Does memory follow classical or quantum methods?

[grzz]

TL;DR

Why does one have to start from the beginning when having trouble reciting from memory?

In my daily routine, I read several short extracts. The same extracts, every day, every year, so that I can now repeat them by heart. I make no effort to remember anything. I just let words flow out. Why is it that, if I get lost in a given extract, I have to start from the beginning in order to continue saying it by heart?
N.B. I was not sure in which section of Physics Forums I should have posted this.

 

[FactChecker]

Good question! And it's not just the sequence that the brain can remember, it can also remember the pace of certain things, like songs. So both the sequence and the timing can be remembered, separately or together.

ADDED: In fact, remembering the temporal aspects like sequence, timing, and pace, seem fundamental to basic things like motion, walking, etc. And yet, I have not thought of or seen discussions of that in AI. But I am only a casual amateur on these subjects.

 

[DaveC426913]

This sounds a little like philosophy. Unless you are literally talking about classical versus quantum mechanical processes, which leads to a different set of problematic discussive pitfalls.

 

[berkeman]

There is the primacy effect, which describes why we remember the first few items of a list better:

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/primacy-effect

and how that relates to remembering lists or sequences:

https://learnnovators.com/blog/the-...ffect-why-beginnings-and-endings-matter-most/

There are probably other effects that explain why we remember things in order better than randomly, but I'll have to do more searching to find good references on that. I definitely experience the same thing, where I remember things better if I can recall the first few items in a sequence, and then the rest flows out like reciting or singing a memorized song. Also, when trying to remember a technical or medical term, it often helps me to think of related stuff and try to make the mental connection to the desired name/term.

 

[DaveC426913]

I definitely experience the same thing, where I remember things better if I can recall the first few items in a sequence, and then the rest flows out like reciting or singing a memorized song. Also, when trying to remember a technical or medical term, it often helps me to think of related stuff and try to make the mental connection to the desired name/term.

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My prof in college taught us a mnemonic that has worked vey well for me to remember lists (usually when I'm lying in bed without a notebook):

Bun
Shoe
Tree
Door
Hive
Sticks
Heaven
Gate
Wine
Hen

So, if your list is, say, wash car, take out trash, let dog in, do dishes, then you picture this

A soggy bun on top of a wet car.
Tossing a shoe in the trash.
Dog whizzing on a tree.
Passing dishes through a door.
etc.
When you need to recall your list, you reverse the procedure, picturing the images. Works like a charm.

He did this experiment and had us give him ten random items. When we asked him again a month into the course and he got 10/10.

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