So this this thing that called the
Tip of the Tongue phenomenon which is
exactly what you think it is, not really worth
testing you on. It's that moment you have where you know you've got
information in your long-term memory and that you would normally be able to get
it out if you wanted it,
but you just can't temporarily right? That's that question where people "go
who wrote that song?" You know, oh, if you hadn't asked I could have told you,
but if you hadn't been asked you would even thought about it. So being asked about it,
you're being put on the spot
to go in to your long-term memory and retrieve it. It seems like it's forgotten
but might be a little while later, you're like "oh, now I know it," but the person is
gone
or next day it hits you because it never
wasn't there. It was in your long-term memory but you couldn't access it at the
time. You could retrieve it
at the time and it came back later. Some memories you can't seem to get rid of.
Flashbulb memories are what they called. It's as if
your mind took a mental snapshot of that moment or that situation or
elements of that moment
and the flashbulb memory is in vivid detail
and might last a lifetime. In my parent's generation that memory was the
day that John F Kennedy was shot, assassinated.
They knew where they were when they heard that and your generation and mine
included
9/11 right? I know
where I was when I heard that information. I have a very vivid detailed
memory of it.
However, knowing what I know about memories, especially eyewitness testimony,
I know a lot of it is reconstructed. So if I am being totally honest with myself
I can tell you a few elements that are beyond question I know they are true.
But other elements aren't missing but I don't really know.
So I was in the psychology department at Virginia Tech,
which is on the 4th floor of Derring Hall, when I was walking down the hallway
I look as by chance into the the main office
where Susan Anderson's desk is in the front room
and Jack Finney, the chair of the department is in the back,
and I saw a bunch of people gathered in Jack Finney's
room staring that way. Now that's unusual so late selection, it grabbed my attention
and I looked in and I wonder why are all these people gathered in his room
in the back? And so I wandered on in and saw that everybody was looking at a TV
up in the corner
on top of a file cabinet. I think it was on top of a file cabinet.
It was up in the corner and I had realized in that moment that I
had been in that office many times and never noticed the television was in there.
But now it was impossible not to see it and I saw what everybody else saw that day, and
I was shocked and horrified as there was everybody else
and I never forget that moment. Now the details.
I was probably wearing a white shirt because I wore one every day
but I don't know for a fact why I am wearing black pants because I wear them and still them
virtually every day that I work
probably the case. Tie that day? No idea but I don't see myself
in my memory without a tie on right? My memory supplies details that are
plausible.
I don't know who all was in that room but I believe Jack Finney was. It was
his office. I can actually see other people in the room in my memory but I
can't verify for a fact that with the people that I think
were there. You see what I am saying. The details may not be exactly right but there's
that flashbulb moment that I remember
and probably will continue to remember for the rest of my life.
Now a lot of people have flashbulb memories.
Here are some common situations that they remember.
How many people remember a car accident they've been in or witnessed?
It's hard to forget that. Remember we talked about the Amygdala when people
witness something that is potentially traumatic or
deadly that's a hard thing to forget when you are participate in that
It's even harder to forget. When you met your first college roommate well
from
most people that not that long ago in this group. The night of your high
school graduation.
Some people forget for other reasons right?
The night of your senior prom if you went
or not that's interesting.
I didn't go. I didn't go to any prom. I didn't go to any dances after seventh grade. I was that
guy, I was like that's a bunch of,
I ain't going to that. But then I started dating this girl
when I was a senior and she was a little younger than me. She wanted to go to the
prom and I was like. Well, if you wanna go
then I'll go right because I like you and you like that,
therefore I'll do that, and I started making plans to go but the week before we
were supposed to go to the prom, she went into cocaine rehabilitation.
Which is good for her,
bad for me. That was the end of our dating, but by god I remember it.
I remember not going to my senior prom
and it's right there right? I remember it.
Earlier romantic experience, time you had to speak in front of the audience.
What do all of these things share? Emotional content. Sometimes of a dramatic nature
and in that sense they tend to get frozen in our memories
and they persist longer. Though keep in mind that just because
it seems like there are a lot of details there, those details are not necessarily
accurate.
Your mind doesn't have holes in it. When you remember things without
accuracy it just fills them in with what seems to be very plausible
and compelling details which is why people give testimony
under oath and say yes I know it was that way. I certainly remember it that way,
and they're not lying. They believe that what they remember at that moment
is a fully, wholly, accurate representation of what happened
at the time they're trying to recollect from.