood to cook. Or the last time I saw someone was the party at the park where traditional fare such as grilled burgers was probably served, great uncle Tony's last family reunion picnic was at age 82 and he was doing really good right up to the end. If you eat junk food every day it makes it less special. I'm sure I drank water the day my father died; of course I drink water every day. I eat a mostly healthy diet most of the time so junk food usually involves something memorable. I'm also older, so nostalgic about back in the old days when Americans were mostly thin and non-diabetic, back when mom and dad only got us that new "Mcdonalds" stuff for a very special occasion ... Kids these days who are 300 pounds from eating mcdonalds 2 or 3 times daily will never associate fast food with special events the way gen-x and older people associated it. In 1980 McDonalds burger meant you were in the back of the station wagon for 8 hour road trip to visit grandma for surprise birthday or mom didn't feel like cooking dinner after grandpas funeral. In 2010 your average 400 pound american eats fast food every day, supposedly. Just like we're told over and over we all watch 16 hours per day of TV on average, by people who make money selling TV ad time, even when we don't know anyone who watches that much.
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  Right, the frequency of the correlated events (eating the burger at the family reunion in your case) matters. Taking my physical labor example, I did crossfit for a bit (well, crossfit-lite). They had us swinging a sledgehammer, certainly not something I do every day. So my first few times doing it I had strong recollections of my earlier experiences doing manual labor with friends (scouts and, later, work). But as I continued with the class, those recollections became less frequent because the activity became more common (or the recollections didn't stick because there was no longer a one-off flash of recollection, but a frequent recurring recollection that diluted the impact).
DanBC 10y ago
People have different levels of internal dialogue, and different experiences of picturing things in their minds. So someone not experiencing flashbacks might just be that they're not the kind of person who has those flashbacks even with strong triggers. Aphantsia has been mentioned a few times on HN. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34039054 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34039054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10148792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10148792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894

Jtsummers 10y ago

People won't generally have flashbacks to "normal" instances of eating or doing something, but may to something that's particularly emotionally charged. When eating a grilled chicken sandwich with a particular flavor combination, I have strong specific recollections of a first date with a woman who I really wanted it to work out with. But I won't have any sort of recollection (without effort and searching on my part) of other instances of eating grilled chicken sandwiches. Not just with foods, either. Performing certain actions, like swinging a sledge hammer or axe, brings me back to certain specific moments in my life of performing manual labor with people I cared about (really good friends at the time) that I haven't seen or heard from in years (pre-Facebook, several major moves for all of us and we just got disconnected). It doesn't happen every time, but it happens.

VLM 10y ago

If you're cooking, Kaizen is the only path. If you're not cooking, you're probably just too young. I can distinctly remember a couple burgers right before or after "major life events" often when the local population increased or decreased by one. I wouldn't recommend fast food as a significant fraction of a diet, but a good excuse for using the drive thru is returning home from the delivery room or a funeral too tired or not in the mood to cook. Or the last time I saw someone was the party at the park where traditional fare such as grilled burgers was probably served, great uncle Tony's last family reunion picnic was at age 82 and he was doing really good right up to the end. If you eat junk food every day it makes it less special. I'm sure I drank water the day my father died; of course I drink water every day. I eat a mostly healthy diet most of the time so junk food usually involves something memorable. I'm also older, so nostalgic about back in the old days when Americans were mostly thin and non-diabetic, back when mom and dad only got us that new "Mcdonalds" stuff for a very special occasion ... Kids these days who are 300 pounds from eating mcdonalds 2 or 3 times daily will never associate fast food with special events the way gen-x and older people associated it. In 1980 McDonalds burger meant you were in the back of the station wagon for 8 hour road trip to visit grandma for surprise birthday or mom didn't feel like cooking dinner after grandpas funeral. In 2010 your average 400 pound american eats fast food every day, supposedly. Just like we're told over and over we all watch 16 hours per day of TV on average, by people who make money selling TV ad time, even when we don't know anyone who watches that much.

Jtsummers 10y ago
Right, the frequency of the correlated events (eating the burger at the family reunion in your case) matters. Taking my physical labor example, I did crossfit for a bit (well, crossfit-lite). They had us swinging a sledgehammer, certainly not something I do every day. So my first few times doing it I had strong recollections of my earlier experiences doing manual labor with friends (scouts and, later, work). But as I continued with the class, those recollections became less frequent because the activity became more common (or the recollections didn't stick because there was no longer a one-off flash of recollection, but a frequent recurring recollection that diluted the impact).

DanBC 10y ago

People have different levels of internal dialogue, and different experiences of picturing things in their minds. So someone not experiencing flashbacks might just be that they're not the kind of person who has those flashbacks even with strong triggers. Aphantsia has been mentioned a few times on HN. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34039054 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34039054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10148792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10148792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894