Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Forgetting May be Part of the Remembering Process

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-was-I-talking-about dept.

CFTM writes "The New York Times is running an interesting article about how human memory works and the theorized adaptive nature of forgetfulness". From the article, "Whether drawing a mental blank on a new A.T.M. password, a favorite recipe or an old boyfriend, people have ample opportunity every day to curse their own forgetfulness. But forgetting is also a blessing, and researchers reported on Sunday that the ability to block certain memories reduces the demands on the brain when it is trying to recall something important. The study, appearing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, is the first to record visual images of people's brains as they suppress distracting memories. The more efficiently that study participants were tuning out irrelevant words during a word-memorization test, the sharper the drop in activity in areas of their brains involved in recollection. Accurate remembering became easier, in terms of the energy required."

10 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Why is my mouse pointer over the submit button? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope I remember to smoke more pot.

  2. Give me a break Slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stop making excuses for dupes.

  3. The question I've always had about memory... by Scoth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The question I've always had is more along the lines of the filing system - there are times that I can't remember any part of something until someone reminds me of some small part, and it all comes flooding back. That means it was all in there somewhere, I just couldn't find it. I'm wondering what might cause that, and what might be done to improve it. Or, as the article is saying, perhaps we're not meant to?

    1. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah but usally when I do a

      SELECT what_happened FROM drunken_weekend_haze WHERE night = 'saturday';

      It's followed immediately by OMG I did what!!!!!! Followed in turn by

      DELETE FROM drunken_weekend_haze WHERE embarrassing_episode = True;

      Then when people say "Good weekend?" I can almost truthfully respond "Yeah but I got pissed and I can't remember a whole lot of it"

      --
      Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
      What truth?
      There is no dupe
    2. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fortunately your friend has a transaction log and can help you rebuild the deleted records later.

    3. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by buswolley · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I happen to be a memory researcher at a major University. I also happen to be on a project very similar to the one in the article. However, we are doing the fMRI imaging with children of different ages, as a developmental study. We also piloted adults, and replicating results similar to the ones in the article. Interesting. Of course, I cannot speak about the research in much detail. Journals don't like that much.

      As to your question, I could tell you a lot about why this is so. 1st, cued recall is much easier than free recall. The cue helps stimulate the appropriate associative networks facilitating recall. In particular, a primary focus of mine is cued recall, or recognition. I use the dual process model of recognition: Recollection and Familiarity.

      Familiarity, as experienced, is the feeling of familiarity we get when we see something that we've seen before, aside from actually remembering anything about it, which is recollection.

      I highly recommend the seminal: Yonelinas. A.P. (2002). The nature of recollection and familiarity: A review of 30 years of research. Journal of Memory and Language, 46, 441-517.

      You can get it here: http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/Yonelinas/index _files/page0003.htm

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    4. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by SeekerDarksteel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In artificial neural networks, there are structures called auto-associative memory networks. The networks are "trained" on certain patterns, then when it receives one of those patterns as input, it outputs a pattern closer to the pattern it was trained on. If you make it recursive (and your network is good enough), you can take as input a pattern that contains only a fragment of one of the patterns it was trained on and get as output the pattern you trained on. It's quite likely that something like that is going on inside our brains to store memories in some fashion, but on a far more complex scale than we can describe at this point.

      --
      The laws of probability forbid it!
    5. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Only on /. does a joke comparing the brain to an Array, or anything in programming, get modding insightful...

      --
      There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
    6. Re:The question I've always had about memory... by yali · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're a scientist and a researcher working at a (public??) university but can't speak about what you do.

      That's an overstatement. The poster was referring to a specific study that has been submitted to a journal. Journals consider their mission to publish original data and findings, and won't accept stuff that has been previously published. Some interpret "prior publication" quite broadly to include many forms of dissemination of findings, including stuff posted on the web. (This is prevalent in psychology, where there is no equivalent to arXiv.org for preprints.) It's not right, and it's changing slowly, but until it gets better researchers have to play along.

      Moreover, there are potential ethical issues with disseminating findings that have not yet been subjected to peer review. Many scientists consider peer review to be an integral part of the scientific process, because it provides a form of quality control and ensures a minimum standard for findings and conclusions that the scientific community will communicate the the public. Some publicity-hungry researchers violate this, but many others do care about it.

      Once the study in question has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication, I'm sure the poster will be happy to tell you all about it.

  4. Reminds me of an old joke by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    An old couple both have Alzheimer's. One day they're watching TV and an ad for a burger place comes on.
    Man says: "Hey, want to make some burgers?"
    Woman says: "Sure, what to you want on yours?
    Man: "I want lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Don't forget; lettuce, tomatoes and onions."
    Woman: "Got it. Lettuce, tomatoes and onions."
    A good hour goes by and she finally comes from the kitchen and hands her husband a plate of bacon and eggs. He says "You idiot! You forgot the toast!"

    --
    Trolling is a art,