How does your brain decide what to remember?

[mikemortal]

Why is it that I can remember little unimportant events that happened in my childhood over 20 years ago, but I can't remember what I wore last Monday? I know major events that happened in your life your brain will remember for years, but I can remember one particular day sitting in my elementary school classroom listening to the teacher talk about some uninteresting fact. I cannot remember any other days immediately surrounding this one event. So, I'm a just wondering if any of you science minded folks know how your brain decides which little events to pick out from your past and store permanently in your memory?

 

[Capuchin]

I find your observations very strange. I cannot remember a single mundane thing from my life. All my old memories are tied to emotional situations.

Very interesting. Perhaps I'm abnormal in this case. Anyone else care to comment?

 

[DaveC426913]

I am with mikemortal. The moments remembered from childhood are seemingly from random points and very spotty.

mike, I am fairly convinced that certain memories are significant, even of they don't seem to be. Additionally, they are constantly getting reinforced (and edited!) every time you think of them, which is why they persist.

 

[Capuchin]

Of course, my memories are somewhat random but I can see why I would remember them in each case.

For example: Getting chased by a vacuum cleaner, my old dog biting my hand through a handpuppet, getting a question right in class that nobody else could get the answer to.

Each a rather random example of excitement, pain and pride, respectively.

Are you sure there's no emotional connection? I really can't remember anything that has no obvious reason to remember it.

 

[setAI]

squeaky wheel gets the grease- the neural connections that get reinforced into hardwired long-term memory are the ones that continue to be the most active over time- if you remember something from 20 years ago it means that whatever the event was cause some signal patterns between neurons that where reactivated several times- such as in dreams or thinking about the event at the time- analyzing it- just enough of the right kind of thinking and remembering and perhaps your body's chemistry at the time allowed the memory to become a stronger hardwired pattern that could easily be reactivated in the long term future

 

[bassplayer142]

I remember all kinds of unimportant things from childhood and later. Though I'm only twenty, I don't see how I could forget all the distinct memories from childhood. I remember the parts that were emotionally intriguing and others that had no relevence to anything. It is funny because like someone else said it appears to be spotty. I remember thousands of things from childhood but only remember at that instant. For example, once I hit a home run and that is the only thing I remember. I don't remember before it or after it. By the way, I have hit more then one homerun. :)

 

[Jedlmind]

I read somewhere that there is a major corralation between events remembered and amount of adrenalin released at that time. For example, the 3 seconds of the drop on the roller coaster in comparison to the 2 hour wait in line took to get there. But, as stated before, there is quite a bit of adrenalin in emotional events (fight or flight), so I could also see that being logical... And I wish could regurgitate the source of this idea, but i do not remember, must not have been to exciting...

 

[mikemortal]

I am trying to remember a traumatic event from my childhood. I have support from my entire family. But they have very different and strong opinions as to what the outcome will be. Some feel that by remembering all the details I will only be causing myself more pain, yet others feel that by remembering exactly what happened. I can finally put an end to all the heartache and pain that I experience.

Has anyone had hypo-therapy? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently? I would really appreciate any and all information and comments. Thanks!

 

[Rozenwyn]

If I remember correctly, the brain basically remembers everything, but the recalling process is affected by the significance of the event in your life. That's why events that affect your emotionally are easier to recall.

 

[spdelpiero]

I'm not that sure about the brain basically remembers everything because even though I have tried very hard to remember significant events in my life i haven't been able to. It must be something else.

 

[Evo]

I believe that all memories are stored but that ones tied to strong emotions are usually recalled more frequently and therefor easier to recall. I can recall a lot of insignificant things from the past, many I had completely forgotten. The easiest way to do it is to recall something with more significance and then look around at what else happened at that time, it's like flipping through a photo album with all photos in chronological order, you can flip back and forth. If you focus on a picture, a lot of times you can play the video and see everything as it happened, it's very cool. At least that is how my memory works.

Don't you ever just let your mind wander back and you start seeing flashes of all kinds of insignificant things? At first they are just snippets, but the more you focus on a snippet, the clearer it gets.

 

[Evo]

I am trying to remember a traumatic event from my childhood. I have support from my entire family. But they have very different and strong opinions as to what the outcome will be. Some feel that by remembering all the details I will only be causing myself more pain, yet others feel that by remembering exactly what happened. I can finally put an end to all the heartache and pain that I experience.

Has anyone had hypo-therapy? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently? I would really appreciate any and all information and comments. Thanks!

You might want to talk to a professional and see if they can help you draw the memories out. If it was so traumatic that you have suppressed the memory, it might be best to be under the care of a professional if you really want to remember it.

Good luck, and I hope it all works out for you.

BTW, a clinical psychologist tried to hypnotize me, and I can't be hypnotized.

 

[DaveC426913]

BTW, a clinical psychologist tried to hypnotize me, and I can't be hypnotized.

Can't? Or won't?

Hypnotism only works on those who believe it will work.

 

[Evo]

Hypnotism only works on those who believe it will work.

I agree.

I actually wanted to be hypnotized to see what it was like and the guy was supposedly the top US clinical psychologist that did hypnotism and supposedly had never failed to hynotize anyone. I was his first failure.

My take on hypnosis is that at best it's a relaxation technique.

 

[hypnagogue]

Has anyone had hypo-therapy? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently? I would really appreciate any and all information and comments. Thanks!

Don't do it. You are pretty much guaranteed to come away with a distorted take on what happened. It's surprisingly easy for false memories to take root in everyday cognition, and if anything hypnotherapy to recover memories is even worse.

 

[hypnagogue]

Can't? Or won't?

Hypnotism only works on those who believe it will work.

Perhaps wanting to be hypnotized is necessary for being hypnotized to some degree, but it's not sufficient. Or else we would expect training programs like these to increase hypnotic susceptibility.

 

[hypnagogue]

My take on hypnosis is that at best it's a relaxation technique.

The existing literature on hypnosis makes it seem that hypnosis is related to attentional functioning more than physiological relaxation.

A couple of things I scrounged up on Pubmed quickly suggest some direct evidence against the view that hypnosis is just relaxation. Hypnosis is possible in an altert state. The effects of alert and relaxation hypnosis can be similar, and both are different from the effects of relaxation training alone.

 

[JasonRox]

You might want to talk to a professional and see if they can help you draw the memories out. If it was so traumatic that you have suppressed the memory, it might be best to be under the care of a professional if you really want to remember it.

Good luck, and I hope it all works out for you.

BTW, a clinical psychologist tried to hypnotize me, and I can't be hypnotized.

I agree. Talk to a professional.

We all have to realize that sometimes we remember things, but it's also possible that it is incorrect. Studies have shown that we forget even the things that we know we know and swear to freaking god we know.

 

[JasonRox]

Hypnosis doesn't increase the accuracy of recalling memory. All it does is increase our certainty that we are right although like I said earlier, we could be wrong but become more certain we are right.

 

[hypnagogue]

Hypnosis doesn't increase the accuracy of recalling memory. All it does is increase our certainty that we are right although like I said earlier, we could be wrong but become more certain we are right.

It's worse than that. The wrong kind of techniques can actually create novel false memories. See here. I would urge the original poster **NOT** to pursue any hypnosis therapy for the purpose of retrieving old memories.

 

[JasonRox]

It's worse than that. The wrong kind of techniques can actually create novel false memories. See here. I would urge the original poster **NOT** to pursue any hypnosis therapy for the purpose of retrieving old memories.

That's what I mean.

Like you could be wrong and be certain that you're right. Hypnosis will just make you more certain that's you're right although you're actually wrong without even knowing.

Creating false memories is not just a hypnosis thing. It can be done under a regular state of mind. This is why you should consult a professional to avoid this from happening as much as possible.

 

[hypnagogue]

But depending on the kind of "professional" you see, you may be directed towards the wrong kinds of techniques. The best advice is to avoid this sort of memory recovery thing altogether. The potential for misinformation is too high.

 

[JasonRox]

But depending on the kind of "professional" you see, you may be directed towards the wrong kinds of techniques. The best advice is to avoid this sort of memory recovery thing altogether. The potential for misinformation is too high.

That's true too.

In the textbook I'm reading, they talked about the "memory recovery" trend in the 1980's and how many people started saying they now remember being abused as a child and what not. Later it was found that lots of it wasn't actually "true". (I say "true" based on evidence and such.)

 

[zoobyshoe]

The existing literature on hypnosis makes it seem that hypnosis is related to attentional functioning more than physiological relaxation.

A couple of things I scrounged up on Pubmed quickly suggest some direct evidence against the view that hypnosis is just relaxation. Hypnosis is possible in an altert state. The effects of alert and relaxation hypnosis can be similar, and both are different from the effects of relaxation training alone.

I have a large book on clinical hypnosis which says the main thing that must be accomplished is to over-ride a person's "executive" function, usually by relaxation. But, since you mention "alert" hypnosis, it makes sense that any means of getting suggestions in without the executive function examining and censoring them will work. "Alert" hypnosis might well work better than relaxation. If you preoccupy the executive function with some task it's as good a way to get around it as putting it to sleep.

Derren Brown, apparently, did this in the episode where he hypnotized a cab driver into not being able to find a well known London landmark. It's called "The Eye of London" and is a large, wheel like sculpture, something like a ferris wheel. As the cabbie began to drive there, Brown started chattering in the manner of cab passengers "Damn, I've had such a frustrating day! I've got this little toy truck and the wheel came off, and I've spent the whole morning going round and round looking for it but couldn't find the damned wheel anyhere." or words to that effect. The cabbie proceeds to drive right past the "Eye of London" and goes around and around a neighborhood passing it again several times, saying "I'm positive it's around here somewhere."

The dynamic, I think, is that his attention to driving preoccupied his executive functions while Derren Brown planted the off hand and indirect suggestion that the wheel was nowhere to be found. I, as an audience member who'd been informed the cabbie was about to be hypnotized, consciously caught the whole toy wheel story in detail, but the cabbie was very likely not paying much attention.

 

[zoobyshoe]

BTW, a clinical psychologist tried to hypnotize me, and I can't be hypnotized.

You cannot be hypnotized, Evo! You cannot be hypnotized!

 

[SpicyRamen]

As we age our brain does discard unused information. I saw a video that talked about how the brains of child prodigy works, and it's amazing the way they utilize it. When we hit certain ages( I think like every 7 years) Those are our critical years, our most life changing times. The old saying" If you don't use it lose it" applies exactly to our brains.As we all you we have thousands of neurons in our brain that stores and transfer information, but what happens is that, if we don't use it very often the information is discarded. It all depends on what age, how often we use it, and how significant it is. Many of us will remember like 3 or 4 of our birthday parties especially when we were young. Usually between the ages of 11 and like 14/16, because these are significant events, but we won't remember our like 3rd birthday because most of us were to young to comprehend what this occasion was meant for(how old). And most of us won't remember our birthdays when we're 31, because after a certain while, these events become insignificant. Maybe on special occasion like your big 5 0 (50) you'll remember those because it's kinda like a landmark event in one's life.

As for your situation maybe that day was a good day for you. On some days I really don't feel like going to school and I get (what my bio teacher calls it) a "Brain Fart" It feels as if no matter how hard I try information in my mind would "Lag" I makes it really hard to concentrate and think. But on really good days I would sit in class and all of this information would just be absorbed without effort and I would understand it all. So maybe on that day you felt really bored by the lecture, but your brain(Unaware of it) was taken information in constantly.

 

[heisenberg01]

neurotic or psychotic?

BTW, a clinical psychologist tried to hypnotize me, and I can't be hypnotized.

Fact is, almost anybody can be hypnotized. The only exceptions are neurotic, psychotics and mentally retarded people, which can not be hypnotized. Intelligent people that have the ability to concentrate are easier to hypnotize.
Personally, I manage to hypnotize about one in two, and hypnosis is just a hobby for me, which I learned myself from home study courses (See the http://www.reviewsnest.com/learnhypnosis/index.htm" section in ReviewsNest - a reviews site which seems OK - to get a hang of what's going on in the market). The course I learned from is not from that site - but it'll give you an idea). Professional hypnotists should do much better than me.

My question is: Since it's clear you're intelligent - what are you: neurotic or psychotic? ;-)

 

[granpa]

steven pinker points out that people can't figure out sentences like
"I can not not not remember things from my childhood"

he says that our brain seems to have a single slot for the word 'not' which it uses to remember when that word has been spoken and once its filled up we can't remember the next one

so whether we remember something may depend on whether we have a preexisting slot for that idea in our brains.

 

[pongo38]

I play the piano, and for that, can identify different types of memory - physical muscular, intellectual, and emotional feeling, to name but three. A performance requires a reconstruction, as distinct from memory, and I wonder if what the original poster referred to as memory was actually a process of reconstruction. If so, there is a probability (if not a possibility) of 'errors' or twisting of the facts to suit the moment of reconstruction.
Another point is: In the right conditions, I can willfully smell lavender (for example), even though there is none present. What memory processes does that engage?

 

[DaveC426913]

Fact is, almost anybody can be hypnotized. The only exceptions are neurotic, psychotics and mentally retarded people, which can not be hypnotized.

This is not true.

 

[mugaliens]

This is not true.

You're absolutely correct. Most of each of these crowds, in varying degree, cannot be hypnotized.

In fact, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotic_susceptibility"

I actually tried, in college, and with a trusted friend in grad school who was rather good at it! No dice.

In later years I recognize forms A 1-12, B/ C and 1-12.

I've seen several others in an hynotic state and I always think, "good for them! Hope their having fun."

Whatever. Again, hope they're having fun.

So, in answer to the question of: "How does your brain decide what to remember?"

How's this for an answer: "What I observed, plain and simple, devoid of predisposed anything whatsoever, with both a wide-open brain that is nevertheless very well grounded in the science and physics of our day."

 

[nismaratwork]

Fact is, almost anybody can be hypnotized. The only exceptions are neurotic, psychotics and mentally retarded people, which can not be hypnotized. Intelligent people that have the ability to concentrate are easier to hypnotize.
Personally, I manage to hypnotize about one in two, and hypnosis is just a hobby for me, which I learned myself from home study courses (See the http://www.reviewsnest.com/learnhypnosis/index.htm" section in ReviewsNest - a reviews site which seems OK - to get a hang of what's going on in the market). The course I learned from is not from that site - but it'll give you an idea). Professional hypnotists should do much better than me.

My question is: Since it's clear you're intelligent - what are you: neurotic or psychotic? ;-)

The inaccuracy of your statements has been confirmed, but I'm curious how you developed these... interesting... notions? Sometimes tracing the history of wrong notions can help one understand how to better prevent their occurrence and general prevalence.

 

[ThomasEdison]

Another puzzling thing (maybe this is only me?)
I am capable of remembering different things depending on the situation I am in.

I would say about twice a year I suffer from a very specific insomnia related to memory.
I lay awake at night and remember dozens of missteps I had in conversations. No matter what I do during these nights I can not change focus. Embarassing pratfalls where I misspoke in the most mundane situations are the highlights of these episodes. I can remember the dialogues verbatum during this time and can not sleep the entire night and get anxious. Some of these memories go back decades. A day or two later the memories will vanish. Then a half year or so later it will happen again.

I don't have the memories otherwise. If it happened more often I would go crazy.



I think recalling memories helps to have a better memory, although from above I wish I could just forget certain memories.

I always try to remember : 3.14159265358979323846 at odd times like when I am waiting in a dentists office etc, just to test it to see if it is still there. In college I had 110 digits and then stopped. It seems trivial and people are quick to judge a person for memorizing Pi but I did it to see how far I could go. I don't think testing or even trying to improve memory is a waste of time, and I don't think it matters what is being memorized as long as you can test it to see if it is true. It is not a bad habit.

I just wish, as the original poster said: I could remember the things I want to and not the things I don't.

 

[orthoped]

yes even i agree with mike. Childhood memories are quite random and based on some unique mechanism

 

[madhatter106]

memory recall fascinates me, my oldest sister has a photographic memory. I hated that since only being a yr behind in school the teachers always expected me to perform at her level. they were not aware of her gift of being able to regurgitate info like she does, however curiously she doesn't have the comprehension of the information retained. I used to do her chem labs as I loved that class, and she really didn't know what it ment. she has an IQ of 240 something and my late father was 240ish as well. I never had the patience to sit thru the testing, although being implored to do so.

I however can recall just about every day of my life from about age 1 and a number of events from a few months of age to 1. it's not always an instant automatic thing, I have to first recall an event then from there I can track from there, kinda of like moving thru a movie reel. and everything thought or recall is always in life movie picture form. conversations are audible to me as is anything I read or recall. so if I recall something read in a book I invision the book but the words are a tape in playback unless I need to recall a picture then it's in a more traditional photographic memory form.

i also have a strange ability to never ever forget a face and can even somehow age the face to match to time difference. i.e. see someone once as a child then a decade later recognize them aged or the reverse, however it is a bit more difficult with 2d pictures. movie or real life is automatic. drives me nuts as I can't seem to recall names but faces stick like nothing else. it also worse if I try and make the memory of ones name, it almost guarantees me not remembering it, however if I don't pay attention, then it tends to stay.

a downside to this is distraction, trying to filter the barrage of information gets overwhelming and I will have multiple things going at once. it may seem like multitasking but in reality I have have to keep all those plates spinning to maintain sanity. if not I spend far to much time sorting, indexing and oddly cross referencing possible useful connections.

I classify my job as an inventor but that seems to confuse people. it's the only thing that works for me, I have ideas rushing in my head non-stop due to the constant stream of input and recall, I have also sadly over the yrs given away very profitable ones. I'll admit I'm horrid at the business end of things, thankfully these last few yrs I've had a good friend who benefits from this and I can get these ideas to market. I'm still puzzled by the cost of doing so though, everyone wants a piece.

My great great maternal grandfather apparently was an inventor of sorts in Scotland, according to the family. had something to do with farm equip and textiles. I feel like a jack of all trades master of none. OK I seem to have slipped off topic...my apologies.