Imagine being able to recall an entire day’s events in your life, including the clothes you were wearing, the people who you were with and the conversations you had on just an ordinary day two or three years ago and it wasn’t your 50th birthday, an anniversary or your wedding. Most of us cannot come close to doing that. But for a ridiculously small fraction of human beings, not only can they recall that for an otherwise average day, but most of the days in their lives! These are the people who are known for their super-human memories. These superhumans have highly superior autobiographical memories (HSAM).
To put persons with HSAM in perspective, a 2015 article by Aurora K.R. LePort, Shauna Stark, James McGaugh et.al., titled “Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory: Quality and Quantity of Retention over time” in the Frontier Psychological Journal estimated there were 73 such individuals worldwide.
One such person was investigated by Jason Brandt and Arnold Bakker, who authored an article for the Neuropsychology journal in 2017 titled the “Neuropsychological Investigation of ‘The Amazing Memory Man.’” Sounding more like a side show scam then a real person, Brandt and Bakker interviewed, tested and performed a brain scan with MM in a functional magnetic resonance imagery scanner (fMRI).
Brandt and Baker found the secret sauce. Although other mnemonists and memory champions who have acquired and cultivated challenging techniques and have phenomenal memories, MM (the abbreviation of the subject Brandt and Bakker studied) did not have a special technique. He had a different brain architecture! Unlike the mnemonists, MM only performs in the average range on tests of intellect and new learning ability. But MM’s fMRI found he had greater neurological connectivity with his left hippocampus and other neurological connections.
As a forensic and clinician, I am routinely faced with a person’s assertion about events in their past to which no one else had access. Sexual assaults, significant head injuries, horrific physical injuries resulting in post-traumatic stress, all have a memory component.
Sometimes a well-intended investigator may accidentally influence a person’s memory by asking questions that influence rather than encourage self-disclosure. In one case where an airman was being tried for murder, the court brought me in to help assess if the airman’s memory was fabricated because his recall was not exactly the same over the course of multiple videotaped interviews. Without disclosing confidences, memory when trauma is concerned is analogous to a mirror, Without trauma a memory is a fundamental cognitive function that enables individuals to retain, retrieve, and utilize information from past experiences. It plays a crucial role in daily activities, from recalling simple facts to making complex decisions. However, memory is fallible, and forgetting is a natural aspect of cognitive processing. When you have trauma, that mirrored reflection is more like a mirror that has been shattered. There are some aspects that have clarity, whereas other parts of the event are magnified or distorted. Asking the individual to recount the same event may not disclose more factual information but instead reinforce their memories, whether correct or distorted.
Oscar Wilde said it this way… “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
Let us not forget, there are other phenomenon which affects memory besides trauma. Normal memory loss differs significantly from pathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. Persons who are functioning on the autism spectrum also have atypical memory patterns.
While pathological memory decline is progressive and interferes with daily functioning, normal memory loss is often age-related, temporary, and influenced by various environmental and biological factors. Understanding these distinctions can help all of us to manage our memory in light of our cognitive health.
Numerous factors contribute to memory decline, including age, stress, multitasking, and lifestyle choices. Studying these influences allows for the development of strategies to mitigate their effects and promote long-term cognitive well-being.
Albert Einstein described memory this way “Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
Types of memory and their roles in our everyday lives
We tend to group memories as a collective unifying event. Until we deconstruct what we mean when describing our experience to someone else. Memory can be categorized into various types, each serving a distinct function in cognition.
According to Wikipedia there are several different types of memory.
Semantic Memory: refers to general world knowledge that we acquire throughout our lives including facts, meanings, and concepts unrelated to personal experiences. When looking for it in the brain, the case of MM noted above becomes important. Both semantic memory and episodic memory are based in the medial temporal lobes ( left and right temple areas) and the hippocampal areas.
Episodic Memory: Are the recollections of personal experiences and specific events tied to a specific time and place.
Eidetic Memory: Sometimes referred to as photographic memory, it involves the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects with high precision.
Short-Term Memory: A limited-capacity system responsible for temporarily holding information for immediate use.
Long-Term Memory: Stores vast amounts of information over extended periods, encompassing both declarative (explicit) and procedural (implicit) memories.
Each type of memory is essential for cognitive functioning, and normal memory loss may affect some types more than others as individuals age.
Samuel Johnson had this to say about our memory… “The true art of memory is the art of attention.”
The Process of Memory: Attention, Storage, and Retrieval
Memory formation is far from being simple. It involves three critical stages. We must attend in order to see, hear, feel, touch or taste the stimulus or the event. Next we must place the event in our brain’s storage center e.g., the temporal lobe and hippocampus. Without being attentive and putting the event into storage we will not be able to get to it when we want to retrieve it.
Attention: The process of selecting relevant stimuli. What we attend to is what we will recall the best. If distracted we will not be able to put into storage what we want to recall. Attention declines with age, which negatively affects memory retention.
Storage: The retention of the information we have can be disrupted by the amount of time since the data was attended to, how similar the information is to other information we already had put away and if anything has happened to us since the information was put away, e.g., having had a head trauma. Storage efficiency can decrease over time due to neuronal degradation.
Retrieval: The process of accessing stored memories. Older adults typically have a latency issue, which is a delayed recall, but not necessarily a loss of the memory. Exceptions include the impact of medications, head injuries or the use of toxins.
Attention, Storage and Retrieval are dynamic, not fixed. If we are distracted and don’t attend not all of the information will be saved. If we are stressed, multitasking, under the influence of medication or a stimulant (like caffeine or a depressant like alcohol), the storage can be adversely impacted. If we were injured, traumatized or overwhelmed by similar information our ability to retrieve what we have in storage will be impaired.
There is a saying that captures the essence of the three critical stages in our memory formation, … garbage in…garbage out!
Can our gender cause differences in our memory processing?
Strengths and weaknesses between the sexes
Research by Joseph Andreano and Larry Cahill in the 2009 Journal of Learning and Memory, Sex Influences on the neurobiology of learning and memory, found that males and females exhibit differences in memory processing. They concluded “that the female verbal advantage extends into numerous tasks, including tests of spatial and autobiographical abilities, but that a small but significant advantage may exist for general episodic memory. We further suggest that for some tasks, stress evokes sex differences, which are not normally observed, and that these differences are mediated by interactions between stress and sex hormones.”
The article breaks down the findings this way.
Women generally excel in verbal memory tasks, such as recalling words, names, and stories.
Men tend to perform better in spatial memory, such as navigating directions or visualizing objects in three-dimensional space.
Hormonal influences, particularly estrogen and testosterone, impact memory retention and decline at different life stages.
Understanding these differences provides insight into how memory functions across genders and how memory strategies can be tailored accordingly.
The myth of multitasking on memory.
Many people will swear that they can multitask without any loss of ability to perform either task. I disagree. Even nano seconds (a minuscule about of time) when switching between two tasks, will impair your capacity to decide or to react. By way of research, I offer the following support.
The national highway traffic safety administration found distracted driving (texting while driving) resulted in 3,308 deaths in 2022.
Multitasking is often perceived as a valuable skill, but research suggests it impairs memory:
Cognitive load theory explains that dividing attention across multiple tasks reduces the efficiency of memory encoding and retrieval.
Studies like the one by Emily Gliklich in her 2016 article “Texting While Driving: A Study of 1211 U.S. Adults with Distracted Driving Survey,” in the Preventative Medicine Reports found that media multitasking negatively impacts long-term retention and comprehension and viewing information on or writing with cell phones have significantly increased risk of collision or near-collision events.
The Aging Brain: When and Why Normal Memory Loss Occurs
Memory decline is a natural part of aging.
Structural brain changes, including reduced hippocampal volume and decreased synaptic density will result in memory loss.
Neurochemical shifts, such as lower acetylcholine levels, will negatively impact our brain’s ability to attend and store memory.
So, tell me Doc, can we do anything to minimize the effect?
The simple answer is yes! Even with aging, we can use compensatory strategies. The use of technology and personal reminders can help us sustain our cognitive performance.
Enhancing and Preserving Memory: Strategies and Techniques
Lifestyle changes to consider.
Exercise enhances neuroplasticity and brain function.
Sleep consolidates memory and removes neurotoxins.
Diet rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids supports neural health.
Memory Training Techniques
Mnemonics, the use of familiar phrases or rhyming jingles aid in information recall.
Chunking, the use of smaller bits of information can help to break complex data into manageable units.
Spaced repetition, the use of committing facts to a scheduled plan and using refresher opportunities, will strengthen long-term memory retention.
Mindfulness and Stress Management
Meditation and the use of calming techniques to engage neurotransmitters which will improve our ability to focus and enhance memory encoding.
Stress reduction techniques which means not to engage in last minute or highly stressful events while attempting to commit complex tasks to memory. When stressed we generate cortisol-induced memory impairment.
Conclusion
Understanding normal memory loss is essential for maintaining cognitive health. While age-related changes are inevitable, proactive strategies can enhance our memory retention and retrieval.
Thanks for reading the column. Please go to the AI website and post a comment. Questions? Suggestions? Send me an email at psychology@americanisraelite.com. Be well. Stay safe. See you here next month.
