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>I can build up a relatively vivid mental image of my walking route to school (from the bus terminal) over 40 years ago. Is it accurate? Who cares. Not only th

>I can build up a relatively vivid mental image of my walking route to school (from the bus terminal) over 40 years ago. Is it accurate? Who cares. Not only that, but by recalling and rebuilding memories, how gaps are filled in depends on your current mental state. For example, if I'm feeling depressed and brooding over past social interactions, I'll likely imagine people having meaner expressions or saying harsher things than they did. The big problem is that your memory of the event is "written over" based on the rebuilt memory. Again, only the seemingly important bits, but people are more likely to remember emotionally strong portions. Like those imagined harsh words. I realized I was doing this when I thought a professor strongly disliked me, avoided his classes for a couple years, but then found him pleasant. My depression and social anxiety had warped my memories over the years. Being aware that this happens really helps. I trust negative parts of memories less, and I consciously stop myself when I start to brood (or at least, have fun with a puzzle while thinking back on things).

milchek 5y ago
Just thought I’d share an example of how this memory issue manifests for me. I listen to a lot of music and use it (like many) to index various stages of life - i even have playlists by year to help facilitate this. The problem occurs when I listen back to music i was listening to in, say, 2008. All of a sudden, i’m transported back. But, each time i do this, the effect wears off a little, because their is some - let’s call it - “meta data” being written from the current moment in time im listening from which is adding new color to the initial index. This effect has been studied and noted somewhere before, but i’ll have to dig up when i’m not on mobile.
- vharuck 5y ago
  I first heard the theory on an episode of RadioLab: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91569-memory-and-forgetting https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91569... One of the researchers interviewed on that episode was Karim Nader, who focuses on what he calls memory reconsolidation: https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/karim-nader https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/karim-nader

milchek 5y ago

Just thought I’d share an example of how this memory issue manifests for me. I listen to a lot of music and use it (like many) to index various stages of life - i even have playlists by year to help facilitate this. The problem occurs when I listen back to music i was listening to in, say, 2008. All of a sudden, i’m transported back. But, each time i do this, the effect wears off a little, because their is some - let’s call it - “meta data” being written from the current moment in time im listening from which is adding new color to the initial index. This effect has been studied and noted somewhere before, but i’ll have to dig up when i’m not on mobile.

vharuck 5y ago
I first heard the theory on an episode of RadioLab: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91569-memory-and-forgetting https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/episodes/91569... One of the researchers interviewed on that episode was Karim Nader, who focuses on what he calls memory reconsolidation: https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/karim-nader https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/karim-nader