Really, is it that easy to stroll down memory lane?

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Chapter 7 is completely dedicated to our memories, and if they are actually as effective as we believe them to be. Unless you're Kim Peek, who was said to be a "real life Rain Man", it is easy to admit that we can't remember everything that has happened in our lives. In this chapter, the author discusses many reasons why we remember, and many reasons why we forget. The most interesting part of this chapter to me is when they talk about our brains' great abilities to distort memories, most of which are extremely subconscious. The book deems these qualities the seven sins of memory. This list includes: suggestibility, misattribution, bias, transience, persistence, blocking, and absentmindedness. I thought this was extremely interesting because, while reading through the seven sins, I realize that I am guilty of these actions more than I thought I would be. It's crazy to me that your brain can make these decisions for you, without you even consciously knowing it until after the fact. Below, I have added a cartoon that represents the act of misattribution, which is when suggestions lead us to distort memories.

PSY1001 Memory Pic.jpg

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I will have to admit to being guilty as well. Whenever i go home and hang out with my friends, we always disagree on how something happened in high school. I think you did a very good job on this article and put some good thought into it.

Memory is a very fascinating topic! I would have liked to have seen or heard about more examples of the "Seven Sins of Memory" because I'm having a hard time recalling the details of what they are ;-)

I am another guilty member.. I definitely am at fault for the "sins" talked about in the article. You provided information that was very fun to learn. good job

This is such a interesting topic and one that is also a bit scary. We don't often think about our memories being true or false, they are our memories, our experiences, our reality. But as this chapter has shown so much of that can be distorted and changed. Our memories may not actually be our true memories any more. That to me is a scary thought, i like to think of my mind and my memories as something stable and unchanging, i should be able to rely on them not have to question them. Again great post on a deep topic.

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This page contains a single entry by lipp0107 published on January 25, 2012 3:03 PM.

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