We often say that a person is the sum of their memories. We are who we are because we have a past and we remember it often. When we have to make an important decision, the first thing we do is look back in time to look for similar situations and see how we resolved them.
However, although we use memory every day, this does not mean that we fully understand how it works. In fact, psychologists are only now rediscovering this psychological function.
If you understand how your memory works, you can improve it. That’s why now we’re going to take a look at some of the most common myths about how memory works.
Do you know how memory works?
1. Memory does not decay over time
Who has not experienced the frustration of searching through memory and not finding the memory they were looking for? It is when you say “I have it on the tip of my tongue” because you are sure that the memory is there but you are unable to make it conscious.
From this perspective, it may seem very obvious that memory decays over time. However, more and more researchers are convinced that our memory has an amazing capacity and that it stores practically everything we experience; the problem is that we are not able to find the memory later.
In practice, it is as if we had a huge storehouse of memories but as it fills up, it becomes more difficult for us to access some of these “drawers.” At this point you may be wondering what the point is in storing everything if we can’t remember it later. Here is the answer.
2. Forgetting helps us learn
The idea that forgetting something helps us learn may seem contradictory, but just imagine what a mess we would have in our minds if we could remember every detail of our life. Our memory chooses the most transcendental memories, whether from an emotional or cognitive point of view, and gives them priority over the others. In this way, we can immediately access this content and use it to learn other things.
It is a phenomenon similar to how we organize our computer screen. Normally we put only the programs or folders that are most meaningful to us on the desktop. This way, when we need to use them, we have them on hand. However, on our computer we have more information, although not all of it is displayed on the desktop.
3. “Lost” memories can be recovered
If we start from the assumption that we have stored practically everything we have experienced somewhere in memory, then it is easy to understand that, with the right techniques, we can remember any information. Sometimes a little effort is enough, other times more complex techniques, such as hypnosis, will be necessary.
4. When we bring a memory to mind, we are altering it
We tend to think of memory as a large warehouse where we leave memories and they remain there, faithful and unalterable. However, reality is very different, our memory is creative and sometimes mixes information, removing and adding details.
Every time we bring a memory to mind, it consolidates and becomes stronger, compared to the other information we have stored. For example, let’s imagine that we are remembering a special gift that was given to us when we turned six or seven. To the same extent that we focus on this gift, the memory of the other gifts will fade. And the more we remember the situation in which we received the gift in question, the more we will be reconstructing our memory of the birthday since we will be prioritizing some experiences over others. In fact, today we know that it is possible to implant false memories.
5. Memory is “reloaded”
Let’s say we want to learn to play handball. Would it be better to dedicate a whole week to serving, another to receiving and so on or is it better to mix all the learnings?
According to experts, it is best to mix the techniques because this way we can improve memory for movements. And the same goes for declarative memory; that is, to learn the contents that they teach us at school. Because?
The explanation is very simple: everything seems to indicate that every time we change activities to focus on another, our memory undergoes a kind of “recharge.” That is, it is as if all the memories with which we were working went to the background to recharge new and more relevant information with the task we are carrying out here and now.
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