Memory Failures
Our brains are amazing machines, capable of encoding, storing, and retrieving huge amounts of information over the course of our lives. But just like all machinery, it is bound to have failures along the way.
The Seven Sins of Memory
![Picture](/uploads/4/8/5/3/48539401/878204842.jpg?95)
Daniel Schater, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University is who came up with the Seven Sins of Memory idea in 2001. He states the the first three are "sins of omission", that is forgetting, and that the last four are "sins of commission" in which memories are distorted.
1. Transience
Transience is forgetting what occurs with the passage of time. It is the process of how memories start as very detailed right after an event occurs but details diminish over time, leading to a more generalized version of events. Retroactive and proactive interference can also have a negative effect on memory when the repetition of daily acts blur together making it hard to pull a distinct memory to mind. Sometimes the forgetting is rapid, when a memory has been encoded but not yet retrieved, however transience can also cause memory failure over long periods of time.
2. Absentmindedness
Absentmindedness is a lapse in attention that results in memory failure. Unlike transience, when one loses information, absentmindedness is usually caused by being distracted, but can still recall what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to go, where they placed something they forgot, etc. Attention is an important component to the encoding process and a lack of attention means information may not be stored properly. Prospective memory (remembering to do things in the future) failure is another aspect of absentmindedness. Often times, cues are needed in aiding prospective memory at the time an action is needed to be carried out, such as an alarm clock.
3. Blocking
Blocking is a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it. This is also called "tip of the tongue syndrome". You know the word you're looking for, yet you aren't able to articulate it when you want to. This isn't a failure in encoding or storage, it's a failure in retrieval. For most people, this is a fairly infrequent occurrence, but those with left temporal damage or people who have suffered from strokes may experience it at a much higher rate.
4. Misattribution
Memory misattribution is assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source. A famous case is from 1995 after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. A John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 were identified by an employee at a van rental shop. John Doe 1 was correctly identified as the bomber, but John Doe 2 was found to never had exsisted, at least not in the context of the employee's memory. He had actually remembered someone from a different day, who had nothing at all to do with the bombing and melded that into the memory of the bomber. Other examples of misattribution are false recognition, deja vu, and even word association. People who have had frontal lobe damage are more prone to memory misattribution, likely because of the retrieval process.
5. Suggestibility
Suggestibility is the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections. It can be caused by leading questions and deception. Because we aren't able to store every detail of every experience in our lives, we can be susceptible to misleading information, creating false memories. False confessions when someone is being questioned about a crime committed can sometimes occur because of suggestibility.
6. Bias
Bias is distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences. For example, someone unhappy with their current romantic relationship will often distort memories negatively. It can be seen in many different ways when people are recalling things about themselves. We are more likely to remember something about ourselves in a positive light, such as we performed better, were less anxious or even more likable. We like to remember the past as we want it to be rather than how it actually was.
7. Persistence
Persistence is the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget. Emotional experiences are often better remembered than non-emotional, which when recalling something happy or positive like the birth of a child, or something that is frightening, which can deter you from participating in a life-threatening activity, but when the memory is unpleasant or extremely upsetting, it can become destructive. An example are sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Some of these individuals are able to cope with their PTSD, but others cannot and are unable to deal with the continual mental trauma and end their own lives.
Works Cited
Murray, B. (2003). The seven sins of memory. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct03/sins.aspx
Daniel Shater Biography. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/schacterlab/biocv
Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, Nock (2014). Psychology 3rd Edition.
1. Transience
Transience is forgetting what occurs with the passage of time. It is the process of how memories start as very detailed right after an event occurs but details diminish over time, leading to a more generalized version of events. Retroactive and proactive interference can also have a negative effect on memory when the repetition of daily acts blur together making it hard to pull a distinct memory to mind. Sometimes the forgetting is rapid, when a memory has been encoded but not yet retrieved, however transience can also cause memory failure over long periods of time.
2. Absentmindedness
Absentmindedness is a lapse in attention that results in memory failure. Unlike transience, when one loses information, absentmindedness is usually caused by being distracted, but can still recall what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to go, where they placed something they forgot, etc. Attention is an important component to the encoding process and a lack of attention means information may not be stored properly. Prospective memory (remembering to do things in the future) failure is another aspect of absentmindedness. Often times, cues are needed in aiding prospective memory at the time an action is needed to be carried out, such as an alarm clock.
3. Blocking
Blocking is a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it. This is also called "tip of the tongue syndrome". You know the word you're looking for, yet you aren't able to articulate it when you want to. This isn't a failure in encoding or storage, it's a failure in retrieval. For most people, this is a fairly infrequent occurrence, but those with left temporal damage or people who have suffered from strokes may experience it at a much higher rate.
4. Misattribution
Memory misattribution is assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source. A famous case is from 1995 after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. A John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 were identified by an employee at a van rental shop. John Doe 1 was correctly identified as the bomber, but John Doe 2 was found to never had exsisted, at least not in the context of the employee's memory. He had actually remembered someone from a different day, who had nothing at all to do with the bombing and melded that into the memory of the bomber. Other examples of misattribution are false recognition, deja vu, and even word association. People who have had frontal lobe damage are more prone to memory misattribution, likely because of the retrieval process.
5. Suggestibility
Suggestibility is the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections. It can be caused by leading questions and deception. Because we aren't able to store every detail of every experience in our lives, we can be susceptible to misleading information, creating false memories. False confessions when someone is being questioned about a crime committed can sometimes occur because of suggestibility.
6. Bias
Bias is distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences. For example, someone unhappy with their current romantic relationship will often distort memories negatively. It can be seen in many different ways when people are recalling things about themselves. We are more likely to remember something about ourselves in a positive light, such as we performed better, were less anxious or even more likable. We like to remember the past as we want it to be rather than how it actually was.
7. Persistence
Persistence is the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget. Emotional experiences are often better remembered than non-emotional, which when recalling something happy or positive like the birth of a child, or something that is frightening, which can deter you from participating in a life-threatening activity, but when the memory is unpleasant or extremely upsetting, it can become destructive. An example are sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Some of these individuals are able to cope with their PTSD, but others cannot and are unable to deal with the continual mental trauma and end their own lives.
Works Cited
Murray, B. (2003). The seven sins of memory. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct03/sins.aspx
Daniel Shater Biography. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/schacterlab/biocv
Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, Nock (2014). Psychology 3rd Edition.