7 ms·

Is the Immediate Playback of Events Changing Children’s Memories?

86 points by myth_drannon 7y ago

trevyn 7y ago
Is there a workaround for the NYT paywall that I’m missing? They’re blocking incognito windows now somehow.
- ALittleLight 7y ago
  I've always gotten through by disabling JavaScript and refreshing the page.
- rjf72 7y ago
  Going to depend on your browser. The default settings I use in Brave (third party trackers blocked, third party cookies blocked, device recognition blocked) disables their paywall. I actually thought they had removed it as, notably, I did not disable scripts for their site. Toggling each option, it seems that third party trackers are likely what's triggering it. I still don't get a paywall but I get all sorts of other spam on the page loading - I'm assuming they give 'x' free page views per tracked ID. So perhaps search for a plugin that can achieve similar anti-tracking functionality, or use Brave. If you go that route, the options are on the lion icon - top right. They toggle per site if you want to do something like disable/enable tracking/scripts etc for a single domain.
- mallomarmeasle 7y ago
  Best workaround is to pay to be a subscriber, and support quality journalism
  - trevyn 7y ago
    I have no money and have no intention of acquiring any.
    - catacombs 7y ago
      If you have no intention of acquiring any money, how will you pay for things?
      - trevyn 7y ago
        I believe that we are heading toward a society where money is far less important than it currently is, and I enjoy discovering how this might work, and what a transition might look like.
        catacombs 7y ago
        How will you pay for an internet connection to post comments on HN, then? Last I heard, ISPs don't take crops as a form of payment.
  - dougmwne 7y ago
    Where can I buy quality journalism from? I don't think the NYT qualifies, and I'm saying that because most articles lack substance, not because I'm bothered by its bias.
    - anchpop 7y ago
      WaPo is pretty good, as is Reuters. Forbes is also decent in my experience.
      - jkeuhlen 7y ago
        Forbes is good and bad. It's good when written by Forbes, but half of the articles I come across there these days are from "contributors" which can be just as bad as reading HuffPo.
      - catacombs 7y ago
        I agree with jkeuhlen: Forbes has been on the decline for years. The same goes for HuffPost. You're better off with WaPo and, if you need a general wire service, the AP.
    - catacombs 7y ago
      > Where can I buy quality journalism from? The Washington Post > I don't think the NYT qualifies, and I'm saying that because most articles lack substance, not because I'm bothered by its bias. You must be reading the Opinion section. Their News section is a separate entity and one of the best in the country.
    - dredmorbius 7y ago
      Bloomberg impresses me. I did a somewhat roundabout assessment of online quality a few years back, some interesting standouts: Tracking the Conversation: FP Global 100 Thinkers on the Web https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/tracking_the_conversation_fp_global_100_thinkers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/trackin...
- alexpetralia 7y ago
  Drop the link into: archive.is
- Whinner 7y ago
  In Chrome, F12 to open dev tools. Go to the Application header. Click on Clear Storage on the left pane. Click the clear site data button. Reload the page
sysbin 7y ago
I'm not sure if I agree with the reshaping idea. I do share the opinion that a person gains more self awareness for how others see them when examining the self from third person. Although, I don't assume the past first-person memories would be modified or altered and if they were ingrained moments. The brain doesn't know to overlap memories by some hidden timestamp of oh these both happened at the same time! Another way of looking at it is if I hated some type of vegetable young and enjoy it now. I still remember how I used to hate it when I was young. Furthermore, I think kids have an advantage nowadays if they want to master some type of choreography by examining how people view them on stage.
- beenBoutIT 7y ago
  Instant replay is definitely an advantage for any kid interested in showbiz.
- apatters 7y ago
  I'm just a layperson, but from what I understand, the prevailing theory about memories in psychology is that they have active and dormant states. These correlate roughly with short-term and long-term memory and are even related to different regions of the brain. Memories in an active state are malleable--things that happen, emotions you experience etc. are prone to influencing the content of the memory. Eventually it gets "filed away" in a dormant state and doesn't change much unless it's reactivated, which can be triggered by vivid, related experiences. (Interestingly, there's research which shows that a reactivated memory becomes malleable again for as long as it is active, so current events can influence how you remember past ones.) The theory in the article seems to line up with this, if you immediately view a video of something you just did, the memory is still malleable and you're more likely to remember it in a third person rather than first person context. If you view the video a few days or a week later, the memory may not be as malleable as it was at the time of creation. Curious as to why you disagree with this, do you disagree with the underlying theory?
  - sysbin 7y ago
    I don’t necessarily disagree with the theory you outlined. My disagreement is towards the wording of the part where one may assume a memory is being forever altered or modified and I don’t think that’s how our brains handles storage. The theory of events being encompassed by a structure similar to many mesh networks of memories and where order of hierarchy rearranges but the previous order may be recalled is what I assume to be more realistic. Basically the sectors may either have more or less frequency of being recalled; by whatever may increase or decrease the likelihood.
JuliusSu 7y ago
This is similar to the point made in Ted Chiang's short story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." When writing replaced oral storytelling, people's memories and experiences shifted as well. He makes the case that having one's experiences always available for playback will create another kind of shift.
- markdown 7y ago
  I used to be able to remember lots of phone numbers. Now I don't even know the numbers of close friends and relatives. I've outsourced that job to my phone.
  - brobdingnagians 7y ago
    I don't even know my _own_ phone number at the moment. I got a new one weeks ago, but I just copy and paste it now when I nee d to send it to someone else. It feels odd realizing that I don't remember exact things as much anymore, because I can just look it up or forward them without having to process them.
  - everdrive 7y ago
    But I'll bet you know 20 passwords, or more. That fundamental skill is not lost. You're just not getting any phone number practice anymore. You're getting password practice all the time, I'll bet.
    - paulryanrogers 7y ago
      Unless you use a password manager and make every one unique and random.
    - pwodhouse 7y ago
      Strong disagree. I don't remember passwords like I remembered phone numbers. Perhaps because I don't say them out loud, hand write them, and lunch them on a tactile keyboard frequently
      - 7y ago
hybrids 7y ago
Seems to run contrary to the concept of human memory being supremely unreliable, and that our subconscious has a tendency - beyond the feeling everyone's familiar with of memories being "vague" and "difficult to remember" - to actually edit and reshape the concrete details from the way they actually happened. Obviously, given a certain context, this can result in terrible consequences. I remember this being discussed at length in the book "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior"[1] w/r/t eyewitness testimony of criminal acts, but perhaps in some cases, our distorted perception of reality may be a important mechanism to our own self-esteem, provided that it doesn't go too far. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Subliminal-Your-Unconscious-Rules-Behavior/dp/0307472256 https://www.amazon.com/Subliminal-Your-Unconscious-Rules-Beh...
- ricardobeat 7y ago
  Does it? I think it corroborates that concept, showing that you might immediately “edit” your memory based on video of the events.

86 points by myth_drannon 7y ago

trevyn 7y ago

Is there a workaround for the NYT paywall that I’m missing? They’re blocking incognito windows now somehow.

ALittleLight 7y ago
I've always gotten through by disabling JavaScript and refreshing the page.
rjf72 7y ago
Going to depend on your browser. The default settings I use in Brave (third party trackers blocked, third party cookies blocked, device recognition blocked) disables their paywall. I actually thought they had removed it as, notably, I did not disable scripts for their site. Toggling each option, it seems that third party trackers are likely what's triggering it. I still don't get a paywall but I get all sorts of other spam on the page loading - I'm assuming they give 'x' free page views per tracked ID. So perhaps search for a plugin that can achieve similar anti-tracking functionality, or use Brave. If you go that route, the options are on the lion icon - top right. They toggle per site if you want to do something like disable/enable tracking/scripts etc for a single domain.
mallomarmeasle 7y ago
Best workaround is to pay to be a subscriber, and support quality journalism
- trevyn 7y ago
  I have no money and have no intention of acquiring any.
  - catacombs 7y ago
    If you have no intention of acquiring any money, how will you pay for things?
    - trevyn 7y ago
      I believe that we are heading toward a society where money is far less important than it currently is, and I enjoy discovering how this might work, and what a transition might look like.
      - catacombs 7y ago
        How will you pay for an internet connection to post comments on HN, then? Last I heard, ISPs don't take crops as a form of payment.
- dougmwne 7y ago
  Where can I buy quality journalism from? I don't think the NYT qualifies, and I'm saying that because most articles lack substance, not because I'm bothered by its bias.
  - anchpop 7y ago
    WaPo is pretty good, as is Reuters. Forbes is also decent in my experience.
    - jkeuhlen 7y ago
      Forbes is good and bad. It's good when written by Forbes, but half of the articles I come across there these days are from "contributors" which can be just as bad as reading HuffPo.
    - catacombs 7y ago
      I agree with jkeuhlen: Forbes has been on the decline for years. The same goes for HuffPost. You're better off with WaPo and, if you need a general wire service, the AP.
  - catacombs 7y ago
    > Where can I buy quality journalism from? The Washington Post > I don't think the NYT qualifies, and I'm saying that because most articles lack substance, not because I'm bothered by its bias. You must be reading the Opinion section. Their News section is a separate entity and one of the best in the country.
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    Bloomberg impresses me. I did a somewhat roundabout assessment of online quality a few years back, some interesting standouts: Tracking the Conversation: FP Global 100 Thinkers on the Web https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/tracking_the_conversation_fp_global_100_thinkers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/trackin...
alexpetralia 7y ago
Drop the link into: archive.is
Whinner 7y ago
In Chrome, F12 to open dev tools. Go to the Application header. Click on Clear Storage on the left pane. Click the clear site data button. Reload the page

sysbin 7y ago

I'm not sure if I agree with the reshaping idea. I do share the opinion that a person gains more self awareness for how others see them when examining the self from third person. Although, I don't assume the past first-person memories would be modified or altered and if they were ingrained moments. The brain doesn't know to overlap memories by some hidden timestamp of oh these both happened at the same time! Another way of looking at it is if I hated some type of vegetable young and enjoy it now. I still remember how I used to hate it when I was young. Furthermore, I think kids have an advantage nowadays if they want to master some type of choreography by examining how people view them on stage.

beenBoutIT 7y ago
Instant replay is definitely an advantage for any kid interested in showbiz.
apatters 7y ago
I'm just a layperson, but from what I understand, the prevailing theory about memories in psychology is that they have active and dormant states. These correlate roughly with short-term and long-term memory and are even related to different regions of the brain. Memories in an active state are malleable--things that happen, emotions you experience etc. are prone to influencing the content of the memory. Eventually it gets "filed away" in a dormant state and doesn't change much unless it's reactivated, which can be triggered by vivid, related experiences. (Interestingly, there's research which shows that a reactivated memory becomes malleable again for as long as it is active, so current events can influence how you remember past ones.) The theory in the article seems to line up with this, if you immediately view a video of something you just did, the memory is still malleable and you're more likely to remember it in a third person rather than first person context. If you view the video a few days or a week later, the memory may not be as malleable as it was at the time of creation. Curious as to why you disagree with this, do you disagree with the underlying theory?
- sysbin 7y ago
  I don’t necessarily disagree with the theory you outlined. My disagreement is towards the wording of the part where one may assume a memory is being forever altered or modified and I don’t think that’s how our brains handles storage. The theory of events being encompassed by a structure similar to many mesh networks of memories and where order of hierarchy rearranges but the previous order may be recalled is what I assume to be more realistic. Basically the sectors may either have more or less frequency of being recalled; by whatever may increase or decrease the likelihood.

JuliusSu 7y ago

This is similar to the point made in Ted Chiang's short story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." When writing replaced oral storytelling, people's memories and experiences shifted as well. He makes the case that having one's experiences always available for playback will create another kind of shift.

markdown 7y ago
I used to be able to remember lots of phone numbers. Now I don't even know the numbers of close friends and relatives. I've outsourced that job to my phone.
- brobdingnagians 7y ago
  I don't even know my _own_ phone number at the moment. I got a new one weeks ago, but I just copy and paste it now when I nee d to send it to someone else. It feels odd realizing that I don't remember exact things as much anymore, because I can just look it up or forward them without having to process them.
- everdrive 7y ago
  But I'll bet you know 20 passwords, or more. That fundamental skill is not lost. You're just not getting any phone number practice anymore. You're getting password practice all the time, I'll bet.
  - paulryanrogers 7y ago
    Unless you use a password manager and make every one unique and random.
  - pwodhouse 7y ago
    Strong disagree. I don't remember passwords like I remembered phone numbers. Perhaps because I don't say them out loud, hand write them, and lunch them on a tactile keyboard frequently
    - 7y ago

hybrids 7y ago

Seems to run contrary to the concept of human memory being supremely unreliable, and that our subconscious has a tendency - beyond the feeling everyone's familiar with of memories being "vague" and "difficult to remember" - to actually edit and reshape the concrete details from the way they actually happened. Obviously, given a certain context, this can result in terrible consequences. I remember this being discussed at length in the book "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior"[1] w/r/t eyewitness testimony of criminal acts, but perhaps in some cases, our distorted perception of reality may be a important mechanism to our own self-esteem, provided that it doesn't go too far. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Subliminal-Your-Unconscious-Rules-Behavior/dp/0307472256 https://www.amazon.com/Subliminal-Your-Unconscious-Rules-Beh...

ricardobeat 7y ago
Does it? I think it corroborates that concept, showing that you might immediately “edit” your memory based on video of the events.