Crash Course Psychology #14 is where I learn about how human memory is such a fragile thing.
For context, Crash Course inspired me to learn the basics of psychology, so I’ve made it my mission to watch the entire Crash Course Psychology playlist and paraphrase each episode in my own words. This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the Crash Course team, so many thanks to them! To showcase what I learnt, here is my personal paraphrase of episode 14:
How memory is
It takes a lot to retrieve memories from our brains, and a lot can go wrong along the way. To understand how we forget, let’s talk about how we remember. Our memories are not like library books with neatly packaged information, but rather a spider web mess of information that are all interconnected somehow. These bits sometimes get stuck with other bits of information. Things that get stuck together with the memory you’re trying to remember can be your retrieval cues. These can help lead you to that particular memory. The more they are, wether intentional or unintentional, the easier it will be to find that memory. This way of activating associations non-consciously is called priming. It’s often how we jog our memories.
How we sometimes remember
- Context-Dependent Memories
- You remember something because something happened and that something led you to form that memory
This could refer to location, an intention you had, or anything that provides context to help you remember.
- State-Dependent Memories
- Your state of mind/body can also serve as a retrieval cue
- Mood-Congruent Memories
- Your mood can also serve as a retrieval cue
If you were in a particular body state or in a bad or good mood, you’re more likely to remember what’s associated with them. This is because you’re priming those associations. So you wouldn’t remember everything holistically, but rather what’s been associated.
- Serial Position Effect
- Usually we remember things in certain positions. This is our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
You may remember the first items thanks to the primacy effect. They made it in your long term memory because they had more time to exist and get rehearsed. Meanwhile the last words on the list lingered in your working memory because of the recency effect, they’re fresher in mind. Hence, the items in the middle don’t benefit from either effects, and are more likely to get forgotten.
How memory still fails at times
Even with all these tricks, things can still go wrong. Memory can fail or become distorted, and we can forget. We all can forget from time to time. It could be minor such as regular forgetfulness or major such as neurological damage that stops memory retrieval and formation.
Of course, it’s normal for us to forget things, and typically we forget in 1 of 3 different ways;
- We failed to encode it
- Never got past the encoding process in the first place. There’s so much information around us, we only notice a fraction of it. Plus, we can only be conscious of a few at a time from that fraction. So what we fail to notice, we tend to not encode, and thus don’t remember.
- We failed to retrieve it
- Sometimes due to interference, which is when other irrelevant memories get in your way, essentially cluttering the brain.
- Sometimes old stuff you learned keeps you from learning new stuff. This is called proactive interference, which is the disruptive effect of prior learning on recalling new information.
- The opposite of this is retroactive interference, which is the disruptive effect of new learning on recalling old information.
- This is where retrieval cues come in handy. To counter #2, find what’s associated with what you’re trying to remember!
- M