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I usually avoid any scientific discussions (especially at non-science sites like this)... and I do NOT mean this as a SCIENTIFIC discussion in any formal sense (not a single reference will be offered)... but just a point of possible lay interest, especially in the light of some of the political issues of the day.....
My sister has a Ph.D. in biology and now works as a scientist at an Ivy-League university, doing research into human memory.... She explains all this in VERY LAY TERMS as follows...
Memory:
Think of your work at an office. You open the file cabinet and take out a file that needs attention. You pull it from the cabinet, open it on your desk, and work it. Perhaps you do the same with a number of other files during the day... some relating to each other, some quite individual. Some have stuff added or deleted or changed/modified in some way. At one point, you may have many files open on your desk. At the end of the day, you close all the files and put them back in the file cabinet. Tomorrow morning, you repeat this - perhaps with entirely different files, perhaps with the same file.
Human memory works similarly. When you wake up, certain "files" come out of the "file cabinet" of your brain and are opened - sometimes automatically, sometimes unconsciencely but as needed, and sometimes quite deliberately. During the course of the day, MANY files are placed on your desk and opened (the GREAT majority you aren't even aware of). And every time a file is opened, it can be modified (again, consciencely or otherwise) - something added, deleted, changed. When you go to sleep (rem sleep), your brain plays "secretary" and puts the files away. Some are considered critical and important (and filed accordingly), some only of temporary or secondary importance, some less than that, and some files are tossed away, considered by the brain to not be important enough to keep. This whole process is not always done well - one of the "problems" here, one of the things that can go wrong, the filing process - putting away and retrieving - can be poor). Tomorrow, the whole process happens again.
The files you use most often are filed away so that they can be easily and quickly retreived. Files can be moved from one cabinet to another depending on how often your retreive them. Ones you rarely use can be hard to find, although they are all in the cabinet (less the ones your brain tossed).
A lot of things can go right and wrong in this..... and it's all pretty much done by the brain, in an unconscience way.
There can be another problem, too....
Every time a file is taken out of the cabinet and opened, it is likely to be modified. Our very opening it makes it more vivid and means it will likely be refiled in a more important, easier to find cabinet (that alone modifies it). As you open the file, it's "messed with." Maybe something is deleted.... or added.... or changed. And others can change it, too. Your sister says, "Remember that Christmas when Dad dressed up as Santa?" Ah.... your brain opens what it thinks is the memory (or even CREATES a file for this!) and MAY add that point, so now your file about that Christmas includes your brains creation of Dad dressing up as Santa. It is now in your file. So when that file gets filed away, it now INCLUDES Dad dressing as Santa. Or YOU think about that Christmas.... or maybe tell your child about that Christmas... and somehow Dad comes into it, maybe just as a thought (not a memory) but you thinking that can easily modify the file and actually ADD that to it. And the brain puts away the MODIFIED file (with that part about Dad as Santa).... and so next time you call for that file, the brain gets it and puts it on your desk and opens it - with that modification. You REMEMBER Dad dressing up as Santa... if you took a lie detector test, you would say Dad did that and the test would show you are telling the truth - you ARE remembering that! It's just that it perhaps never happened.... the file was simply modified when you had it opened - by you or by another. The more often that file is retreived, opened and refiled - the more likely it is to have been modified (perhaps many times).
Here's the thing..... people CAN be telling the absolutely truth that this is what they remember: but it may have nothing whatsoever to do with reality. As a general rule, the closer the event is to the memory... the less it has been thought about, discussed, talked about... the less others have commented about it.... the less emotion it involves.... the more likely it is to be true. We ALL have a LOT of memories that we TOTALLY believe are true that may be partly (and maybe even entirely) wrong. And sincerity has nothing to do with it - we may HONESTY relate what our file now says....it's just the file is by no means original. And yes, the whole file may be a creation, not rooted in anything actual at all.
- Josiah
My sister has a Ph.D. in biology and now works as a scientist at an Ivy-League university, doing research into human memory.... She explains all this in VERY LAY TERMS as follows...
Memory:
Think of your work at an office. You open the file cabinet and take out a file that needs attention. You pull it from the cabinet, open it on your desk, and work it. Perhaps you do the same with a number of other files during the day... some relating to each other, some quite individual. Some have stuff added or deleted or changed/modified in some way. At one point, you may have many files open on your desk. At the end of the day, you close all the files and put them back in the file cabinet. Tomorrow morning, you repeat this - perhaps with entirely different files, perhaps with the same file.
Human memory works similarly. When you wake up, certain "files" come out of the "file cabinet" of your brain and are opened - sometimes automatically, sometimes unconsciencely but as needed, and sometimes quite deliberately. During the course of the day, MANY files are placed on your desk and opened (the GREAT majority you aren't even aware of). And every time a file is opened, it can be modified (again, consciencely or otherwise) - something added, deleted, changed. When you go to sleep (rem sleep), your brain plays "secretary" and puts the files away. Some are considered critical and important (and filed accordingly), some only of temporary or secondary importance, some less than that, and some files are tossed away, considered by the brain to not be important enough to keep. This whole process is not always done well - one of the "problems" here, one of the things that can go wrong, the filing process - putting away and retrieving - can be poor). Tomorrow, the whole process happens again.
The files you use most often are filed away so that they can be easily and quickly retreived. Files can be moved from one cabinet to another depending on how often your retreive them. Ones you rarely use can be hard to find, although they are all in the cabinet (less the ones your brain tossed).
A lot of things can go right and wrong in this..... and it's all pretty much done by the brain, in an unconscience way.
There can be another problem, too....
Every time a file is taken out of the cabinet and opened, it is likely to be modified. Our very opening it makes it more vivid and means it will likely be refiled in a more important, easier to find cabinet (that alone modifies it). As you open the file, it's "messed with." Maybe something is deleted.... or added.... or changed. And others can change it, too. Your sister says, "Remember that Christmas when Dad dressed up as Santa?" Ah.... your brain opens what it thinks is the memory (or even CREATES a file for this!) and MAY add that point, so now your file about that Christmas includes your brains creation of Dad dressing up as Santa. It is now in your file. So when that file gets filed away, it now INCLUDES Dad dressing as Santa. Or YOU think about that Christmas.... or maybe tell your child about that Christmas... and somehow Dad comes into it, maybe just as a thought (not a memory) but you thinking that can easily modify the file and actually ADD that to it. And the brain puts away the MODIFIED file (with that part about Dad as Santa).... and so next time you call for that file, the brain gets it and puts it on your desk and opens it - with that modification. You REMEMBER Dad dressing up as Santa... if you took a lie detector test, you would say Dad did that and the test would show you are telling the truth - you ARE remembering that! It's just that it perhaps never happened.... the file was simply modified when you had it opened - by you or by another. The more often that file is retreived, opened and refiled - the more likely it is to have been modified (perhaps many times).
Here's the thing..... people CAN be telling the absolutely truth that this is what they remember: but it may have nothing whatsoever to do with reality. As a general rule, the closer the event is to the memory... the less it has been thought about, discussed, talked about... the less others have commented about it.... the less emotion it involves.... the more likely it is to be true. We ALL have a LOT of memories that we TOTALLY believe are true that may be partly (and maybe even entirely) wrong. And sincerity has nothing to do with it - we may HONESTY relate what our file now says....it's just the file is by no means original. And yes, the whole file may be a creation, not rooted in anything actual at all.
- Josiah
