We learn many things. Some things we use repeatedly and remember them even better. Some things become irrelevant, so we need to adapt and relearn them. Other things we simply forget.
Do the things we forgot haunt our memories? This post is inspired by this article.
The long term memory and the short term memory
Our short-term memory like computer RAM is not very large and rather volatile. We believe that most of our manipulation with information is done using the short term memory. [By “we belief” here I mean: there is a prevailing scientific model, but not enough evidence to rule out other possible models.] The long-term memory is like a hard disk. It is large and stores for a long time, but it is slow and it also gets corrupt with time. When we sleep, some of our memories are transferred between from the short term memory to the long term memory. The mechanism is not fully understood, and we believe that the memories we did not transfer during the sleep phases cannot be recalled. Most of the memories that are stored in the long-term memory can be recalled at will, and can further be processed in the short-term memory.
Churning the memories
Each time we load the memory into the short-term memory, process it in short-term memory and store the modified version in the long-term memory we modify what we remember. This is a very useful skill to adapt seamlessly our knowledge to the new inputs we receive all the time. Unfortunately, we will seldom remember the things the way they were when we first learned them. This relearning can cause a great deal of confusion and errors, it is also a great tool for manipulators to reshape our memories by repeating the same lies over and over.
As we learn new things, the memories we do not use slowly drift further from our focus. There is evidence that these memories drift physically further from cerebellum within our brain. With time it gets harder to recall these memories. The memories that are not connected to recent experiences slowly disappear and we forget them. Just like the data on a hard disk can be physically there, but not in any file table, these memories cannot be easily recalled, but they may still be somewhere within our brain.
Priming effect
The new memories we build, the things we learn are influenced by who we are. This means that while some things get forgotten, our whole perception was shaped using these memories. A huge part of Freudian psychology is built upon different ways our mind is distorted by some nonsense ideas we had in our childhood. Since most of our mind is formed when we are very young, this makes sense. The effect does not stop when we get older. There are many experiments by modern psychologists regarding the effect of “priming”. They show people a number and then ask them to bet, give people warm and cold drinks and measure their friendliness and study many other ways our forgotten memories influence the formation of ideas and memories we remember very well.
Paradigm shifting
In science, old theories are sometimes overturned by new experiments and ideas, a process known as a “paradigm shift.” One interesting aspect of a paradigm shift is that a new generation of scientists often replaces the older generation, which may struggle to adapt to the new concepts. Our memories are stored within a context established by our prior experiences. As we alter our belief system, the context in which we perceive information also changes. Consequently, some old associations that were once useful may become invalid, and new associations can be tainted by ideas we are trying to discard. While relearning something might be faster than learning it from scratch, it can also lead to considerable confusion due to the shift in perception.
Practical tips for relearning
Unfortunately, I do not know great practical resources on relearning stuff when a paradigm shift happens. Here are some tips that worked for me:
- Try to keep the same structure of information. Quite instinctively we define that some concept in the new paradigm is just like a similar concept of the old paradigm, except for some new attributes that I now need to remember. Keeping largely intact the logical connections between various concepts makes it easier to adapt the information.
- Associating positive and negative emotions makes it hard to stay analytic. Do not love or hate any paradigm, do not associate its rise and fall with your personal success. It is easier to remember things we want to remember. Try keeping various stress factors out of facts we need to do our job.
- Add new examples as extensions to the old examples of a similar nature. If possible, do not try to organize them as totally different knowledge. Allow the new short term memories gradually override the older memories of similar situations.
- If we know that a paradigm change happened, it makes sense to ponder upon each memory we take for granted. As a matter of fact, this is something Socrates recommended us to do with all our knowledge.
- Do not loose confidence. Most of our actions should be pretty much automatic. If we stop believing in our competence we will become less effective.
Summary
Unrecallable information can have unconscious influences on how you process future information. Take this into consideration when you learn and relearn….
