Episode 552: Ciara M. Greene
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Memory: The Perfectly Imperfect Archive of Our Lives
What are the effects of stress on memory? How does age change the nature of this vital piece of human cognition? What are the limitations of memory, and how can we embrace them?
Ciara M. Greene is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, UCD, where she also heads up the Attention and Memory Laboratory. She’s also the co-author of the book Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember.
Greg and Ciara discuss the nature of memory, challenging the common belief that the best memory is akin to a flawless recording device. Ciara argues that memory's imperfections are actually evolutionarily beneficial, aiding in survival and decision-making. They discuss how metaphors for memory have evolved alongside technology, the reconstructive nature of memory, and the importance of understanding its functions. Ciara also explains how schemas play a role in memory errors, but how they are also beneficial.
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Episode Quotes:
Why forgetting your shopping list is a feature not a flaw
44:38: We don't need to have this fear that means technology is ruining our mind. This is exactly the same way as is. Like you say, you're, I don’t know, you're going to the supermarket and instead of remembering your shopping list, you write it down. Okay. You don't then also need to remember it. They're able to adapt. So like if you say, I have written down my shopping list, you've essentially told your brain you no longer need to remember this. You don't need to remember bread and eggs and mouthwash. Like, our brains are flexible. Like they're not just running on tracks. It's not necessary.
It's not a good use of your resources because you've offloaded that task. That doesn't mean that your ability to go to the shop tomorrow and remember that you need to buy laundry detergent is going to be impaired because you wrote it down yesterday. It's just that we're, if you could think of it as being almost like extending your mind. Okay. It's almost like adding an external hard drive to your computer. You're just giving yourself a little bit more, like an, again, a broader sketch pad to play with. And that we, sometimes we use those tools. There's nothing wrong using those tools, but we should do them consciously.
How does the basis of memory work?
30:21: The reconstruction of memory is literally the basis of how memory works. It's inescapable. You can't just have a good memory and not have a reconstruction.
Memory helps us belong
03:46: It's important to think, not just about what memory is — it's not something static — but to think about what it's for, what its function is, and how it evolved in the way that it did.
Because just like every other part of our minds, and our bodies, every function that we have evolved under evolutionary pressures — you know, that there are survival pressures and reproduction pressures — and those influence the way in which we evolved as human beings, as any kind of species. So when we think about our memory, I think it's important to keep that in mind, and that evolution wasn't prioritizing: it's super important that you remember absolutely every boring detail of every single experience you've ever had. And, you know, that you have this perfect fidelity and recollection of every detail of everything you observe — that's not necessary to support your survival, it's not necessary to support reproduction, and in some cases, it can be counterproductive.