Human Memory
Human memory is not like computer memory and is quirky,
unreliable and its accuracy cannot be trusted.
But in spite of that many people people believe
their memory even when it is contradicted by evidence.
There is a summary of the psychology of human memory at,
How Memory Works: 10 Things Most People Get Wrong
The ten points given (with my one-line summary) are:
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Memory does not decay
Memories remain but they become harder to retrieve.
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Forgetting helps you learn
It is easier to learn new information as
less relevant information becomes inaccessible.
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'Lost' memories can live again
But even less accessible memories are not gone
and can be re-learned more quickly than new information.
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Recalling memories alters them
Retrieving a memory makes it stronger but also
can result in a false memory due to the reconstruction process.
Psychologists have experimentally implanted false memories.
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Memory is unstable
Because a memory is changed by recalling it.
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The foresight bias
It is easy to think you will remember something and then
forget it minutes later.
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When recall is easy, learning is low
The more work you have to do to remember something
the better you will remember it and this is why testing
improves learning.
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Learning depends heavily on context
Learning improves when done in different ways or contexts.
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Memory, reloaded
In the long run (but not the short term)
both physical and mental learning is improved
when interleaving different things rather than one at a time.
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Learning is under your control
With knowledge of how memory works, you memory can improve.
See the above link for more details.
Most false memories are harmless but in some cases
people lives have been ruined by them.
For some information about false memories see: