Do memories depreciate slowly, bit by bit, or do they remain constant for some time and then wiped out completely? For short term visual memory its the latter:
Which is exactly what happened: Zhang & Luck found that participants were either very precise, or they completely guessed; that is, they either remembered the square’s color with great accuracy, or forgot it completely. It was almost as if their memories behaved like files on a computer: Your Microsoft Word documents don’t lose letters over time, and your digital photos don’t yellow; rather, they continue to exist until you move them into the trash—where they are wiped out all at once.
But for long term memories its the former. Check out this Scientific American article that surveys some recent research on the shelf life of memories.
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May 30, 2012 at 9:53 pm
brittany
That explains how test-takers can ‘blank out’ and bomb if they crammed rather than commit the stuff to long-term memory.
Also, how are the advertisements below the post chosen? So weird.
May 31, 2012 at 12:23 am
Greg
How can they distinguish between (i) participants forgot what they knew; and (ii) participants never managed to remember the information?
June 1, 2012 at 8:21 am
Memory | The Ego Chronicles
[…] semblance of coherence, but somehow I don’t think so. Oh man, their songs are so good. PS: Actual evidence. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
June 6, 2012 at 9:53 am
Henrique
It’s interesting that they single out short-term visual memory. It makes me wonder what other mechanisms can exist for other types of memory, and whether one can exploit that.
Reminded me of this TED talk: