Amani Khanna- Week 16: Memory Recall
There is only one memory in this world that I can recall almost all the events off. This is probably because it occurred last December, but even still the images are pretty vivid for happening about six months ago. It is interesting how I can remember very few memories completely clear, some fragments of memories very clear, and some not at all.
In December of last year, I visited my favorite cousin for the first time in around seven years. We completed almost every activity you could think of in a cousin bucket list, over the course of four days.
So why is it that we remember some things so clearly and not others? Well, scientists think they have found an answer. “We found that some words are much more memorable than others. Our results support the idea that our memories are wired into neural networks and that our brains search for these memories, just the way search engines track down information on the internet,” said Weizhen (Zane) Xie, Ph.D., a cognitive psychologist.
Maybe when people say certain words, the trigger is stronger on some particular words. There is so much information crammed into our brains, it only makes sense that some of them would be easier to remember than others. However, I am still confused as to why those words are easier to remember.
Eventually, the researchers came to suspect that the memorability of certain words was linked to the frequency with which the brain used them as semantic links between other memories, making them often-visited hubs in individual's memory networks, and therefore places the brain jumped to early and often when retrieving memories. Though, it is still not a centralized fact, just a theory. These theories do not answer all our questions, but I hope someday they will.
That sounds so fun! I’m glad you enjoyed your time with your cousin. It seems that some words, if I’m interpreting your post correctly, have greater “priority” in our brains than others. That would explain why memory tricks like mnemonics can be so effective. Perhaps the more often we use them, the more likely our brains are to “bookmark” them (if we are following the search-engine analogy) and make them easier to access.
ReplyDeleteHi Amani,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to consider that some words that we hear may be more memorable than other words. I'm just guessing here, but this may be the case because we associate certain strong emotions with those words. Although the mind works in mysterious ways, it is always interesting and informing to take a look at some of the research that scientists do in order to decipher it.
Hi Amani, I found your blog to be very interesting and that our brain remembers and finds certain words more memorable. It makes sense that this is related to the frequency of the words that we use since the words we need more will be more memorable. It is also interesting how people remember some words more often due to association with other aspects of their life.
ReplyDeleteHi Amani, I found your blog to be very interesting, as I also encounter many of the same difficulties when remembering certain events. It’s really cool how the neural networks in our brains help determine which events we remember more frequently than others. I’m really happy to hear that you were able to spend time with your cousin, and I hope you are able to remember these precious times.
ReplyDeleteHi Amani, this is incredible. I never thought about how we recall memories and the link to a search engine actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you for teaching me about this fascinating topic. Something tells me I will find this blog memorable.
ReplyDeleteHey Amani, This article is a really interesting take on memory I never realized that the frequency of words had an effect on the memorability of an event and how well it can be recalled. This is a really interesting concept for memories and recollection in general.
ReplyDelete