Tanishka - Week #16 - Selective Memory
Looking back on my junior year, there are definitely some memories that I hold deep in my heart and would wish to cherish forever, but also some that I really want to forget. The anxiety-filled nights cramming with only coffee in my system, finally being able to sleep and having to wake up an hour later for school: Some of it definitely wasn’t fun. Sometimes I just remember the bad parts of the year, but that is primarily due to the phenomenon of selective memory, or selective amnesia.
The condition of selective amnesia is not just merely remembering what you want to and forgetting everything else, but can also extend to higher degrees of intensity, like forgetting major milestones or decisions in their life. This is not only subject to age, but can happen to anyone anytime. The main cause of selective amnesia is emotional influences, mood swings or a constant switch of emotions can directly lead to a lack in the storage of new information: Simply, stress can lead to you learning less in school and retaining that information at a lower level.
As stated in an article by BetterHelp, the usual factors such as poor nutrition or emotional influences can cause an impact on human memory, as well as other neurological effects from a lack of nutritious foods. Something that really surprised me was that you can actually repress a me
mory if it is done for a long period of time: Humans actually have the willpower to repress a memory so much that is wiped from your brain!
It was interesting to learn about the factors that go into selective amnesia, and it was great to learn so much from all of you through your blogs! It was great to be in your cohort this quarter, and I hope all of you have a great summer and school year ahead!
Hi Tanishka! You brought up a really topic that I actually recently learned about in my psychology class. I learned that selective memory happens to almost everyone due to cognitive biases and personal experiences. Selective amnesia however is a medical condition, which is a lot more serious as it causes a loss in the ability to recall specific moments due to trauma. It’s an issue that can be prevented with lowering stress levels and regulating emotions and health. I’ve definitely experienced forgetting important events or specific details due to repression, like you mentioned, and it’s extremely difficult to recover those past memories once they’re forgotten. I enjoyed reading this informational blog and I also appreciate your words this semester!
ReplyDeleteHey Tanishka, I'm really happy to have had APENG with you this year and to have been in your blog cohort. I also experience selective memory to a great extent, but it's a bit different from what you describe. Rather than remembering the bad parts of the year, I tend to overromanticize the past and only remember the good aspects of experiences. I think it's much more common to romanticize the past and think of past experiences as a highlight reel of what they actually were, so I'm sure that in a few years, we won't remember junior year for the late nights studying and academic anxiety but instead remember the friendships we made, valuable lessons learned, and achievements/milestones we hit through it all. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Tanishka. As this year is coming to a close, I can totally understand the idea of repressing all the painful memories, as I am unknowingly doing that right now. But I am going a step further and forgetting the good memories, too. Just the other day, I saw this blog from another quote that mentioned what I did back in the Gatsby Party, to which I proceeded to have that old person moment in where I go “oh yeah, that happened.” There are so many good and bad memories I have had this year, but due it almost being the end, the memories have seemed to have been blended into this one, grey homogenous smoothie. Hopefully once this year truly ends (and in the coming weeks), the good memories start to surface again. And perhaps some bad memories will come again so that I can appreciate my break more and not repeat those mistakes. I am not surprised that I have forgotten, as I have gone through almost all the factors you mentioned in your blog. But once break ends, I think I can fix that and stop being in such a zombie-like state.
ReplyDeleteAs an endnote, I know that we pretty much do not know each other. Aside from last year and from random, brief chats we sporadically had throughout the year, blogger is the only way I kind of know you. And what I must say is that your blogs have been a lifesaver in some situations. For a long while, and even now, I struggled with knowing what to say either because I felt like it was too cringy or because I did not know if it just sounded dumb. So I would often do my blogs in an order that made me start with the blogs that would require forever to think of how to phrase… to those that I could easily answer. Yours was almost consistently towards the end due to them being fun and scientific, so thanks for that!