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Does your memory play tricks on you?

drpaul
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It is fascinating to learn about the human mind. “To see is to believe” but is our perception that foolproof? And memories- the storage and retrieval of those perceptions as rock solid as we believe? I have seen people get offended when their memory is questioned.
I totally get forgetting where you parked your car or the other time I walked till my garage to go to the gym, to realised I wasn’t wearing my pants. Those are lack of attention rather than memory deficits. Not taking about those.
I would love to read about when your memory played a fast one on you. Or any interesting perceptual anomaly’s you may have experienced.
 
Charlemagne1333
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There is a pertinent quotation by a notable Greek philosopher, regarding memory loss, but I forget what it is and who said it… 🤔
 
Spruce
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The two examples that you give have happened to me - but I’m fairly confident that it was during a nightmare.

The real example is that my wife tells me things and, when I say that, “I didn’t know that”, she tells me that she told me not ten minutes before, and that I can’t have been listening.

She may be right, but I have no recollection of her telling me although, for a life of domestic harmony, I generally accept that she had mentioned it and that I hadn’t remembered.
 
Walrus
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In many ways we are our memories. A loved one of mine recently passed from Alzheimer’s I saw the entire process where it starts out as “absent minded” moves on to they are able to cover up or make excuses. To the faking of “yes I remember that.” When you know they don’t. In the end, and the progression seems to be different for everyone, but they are just a shell.

Perception I see a little differently. Perception is like tinted glasses. Is someone whom is colorblind not seeing the same shades we do “wrong”? Or is it just their perception. We can perceive things differently through various filters we have.

I was working with a client who had a shrunken hippocampus, actually her entire brain was “shrunk” the neurologist we’re thinking it was from vitamin D deficiency due to alcohol abuse or as many call it “wet brain” but it takes a lot of testing to make a final diagnosis.

Other times I’ve worked with neurologist with patients who have seizures. I had no idea there were over 30 types of seizures. They also can impact your memory.

I’ve been reading a lot on the subject not just for work but I qualified for a study on how COVID affects one’s memory. It is documented that the COVID virus impacts memory, I think the suspected mechanism is published. I don’t think one needs to worry if they had a case or two but I’ve had a bunch now and it is a bit scary to think what kind of damage might have been done.

The formatting and storage of memories is quite fascinating. The brain is amazing. And why the hec is it the memories that are the most prominent are the ones we wish to forget.

https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/h...ampus-long-term-memory-short-term-memory.html
 
Walrus
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Spruce Spruce
The two examples that you give have happened to me - but I’m fairly confident that it was during a nightmare.

The real example is that my wife tells me things and, when I say that, “I didn’t know that”, she tells me that she told me not ten minutes before, and that I can’t have been listening.

She may be right, but I have no recollection of her telling me although, for a life of domestic harmony, I generally accept that she had mentioned it and that I hadn’t remembered.
When I was a kid I’d stay over my grandparents place. When my grandmother would start complaining to my grandfather about something he did or didn’t do he will slip off his hearing aide. A few years later I realized why he did it and thought it was pretty slick.
 
lindo
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A classic bit of writing on this is 'Forgetfulness' by Billy Collins. You can see it on this link - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/37695/forgetfulness , but here it is for those who do not like clicking on links.


FORGETFULNESS
By Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue
or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
 
drpaul
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When I was in elementary school I used to look forward to the “library hour” that comes once a week. Only in that hour we could go to the library and borrow books from the pile kept near the librarians tables. Being in elementary school the books in the shelf were off limits and had to select from the pile only.
We were 40+ students in a class and the pie had 50 books at best. We were always called to the pile in roll number order which meant that when I get to the pile most of popular books we were reading would be gone. I was rather shy at the time and decided to endure this, as my buddies with the later roll numbers like me, didn’t care about it and was just taking a book as it was compulsory.
Then one day I gathered courage and decided to speak up to the librarian. I waited for my turn to reach near his desk and suggested to him the ingenious plan of alternatively calling the reverse order of roll numbers so as to get a fair selection of books. He just ignored it and picked the biggest, dullest, thickest, most neglected book from the dwindling pile and thrust it to my hands. It’s good he said.
I was disappointed to say the least. It’s was one of those thick hardcover books boring adults read. I probably will not understand it and it will be about complicated adult stuff. But I had no choice and grudgingly began to read them over the weekend.
Was I in for a surprise? I was captivated. That book was amazing. They were different from the “secret seven” and other Enid blytons we were reading at that time and opened up a whole new world to me.
Years later when my oldest was around that age and loved his Enid Blytons. I decided to buy him those thick, adult, hard covers for him and went to the book store. I asked for two which I particularly remembered. “Time Machine” and “ white fang”. Shop keeper handed me two children’s books ,small books with the large fonts. I said please give me the real ones not the children’s adaptations. He said these are the original ones and don’t know about any children’s adaptations .
I realised by mind had played a quick one on me. They being thick, big adult books were just a child’s perception and memories of which I carried for decades.
 
ErichPryde
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@drpaul it's quite possible that your recollection of the books you got from the librarian were accurate. When you went to the bookstore more recently and were given a very small copy of the book, was it perhaps The Illustrated classics Moby books version? They'd likely look something like this:

Screenshot_20250322_003332_eBay.webp


These were printed in extreme numbers, I grew up with a set of them that I read countless times- the time machine, Journey to the Center of the earth, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the three musketeers, man in the Iron Mask, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, &c &c and so on.

They are quite small, even smaller than a standard paperback. But, Library bound copies typically are a larger format and at one time were more likely to be hardbound. This is because these books are checked out so often, handled a lot, and dropped in book drops so Library bindings often use much thicker plates in both front back covers and spine. It literally makes the book larger than its pages.
Edited:
 
hen
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drpaul drpaul
When I was in elementary school I used to look forward to the “library hour” that comes once a week. Only in that hour we could go to the library and borrow books from the pile kept near the librarians tables. Being in elementary school the books in the shelf were off limits and had to select from the pile only.
We were 40+ students in a class and the pie had 50 books at best. We were always called to the pile in roll number order which meant that when I get to the pile most of popular books we were reading would be gone. I was rather shy at the time and decided to endure this, as my buddies with the later roll numbers like me, didn’t care about it and was just taking a book as it was compulsory.
Then one day I gathered courage and decided to speak up to the librarian. I waited for my turn to reach near his desk and suggested to him the ingenious plan of alternatively calling the reverse order of roll numbers so as to get a fair selection of books. He just ignored it and picked the biggest, dullest, thickest, most neglected book from the dwindling pile and thrust it to my hands. It’s good he said.
I was disappointed to say the least. It’s was one of those thick hardcover books boring adults read. I probably will not understand it and it will be about complicated adult stuff. But I had no choice and grudgingly began to read them over the weekend.
Was I in for a surprise? I was captivated. That book was amazing. They were different from the “secret seven” and other Enid blytons we were reading at that time and opened up a whole new world to me.
Years later when my oldest was around that age and loved his Enid Blytons. I decided to buy him those thick, adult, hard covers for him and went to the book store. I asked for two which I particularly remembered. “Time Machine” and “ white fang”. Shop keeper handed me two children’s books ,small books with the large fonts. I said please give me the real ones not the children’s adaptations. He said these are the original ones and don’t know about any children’s adaptations .
I realised by mind had played a quick one on me. They being thick, big adult books were just a child’s perception and memories of which I carried for decades.
Librarys are humankinds greatest invention. The storing and sharing of wisdom and experiences are a corner stone of civilization.

Memory loss made me tweak and adjust all my memorys each time I retold them, so now I am the hero in them all. Thats pretty nice.
 
STANDY
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Had one only a few weeks ago.

Was overseas for work and had to log on to internet banking. Couldn’t for the life of me remember the last 4 numbers of the 8 number log in…

Logged in and started typing the first four and typed the last with no issue.

Nothing like the numbers I was trying to remember 🤪
 
ExpiredWatchdog
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hen hen
Librarys are humankinds greatest invention. The storing and sharing of wisdom and experiences are a corner stone of civilization.
Writing is humankinds greatest invention. Libraries were an obvious conclusion but relatively late in the evolution.
STANDY STANDY
Had one only a few weeks ago.

Was overseas for work and had to log on to internet banking. Couldn’t for the life of me remember the last 4 numbers of the 8 number log in…
Our customer just shoved a new one down our throats, now our passwords must be a minimum of 16 characters and then we have to type in from an RSA fob. Damned if those six numbers aren't hard to remember, even when they are right in front of you.

Am I getting old?
 
hen
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ExpiredWatchdog ExpiredWatchdog
Writing is humankinds greatest invention. Libraries were an obvious conclusion but relatively late in the evolution.
True, you need one to have the other and you may trow, language and Herr Gutenbergs printing press into the mix to. Language and wrighting are the tools to make the greatest invention, the library.

My thinking is that they had been wrigthing for thousands of years " here lies this king, who won that war" and holy books and stuff like that. But the library makes books and learning availabel for everybody, for free. Thats the great thing about public library.
 
Spruce
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It occurred to me, given the worldwide OF membership, that I should add a historical footnote to explain that in 14th century England, we had Wat Tyler's Uprising, otherwise known as the 'Peasants' Revolt.
 
lillatroll
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drpaul drpaul
It is fascinating to learn about the human mind. “To see is to believe” but is our perception that foolproof? And memories- the storage and retrieval of those perceptions as rock solid as we believe? I have seen people get offended when their memory is questioned.
I totally get forgetting where you parked your car or the other time I walked till my garage to go to the gym, to realised I wasn’t wearing my pants. Those are lack of attention rather than memory deficits. Not taking about those.
I would love to read about when your memory played a fast one on you. Or any interesting perceptual anomaly’s you may have experienced.
As a teenager I watched a ptv series about life in a mountain village in Japan. I was fascinated by this program, so much so, that I made Japan my travel bucket list number one destination. I was a teenager in the 1980s, we didn't have Internet or social media.
In 2008 I went to Japan and whenever I was asked why I came to Japan, I told them the story of the TV program. In 2012, googled life in mountain tv program. Turns out the program was set in China.
Edited:
 
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