Thought this may be something fun to think about besides.... the usual.
So we all have a capacity (some might say a cognitive capability) to remember things. Our memory is a pretty mysterious thing, but it has a certain relationship to the truth and we certainly seem to have some idea about when memory is successful. But what about when it's not? That is, what about when we forget things?
There are two aspects here that I think are rich for discussion:
1) Is there some way to identify 'forgetting X' in a philosophically significant way? Are there different states of forgetfulness? For example, we may have no idea the event obtained (completely forgetting something). Or maybe we have some inkling that something happened but can't place it. An example of this might be talking with your friends about a particular movie. You know you've seen the movie but you just can't remember the title. But these seem like two different kinds of forgetfulness - especially when you consider the phenomenological aspects of each. (Consider what it's like to have no memory of something whatsoever versus something's being on 'the tip of your tongue'.
2) There's a further aspect: if part of human intelligence is the capacity for forgetfulness, how could we program this into a being that's supposed to have artificial intelligence? One way of putting this is to say that if the brain is nothing but chemicals, proteins, neurons, etc., then we could, in principle, make an artificial brain. But how can we account for forgetfulness?
So, to sum up, two ways of thinking about forgetfulness: epistemically and logically.
Darkroot / Moegreche, would be interested to know your opinion of this one...
One side effect of my memory loss is that if I see a face I recognise, my memory will recall where I've seen the face before. Not that unusual until I give you an example of what I mean.
When I was a very young boy I lived in a suburban area and there were very few places for me to play. One day I was walking down a road nearby on my way to play in a field when a small red car started to reverse out of a driveway. I stopped, the car reversed out, I carried on my way.
The point of my story? I was round a friend's house a year or so back and a man arrived who I instantly recognised. He didn't know me, had never met me according to him, but in about an hour I remembered that he was in the passenger seat of the car on that driveway. We'd never spoken, it wasn't a traumatic event and unless there is something I'm unaware of, nothing special happened that day.
This is one example of hundreds of instances. My wife and I met and married 6 years ago, yet I can recall multiple events where I have walked past her 20 years ago or sat next to her, never knowing we were going to meet and marry one day. Other people I have seen in the street, I recall seeing them going past me on buses or standing in a queue at the bank.
My question is, is this unusual? Have there been any studies you're aware of that could explain why my memory is recalling seemingly irrelevant information that only appears to relate to people I've seen going about their day to day activities?
When these memories first started to come about, obviously I could not put them into context because I had no idea where the memories were coming from and the physical locations (geographically) were a complete mystery to me. Now I know the physical locations and I've visited them, but the locations themselves don't trigger memories. Only people's faces.
Yes that appears to be it the focus of this one is on the chunks instead of units which is a better representative of the real amount of information that is likely stored.
[quoteThere was this method of memory building I would use in school. I would remember my assignments from the board instead of writing them down. At first I did write them down but as I got better I didn't. ]A first since the assignment was new each day I would try to memorize it and when I got home i would try to recall what the assignment was first before looking at the paper I wrote it down on, then I would double check to see if I was right. As I did this each day with the different assignments I got to the point where I not only didn't need to write it down or double check but I could just glance at the assignment and commit it to memory. I found this helped improve memory over all as well. Though today I'm a bit out of practice.[/quote]
Well it could be that the assignments follow a similar pattern and having more semantic knowledge of the types of assignments the better you got at memorizing novel ones that fit in to the pattern.
@Dewi1066
The part of the brain that recognizes faces is the fusiform face area new research proposes that it is not purely built for faces but devoted to detecting small differences in stimuli that are similar like faces. Since faces are important to us then the area is mainly devoted to us but it could be used to different things.
Exceptional memory for faces I have not see before I've heard of people that are face blind in that they can see faces but can't even recognize their own. From your description it looks to be solely based on memory of faces and not just exceptional overall memory. I can't really say without some tests of your memory.
Okay I might have an odd one in memory That I'm pretty sure was brought on by epileptic seizures as a child.
The first memory was as a infant, I was just laying down in a crib or stroller. The odd part of this is everything went black the next moment I was around a year old playing with blocks. I was reaching out to knock these toy blocks over and again everything went black. Next I was standing outside my current home as we were just moving in. I went into the back bedroom and there was this rack with a shoe on it. Again everything went black and again I was older and standing outside the house again. I went inside and asked my mom want year it was. By that point I was around five years old. It was as if beyond those few flashes I had no memory up to that point. Things did fill in since. But I'm not exactly sure what that was.
Another laps in memory for me was for about a year after my mom died. I have trouble remembering that year and what I do remember is disjointed and didn't happen when I thought it did. For example when I though I had first started dating my girlfriend. I thought it was some time in June, but it was actually closer to the end of that year, as my GF was able to show me conversations on a messenger that occurred shortly after which gave a date.
The first memory was as a infant, I was just laying down in a crib or stroller. The odd part of this is everything went black the next moment I was around a year old playing with blocks. I was reaching out to knock these toy blocks over and again everything went black. Next I was standing outside my current home as we were just moving in. I went into the back bedroom and there was this rack with a shoe on it. Again everything went black and again I was older and standing outside the house again. I went inside and asked my mom want year it was. By that point I was around five years old. It was as if beyond those few flashes I had no memory up to that point. Things did fill in since. But I'm not exactly sure what that was.
The first couple is due to the brain not being developed yet and both consolidation and attention mechanisms are not fully developed. I too have short bits of memories from early childhood. If you can't remember much before being 4-5 it's not a surprise like I said earlier brain is still in it's early stages. Unless you remember your parents telling you that you had muscle spasm, odd motions like lip smacking then I doubt it is seizures.
Another laps in memory for me was for about a year after my mom died.
This is a really interesting discussion so far. Unfortunately, I am not competent to comment on the psychological aspects of memory, only the philosophical ones. That being said, I'm wondering if the following claim is true:
We can have intentional means to retain certain memories, but not to forget certain memories (or simply never have them form in the first place).
Of course, this claim needs some explication. What I mean by this is that we can 'try' to remember certain things. While this does not imply that we will, in fact, remember that piece of information (just think back to any test you've ever taken), it does tend to generate some success - at least more than there would be if we didn't try at all. But we cannot, as the above claim suggests, 'try' to not remember (or forget) some piece of information. I don't have an argument for the above claim - it just seems to me to be true (I doubt seriously that such an argument exists). I'm just wondering if others see it the same way.
The first couple is due to the brain not being developed yet and both consolidation and attention mechanisms are not fully developed. I too have short bits of memories from early childhood. If you can't remember much before being 4-5 it's not a surprise like I said earlier brain is still in it's early stages. Unless you remember your parents telling you that you had muscle spasm, odd motions like lip smacking then I doubt it is seizures.
I was pointed out by my mom that my eyes would roll back and I would tart making gagging sounds. From what I was told she would rock me some and I would stop after a few moments. The thing I found odd about is was I actually remember everything literally going black then finding myself years older.
lots of people (try to) put bad memorys away. and forget about it. it's not impossible.
The actual event of finding my mom dead in bed I remember very clearly. I also remember talking to my grandmother the next morning about how non of it felt real, but after that it get's blurred.
